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Introduction

What is a Motion?

A motion is a set of actuator position and speed data necessary for robot movements.
In order for the robot to move, a motion file is required. A suitable motion file must be downloaded for the assembled robot.
A motion file is identified by the icon below, and its file extension is .mtn.

What is the relationship between a motion and task code?

A task code file is a program while a motion file is data. For better understanding, let us think about MP3 players and MP3 files. If there were no MP3 players, you will not be able to listen to music because MP3 file could not be played. The result is the same when there is an MP3 player but no MP3 file. If you want to make your robot move, you need a task code file. If the task code downloaded into your robot uses motions, you must download the motion file as well. If no motions are used in the task code, you do not need the motion file.

NOTE : To use motions in a task code, the motion file must be downloaded.

Install

Download RoboPlus

RoboPlus is a software to create a customized programme for every ROBOTIS product.

RoboPlus System Requirements

img_install

NOTE : To execute RoboPlus, .NET FrameWork 3.5 or higher version is required. When installing RoboPlus, if the automatic installation of .NET FrameWork fails, .NET FrameWork must be installed separately.

RoboPlus Install Failure

Most reason for installation failure is caused by .NET Framework install error. Please manually intsall Windows Installer 3.1 and .NET Framework 3.5

Windows installer and .NET Framework can be downloaded from Microsoft Download Center.

Download Windows installer 3.1, .NET Framework 3.5

Getting Started

Robot Motion

“Robot Motion” refers to the motion data in the controller.
These data can be seen and edited on the “Robot Motion” window.
This window is displayed only when the robot is connected.
(See how to Connect to Robot)

File Motion

“File Motion” refers to the motion data in the form of files in the PC.
These data can be seen and edited on the “File Motion” window.
Multiple “File Motion” windows can be displayed at once.

Connect to Robot

  1. Connect the robot to the PC (Please refer to Controller Information for details)

  2. Select the communication port to use.
    Choose the communication port to which the robot is connected. If you don’t know the port number, use the “Auto Searching” function.

  3. Connect with the robot. Choose the “Connect Robot” menu.

    If you are unable to connect to the robot, please check following:

    • Is the controller connected to the PC?
    • Is the controller turned on?
    • Was the correct port selected?
    • Is the controller compatible with RoboPlus Motion?
      • CM-100 is not compatible.
      • CM-5 is compatible only after a firmware upgrade.

  4. Disconnect the Robot.
    To disconnect from the robot, choose the “Exit” menu or simply close the window.

Download Motion

File motions can be converted into robot motions.

Play Motion

You can play the created motions. Search the page to play and click “Play Motion”.

Stop Motion

Stops the motion that is being carried out.

“Stop Motion” does not stop execution right away. Instead, the “Exit” page is executed before stopping.

Emergency Stop

Stops the motion that is being carried out.

Unlike “Stop Motion,” “Emergency Stop” halts execution immediately.

Motion Editing

Things to be aware of before editing motions are introduced here.

Setting DYNAMIXEL ID

The motion player in the controller can control a total of 26 DYNAMIXEL’s (from ID 0 to 25). Therefore, to create a motion with RoboPlus Motion, the ID of each DYNAMIXEL must be between 0 and 25.

Control Priority

DYNAMIXEL’s may be controlled by both RoboPlus Motion and RoboPlus Task. Generally, the control priority is as follows:

  1. RoboPlus Motion (ID of DYNAMIXEL is between 0 and 25.)
  2. RoboPlus Task

In other words, once a motion is executed, DYNAMIXEL will be controlled by only RoboPlus Motion, and RoboPlus Task will have no control over the DYNAMIXEL. However, this control priority may be changed by users, if so desired.
There are 2 ways to change the control priority:

DYNAMIXEL Auto Shutdown Function

DYNAMIXEL’s have an Auto Shutdown function. This function prevents DYNAMIXEL’s from being damaged. The Auto Shutdown function will be triggered in the following situations.

When the Auto Shutdown function is triggered, the following will be seen.

To solve this problem, the following steps must be taken.

When creating a motion, the joint may not move. This is because the Auto Shutdown function has been triggered by the causes listed above.

Pose Editing

A pose is the robot’s position at a point in time. It is a collection of motor position values required for the posture.

Basic Pose Editing

The Basic Pose Editor is a simple editor that may be used for any type of robot. To change the number of ID’s used at “Pose of Step,” use the ID Editing Function.

Select Actuator ID

Click on a row to select an actuator. The following methods may be used to select multiple actuators.

