External Control Setup for KSS with EKI

This document describes the necessary steps for setting up external control using the Ethernet KRL Interface (EKI) and Robot Sensor Interface (RSI) on a controller running KUKA System Software (KSS).

Prerequisites

Before configuring the system, ensure you have the following:

  • Access to a computer with WorkVisual installed.

  • The Ethernet KRL option package installed in a project.

  • The Robot Sensor Interface option package installed in the same project.

Networking Steps

During configuration and setup, connect your computer with WorkVisual installed to the controller using an Ethernet cable. To enable communication between the two systems, set the IP addresses of the relevant interfaces (KLI on the robot controller and the Ethernet interface on the computer) to be on the same subnet.

  1. Check the IP address and subnet mask used by the KRC.

  2. Set the same subnet mask and a different IP address on the Ethernet interface of your computer.

Create a new network interface on the KRC for RSI. Ensure the RSI interface is on a different subnet than the KLI. Set the network interface of the computer performing external control to be on the same subnet as the RSI interface.

To add a new network interface on the robot controller, follow these steps:

  1. Select at least the Expert user group.

  2. Navigate to Main menu → Start-up → Network configuration.

  3. Click on the Advanced… button.

  4. At the bottom, click Add interface.

  5. Select the new interface, which will be listed as virtual6 (virtual) by default.

  6. Set Address type to Mixed IP address.

  7. Choose an IP address that is on a different subnet than the KLI interface. By default, it can be set to 172.32.1.147.

  8. At the bottom, click Save.

  9. Restart the robot control controller to ensure configuration changes are applied.

Update the IP address in the krc_setup/kss/Config/User/Common/SensorInterface/rsi_ethernet.xml file with the IP address assigned to the external control computer. This informs the controller where to send data packets during each RSI cycle.

Steps within WorkVisual

There are several KUKA-specific files located in the krc_setup/kss directory that need to be copied into the WorkVisual project:

  1. Copy all files from the krc_setup/kss/KRC/R1/Program/EKIServer/ and krc_setup/kss/KRC/R1/Program/RSI/ directories into KRC/R1/Program/.

  2. Copy the krc_setup/kss/Config/User/Common/EthernetKRL/EkiKSSinterface.xml file into the Config/User/Common/EthernetKRL/ directory.

  3. Copy all files from the krc_setup/kss/Config/User/Common/SensorInterface/ directory into the Config/User/Common/SensorInterface/ directory.

After moving all the files to the correct locations, modify the KRC/STEU/Mada/$option.dat file. Change the $CHCK_MOVENA flag to FALSE to prevent the system from checking whether $MOVE_ENABLE is connected to $IN[1025].

; Original setting
BOOL $CHCK_MOVENA=TRUE

; Updated setting
BOOL $CHCK_MOVENA=FALSE

To ensure the EKI server runs automatically, edit the KRC/R1/System/sps.sub submit interpreter file. Add a call to SPS_Init() in the USER INIT fold and a call to SPS_LoopCall() in the USER PLC fold.

Once you have completed these steps, deploy the project onto the controller. After deployment, connect the KRC to the machine you wish to control it with.

Steps on the SmartHMI

To use external control, you have to change the operation mode to EXT on the SmartHMI.