Torque On/Off

The “Torque On/Off” function enables you to make a pose manually by turning the robot’s joints on or off.
This function is only available in “Pose of Robot.”
If the torque is on, its position value will be shown. Otherwise, the value will be displayed as ‘OFF’.

The torque may be turned on or off through the following methods.

Change Actuator Value

The position value of the selected actuator may be changed after choosing the joint in “Pose”.

Play Pose

To execute a pose, move “Pose of Step” to “Pose of Robot.”

Capture Pose

To “Capture”(Store) a pose, move “Pose of Robot” to “Pose of Step.”

Copy/Paste Pose

These functions enable the actuator values to be changed easily.
Not only can poses be copied and pasted within the program, but texts from other files, such as Microsoft Excel, may be copied.
(When copying text from another program, values are delimited by spaces, new lines and tabs.)

Mask Pose

Masking a pose refers to the process of making a new pose by combining 2 poses by setting whether the value is used or not while executing or capturing a pose.
For example, Pose C may be created by adding the upper body of Pose A with the lower body of Pose B.

Pose Utility

The pose utility is a tool to easily create a pose based on previously supplied information.

NOTE :

  • Information regarding the robot are required to create a pose using the pose utility. Therefore, a robot not on the list cannot be used.
  • Some robots may not support the functions listed above.
  • Because the pose utility uses 3D graphics, its performance depends on your graphic card.

Select Robot

Before using the pose utility, you must first select the robot. Click the robot’s name on the list below to select an applicable robot.

NOTE : Pose utility cannot be used on a robot not on the list. In case of a user’s robot, the motions of the robot must be created by Basic Pose Editor.

Robot Name Description
Bioloid Battle Droid Battle Droid Robot from Bioloid Intermediate Example.
Bioloid Dinosaur Dinosaur Robot from Bioloid Advanced Example.
Bioloid Fawn Baby Fawn Robot from Bioloid Intermediate Example.
Bioloid Gerwalk Gerwalk Robot from Bioloid Advanced Example.
Bioloid Humanoid Humanoid from Bioloid Advanced Exampe.
Bioloid King Spider King Spider Robot from Bioloid Advanced Example
Bioloid Puppy Puppy Robot from Bioloid Advanced Example
Bioloid Spider Spider Robot from Bioloid Intermediate Example
Bioloid Turtle Turtle Robot from Bioloid Intermediate Example
Bioloid Walking Droid Walking Droid Robot from Bioloid Beginner Example
Premium Humanoid A-type Bioloid Premium Humanoid
Premium Humanoid B-type Bioloid Premium Humanoid
Premium Humanoid C-type Bioloid Premium Humanoid

Control 3D Robot

Control View

3D robot can be seen from various angle using the view control function.

Control Joints

The number appeared on the robot are the ID of DYNAMIXEL. If you place your mouse on the ID, the color of choosable DYNAMIXEL is changed.

If you click the relevant joint, the joint value appears. The joint value is appeared as angle, not the motor value.

If you move the mouse to left and right while pressing the left botton of the mouse, the value increases or decreases.
In case of 1,024-based control, the unit of the value is approximately 0.29(300 / 1,024), and in case of 4,096-base, it is approximately 0.06(250.92 / 4,096).

Mirror

The mirror function provides two functions: “exchange” and “symmetric.” Press “Apply” after choosing the function to apply it to your robot.

  1. Exchange
    The robot’s left side and right side are reversed to create a mirror image of the previous pose.

  2. Symmetry
    A symmetric pose based on the selected side is created.

Inverse Kinematics

Position and Coordinate System

Understanding the kinematics of the robot’s movements starts with figuring out where each robot part is located. We must first assign a coordinate point as the origin, and then mark the displacement of each part on the coordinate system.
Coordinates axis and origin on the View are shown as below, and the unit of the grid is 20mm.
Here, Origin means that the coordinates of X, Y, Z is (0, 0, 0).

Kinematics and Inverse Kinematics

Kinematics is used to determine the location or movement of the end point from the angle or movement of the joint. In other words, kinematics allows us to determine where the end points once the joint values have been decided. For example, suppose there is a manipulator with two joints in the same plane as shown below. Using the angles of the joints, the coordinate (x,y) of the end point can be determined through kinematics. Kinematics results in only one solution.

On the other hand, inverse kinematics may be used to determine the angle or movement of the joint from the location or movement of the end point. For example, suppose again that there is a manipulator with two joints in the same plane coordinates. If the end point (x,y) has been determined, there are 2 possible values for each joint as seen below.

When using inverse kinematics, the coordinate (x,y) of the end point may be located at an unreachable distance from the origin or no solution may be obtained due to limitations on joint angles. If more joints are used, there may be infinitely many solutions.

End Point Control

When the user selects how much and in which direction to move the end point, the “Inverse Kinematics” function in the pose utility will calculate the values of each joint and move the end point automatically.
This function needs a module executes “Inverse Kinematics” calculation. Currently, the robots support “Inverse Kinematics” calculation are as follows:

This subject is explained on the basis of Bioloid Premium Humanoid Type A.

Select the end point
Initialize the end point

The location of the end point is initialized.

Move the end point

The end point in 3D space can be controlled by 6 parameters. Depending on the structure of robots, all the 6 paramters may not be appeared.
To change the values, select relevant parameters, and then use the following methods.

Since each paramater has its minimum and maximum values, it can be changed only in the range.
Sometimes, mathematical results cannot be obtained by inverse kinematics calculation, so the situation is called “no solutions” or “Infinite solutions.” Due to the such fact, the parameter values are not changed despite they are located in the range. In that case, the solution can be obtained if other parameter values are replaced.
(For instance, in case that the legs are straightened until the end (z=0), X or Y parameter is not changed.)

Apply the Result

When Pose of Step is selected, the pose values on the data are changed, and if Pose of Robot is selected, the pose values of robot are changed.

Pose Execution/Capture

Pose of Step and Pose of Robot

Pose of Step means the steps on the `currently selected motion file. That is, the pose changed in pose utility is reflected to the motion file immediately, while Pose of Step has been selected.

NOTE : Pose of Step is activated only when there are steps on the currently selected page. Pose of Robot is activated only when the robot is connected.

Pose Execution/Capture

It is the same function as Play Pose, Capture Pose of the Basic Pose Editor.

Step Editing

A “Motion Step” means by key frames, that are required to play consecutive motions.

The speed of a motion is determined by the time of each step.
The step editor enables steps to be edited easily.

Each page consists of a maximum of 7 steps.
To make a motion with more than 7 steps, you will need to connect pages.

Add/Insert/Delete/Move Step

Add Step

A new step is added at the bottom of the step list.

Insert Step

A new step is inserted above the selected step.

Delete Step

The selected step is deleted from the list.

Move Step

The selected step may be moved up or down.

Pause

Time

Copy/Cut/Paste Step

Copy Step

The selected step is copied.

Cut Step

The selected step is cut.

Paste Step

The copied or cut step is pasted. The value in the selected step is overwritten.

Page Editing

“Motion page” is the unit used to distinguish between saved motions.
Imported motions are read in terms of pages.
Motion data consists of 255 pages. (Some controllers are limited to only 127 pages.)

Select Page

Click on a row to select a page. The following methods may be used to select multiple pages.

Connect Page

Pages can be connected to each other if necessary.

NOTE : When data is exchanged using the Copy/Cut/Paste functions, page connection information is not exchanged.

Next Page

A single page can have a maximum of 7 steps. Therefore, some motions may not fit in one page. To use multiple pages for one motion, designate the page to link to.

Enter the number of the next page in the “Next” column.

Exit Page

When commands are made to stop a motion, the robot will usually be in a highly unstable state due to the motion being executed. To stop a motion in a stable state, designate an exit page.

Enter the number of the exit page in the “Exit” column.

Copy/Cut/Paste Page

Copy Page

The selected page is copied.

Cut Page

The selected page is cut.

Paste page

The copied or cut page is pasted. The contents of selected page is overwritten.

Set Page Repeat/Time

Repeat Time

This is the number of times the current page is repeated during motion execution.

Speed Rate

Inertial Force Control

Force is generated between steps. We call this force “inertial force,” because it is the result of the law of inertia. In general, inertial forces are created by acceleration, which is the change in speed. That is, as acceleration increases, inertial force also increases, and as acceleration decreases, inertial force also decreases. To reduce acceleration, increase or decrease the speed gradually, and to increase acceleration, change the speed drastically .”Ctrl Inertial Force” is used to control this acceleration. Increase this value to increase or decrease the speed gradually, reducing the acceleration.

Joint Softness

Joint softness is used to set the compliance of DYNAMIXEL. The pros and cons of different joint softness values are as follows:

There are 7 joint softness levels.

More Information

Upload Robot Motion

Transferring motion data from the controller to the PC is called “uploading.”

  1. Connect the robot to the PC to see the Robot Motion window.

  2. After selecting the Robot Motion window, click on “Save As”.

Motion Offset

Offset is the difference from a standard value. Motion offset refers to the difference from the standard motion, and the robot that performs the standard motion is called the “Master Robot”.
Even when robots of the same type are performing the same motions, there will be differences in their poses. This is due to discrepancies in motor locations and errors in assembly. These differences may even cause some robots to fall down. “Motion Offset” is used to resolve these differences.

NOTE : Generally, motion offset is small enough to be ignored. However, for robots that are sensitive to balance, such as humanoids, motion offset can be a source of critical problems.

Edit Motion Offset

Discrepancies in the location of robot joints can be fixed using the “Edit Motion Offset” function.

When the menu is selected, the torque of all joints will be turned on to sustain its current position. Therefore, it would be beneficial to execute this function when the robot is in a pose where the differences can be easily distinguished.

Select the joint to edit its value with the editor.

Initialize

Initiaizes all values to 0.

Save

Saves the current offset values. The values are saved in the controller.

Save as File

Saves the robot’s current offset values as a file in the PC. The file extension of motion offset files is .ofs.

Download

Motion Offset files(*.ofs) in the PC can be downloaded to the robot.

Edit All Page

“Edit All Page” is used to duplicate revisions on all pages. This function is required in the following situations:

Set Resolution

Set ID Usage Status

Exchange ID

The position values of the robot’s joints can be easily exchanged. Select the 2 ID’s to exchange, and then click “Exchange ID.”

Change All Values

Use this function to change the value of the selected ID.

Apply Offset Values to All

Offset is the difference from a standard value. Use this function to add or subtract a value from all joints with the selected ID.

Keyboard Shortcuts

When creating robot motions, it is difficult to use the mouse and keyboard at the same time, while holding the robot with one hand. Here, we introduce useful tips to make motions using only the keyboard.

Use arrow keys to move within the program

Arrow keys can be used to move the focus between the Page Edit Window, Step Edit Window, and Pose Edit Window.

Change the Joint Values

This function is available in the following windows:

Turn the torque on/off

After selecting the joint, press the space bar to turn the torque on or off.

Moving robot according to each step

Please choose the step that you want and press the enter key. Your robot will take the pose of selected step. (This is available only at robot motion window )

Making Robots

Users can make and operate their own robots usig RoboPlus Motion

WARNING : For this section, some previous knowledge on the following is required.

  • XML
  • 3D Graphics
  • C# Programming

Folder Structure

If you look at the folder inside RoboPlus Motion, there are robot information file as shown below. (i.e, C:/Program Files/ROBOTIS/RoboPlus/Motion)

In order for users to make their own robot, they need to make their own files and put them into folders accordingly

Robot Information File

Robot Infromation file has all the information required for the use of RoboPlus Motion.
This file has extension of .rbt. Robot list in “Pose Utility” tab shows the .rbt file list of various robots showed in the e-manual.

Robot Information file is written in the format of XML. Users can read the files using Windows TextPad.

<General>

In this part, general information on the robot users making must be recorded.

<Name>

Put in the name that will be shown on the robot list.
You can give different “culture” values to show different languages (only for languages supported by RoboPlus Motion)

Value Language
kor Korean
jpn Japanese
N/A English or any other languages 
<Name>Premium Humanoid A-type</Name>
<Name culture=”kor”> Bioloid Premium Type A</Name>

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

<Motor>

Input information for DYNAMIXEL’s used in robots.

<Motor id="1" model="AX-12+" init="205"></Motor>
<Motor id="2" model="AX-12+" init="818"></Motor>
<Motor id="3" model="AX-12+" init="251"></Motor>
<Motor id="4" model="AX-12+" init="772"></Motor>
<Motor id="5" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>
<Motor id="6" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>
<Motor id="7" model="AX-12+" init="358"></Motor>
<Motor id="8" model="AX-12+" init="666"></Motor>
<Motor id="9" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>
<Motor id="10" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>
<Motor id="11" model="AX-12+" init="475"></Motor>
<Motor id="12" model="AX-12+" init="549"></Motor>
<Motor id="13" model="AX-12+" init="437"></Motor>
<Motor id="14" model="AX-12+" init="587"></Motor>
<Motor id="15" model="AX-12+" init="549"></Motor>
<Motor id="16" model="AX-12+" init="475"></Motor>
<Motor id="17" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>
<Motor id="18" model="AX-12+" init="512"></Motor>

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

<Mirror>

Infromation needed for Mirror function. Not necessary if the function is not in use.

Only use for DYNAMIXEL’s in symmetric positions. If there is no symmetrically positioned Dynamixles, do not input anything.

<Mirror>
   <Right>1,3,5,9,11,13,15,17</Right>
   <Left>2,4,6,10,12,14,16,18</Left>
</Mirror>

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

<InverseKinematics>

This connects the modules for Inverse Kinematics computing. Computing modules are in the form of DDL. To learn how to make modules, please refer to Plug-In SDK Programming in the next section. If not using Inverse Kinematis, this section can be ignored.

<InverseKinematics>
   <Module>
      <Name>PremiumHumanoidA.dll</Name>
   </Module>
</InverseKinematics>

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

<Object3D>

In this section, robot assembly information is included for 3D display. The robot assembly information is in the Tree structure. If 3D display not needed, this section can be ignored.

<Part>

In this section, each part’s information is included. The relationship between parts are expressed through the Tree structure.

<Object3D>
    <Part name="f51" T="0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 302.5">
      <Part name ="f3" T="1 0 0 0 0 0 1 -70.5 0 -1 0 19"></Part>
      <Part name ="f3" T="1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 -70.5 0 1 0 -19"></Part>
      <Part name="f52" T="1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0">

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

3D Model Data

Shown below are the 3D models of parts. These parts can be generated by various Computer Aided Design softwares. Users can add the parts created on their own in addition to the provided parts by ROBOTIS.
RoboPlus Motion only supports IGES(*.igs) format. ROBOTIS recommends to make data files small since if the data is too big, it will slow down the 3D display.
The following are the basic parts provided with RoboPlus.

Name Diagram File
F1 f1.igs
F2 f2.igs
F3 f3.igs
F4 f4.igs
F5 f5.igs
F6 f6.igs
F7 f7.igs
F8 f8.igs
F9 f9.igs
F10 f10.igs
F11 f11.igs
F12 f12.igs
F15 + F16 f15.igs
F51 f51.igs
F52 f52.igs
F53 f53.igs
F56 f56.igs
F57 f57.igs
F58 f58.igs
F60 f60.igs
WA wa,igs
BU bu.igs
CM-5 cm-5.igs
ADAPTOR-CM5 adaptor_cm5.igs
BATTERY battery.igs
AX-12 ax-12.igs
AX-12 Horn ax-12_horn.igs
AX-S1 ax-s1.igs

Plug-In SDK

Users can use Plug-In SDK to add inverse kinematics computing module from “Pose Utility.” Instruction is given using an example of developing C# from Visual Studio 2005. (Sample example included)

Create Project

Go to Visual Studio’s menu and select File > Create New > Project. Then select Visual C# > Windows > Classic Library to create a new project.

Add Reference

Go to Visual Studio’s menu and select Project > Add Reference. When a window box pops up, click “Find” then select Motion > PlugInSDK.dll in the folder Roboplus is installed.(i.e, C:\Program Files\ROBOTIS\RoboPlus\Motion\PlugInSDK.dll)

Implement Interface

Write command lines shown below in the Class file that is to be implemented. (i.e, Class1.cs)

using ROBOTIS.MotionEditor.SDK  // add namespace
namespace MyPlugIn
{
  public class MyPlugIn : IInverseKinematics // Interface succession
  {
  }
}

Put the mouse cursor on “IInverseKinematics” and right click it. Then select “Implement Interface -> Implement Interface” and sources will be automatically generated.

CurrentPose

It’s Pose data transferred from and received by RoboPlus Motion. Users must follow the rules shown below.

When RoboPlus Motion is in “get” direction, inverse kinematics computing result should be delievered and when it is in “set” direction, endpoints should be calculated and computed using forward kinematics and based on Pose data.

EndPoints

This is the name to be printed on endpoint list.

Users can either choose one form the endpoint list or run the interface shown below to see the result.

X, Y, Z, Roll, Pitch, Yaw

It’s the data of location of end points from the origin.
Users can set minimum and/or maximum using user DLL.
Roll signifies rotation in x-axis, Pitch is in y-axis, and Yaw z-axis.

Reset

By clicking the “reset” button on RoboPlus Motion, users can default the position values of endpoints.

Add Plug-In

If successful with building the project, copy the DLL file to the “PlugIn” folder inside the RoboPlus Motion folder. (For example, C:\Program Files\ROBOTIS\RoboPlus\Motion\PlugIn)
In robot informational file (*.rbt), write DLL information that wil compute inverse kinematics.

<InverseKinematics>
   <Module>
      <Name>PremiumHumanoidA.dll</Name>
   </Module>
</InverseKinematics>

Example of Bioloid Premium Type A

Run RoboPlus Motion and check if the (new) robot is operating properly.