Deployment page

Once a solution is fully configured, it can be deployed - your bin picking application can be started. There are three ways to deploy a solution:

• from the Solutions page, by clicking the Ready flag of the solution in the solution list

• by clicking the Deployment shortcut at the bottom of the solution configuration wizard

• From the Deployment page, by selecting the solution from the list of solutions ready for deployment

Image 1 - The Deployment page of the Bin Picking Studio

Contents

• 1 Deployment modes

• 2 Hardware diagnostics

• 3 Deployment action request toolbar

• 4 Deployment console

• 5 Visualizers

• 6 Cycle timer

1 Deployment modes

After invoking the deployment of a solution a popup window appears which enables choosing of the deployment mode - Production or Simulation.

Image 2 - Selection of the Deployment mode

The difference between the two is the way the action requests are sent and which bin picking action requests the Deployment action request toolbar provides.

Through the Deployment action request toolbar, some bin picking action requests can be sent directly from the Deployment page by a BPS user.

In the Production mode, it is the Action Request Client running on the robotic controller (main program) that calls requests. The Deployment action request toolbar only provides the option to call a scan request.

In the Simulation mode, the Deployment action request toolbar provides all basic bin picking action requests (initialization, change scene state, scan, and trajectory). This enables simple and fast evaluation and tuning of the bin picking performance without the need to have the real robot connected. Any action request called by the Action Request Client (robotic controller) while in the Simulation mode will result in an error.

Note: Hand-eye vision systems depend on the data from the Robot State Server. Therefore, when using hand-eye vision systems in the Simulation mode, the real robot must be connected.

2 Hardware diagnostics

The Deployment page provides diagnostic information about the status of the connection to the hardware components of the bin picking application connected to the vision controller - the robot and sensor(s). There are three connection status indicators, two relating to the robot communication and one providing the connection status of sensors used in the solution’s vision systems. You can read more about robot communication in the Robot communication overview.

• Action Request Client - status of the connection between the Action Request Server and Action Request Client (the Action Request Communication Channel). It can be in two different states:

  • **  CONNECTED  ** - the Action Request Client is connected to the Action Request Server and can send requests.

  • **  DISCONNECTED  ** - the Action Request Client is not connected to the Action Request Server, the server is waiting for a new connection.

• Robot State Server - status of the connection between the Robot State Server and the Robot State Client (the Robot State Communication Channel). It can be in two different states:

  • **  CONNECTED  ** - the Robot State Client is connected to the Robot State Server and periodically receives robot state data - current joint positions and TCP pose.

  • **  DISCONNECTED  ** - the Robot State Client is not connected to Robot State Server, the client repeatedly tries to connect to the server.

If you are encountering issues with the robot communication or connection of the sensor(s), please check the troubleshooting guide.

3 Deployment action request toolbar

Some bin picking action requests can be sent directly from the Deployment page by a BPS user. This is done through the Deployment action request toolbar - a group of widgets dedicated to individual bin picking action requests.

The availability of the bin picking action requests in the Deployment action request toolbar depends on the selected deployment mode. In the Production mode, the only available request in the toolbar is the scan request. In the Simulation mode, the toolbar provides the option to call all basic bin picking action requests.

The basic bin picking action requests are:

• Initialization - to initialize a vision system with start and end poses of the bin picking routine

• Change scene state - to change the current virtual model of the environment

• Change localization bounding box - to change the active bounding box for the localization

• Scan - to execute a scan, localize objects and compute trajectories

• Trajectory - to get a trajectory for a picked object

Initialization

Radio buttons at the top serve for the selection of the vision system to be initialized.

It is necessary to input the start/end poses for each vision system separately. The robot poses can be input either in degrees or radians. To duplicate the pose values (Start -> End, End -> Start) the arrows in between them can be used. To quickly adjust a value for a joint, use the keyboard arrows (changes are automatically applied to the live preview).

To preview/hide a robot pose, click on the show/hide button (the eye icon). A virtual (transparent) robot will show up in the visualizer displaying the robot in that exact pose.

The poses can be copied to the clipboard and pasted to another vision system using the buttons in the bottom right corner.

To send the action request, simply click the Send button. Clear button zeros out all joint values.

Note: Last used poses are saved in the browser for each solution and are automatically restored when the solution is deployed. This also applies to poses sent in an initialization request from the robot.

Change scene state

The Change scene state request widget contains a list of scene states defined in the deployed solution. To change the scene state to another one, simply click on its identifier.

Change localization bounding box

The Change localization bounding box request widget contains a list of vision systems defined in the deployed solution, together with the IDs of the bounding boxes configured within them. To change the localization bounding box for a vision system, simply click on its identifier.

Note: The bounding box with the identifier “X” disables all bounding boxes - the localization searches for objects in the whole scene.

Scan

The scan request widget contains a list of vision systems defined in the deployed solution. To trigger a scan for a specific vision system, simply click on its identifier.

The widget additionally allows:

• turning on/off the forcing of a full scan (a full scan will be executed even if a fast scan was to be executed originally)

• running localization on the last scan (the action request Localize on the last scan)

Trajectory

The trajectory request widget contains a list of vision systems defined in the deployed solution. To get a trajectory for a specific vision system, simply click on its identifier.

4 Deployment console

The Deployment page contains a console that provides the user with information about the current (and past) events in his bin picking application.

Image 6 - The Deployment console

All messages are in the format:

TIMESTAMP - [LOG LEVEL] - MESSAGE [VISION SYSTEM ID]

• TIMESTAMP - time of the event occurrence

• LOG LEVEL - expresses the level of an event - how important a given log message is. BPS defines 4 log levels:

  • INFO - message that highlights the progress of the application

  • WARN - message that notifies about potential risk

  • ERROR - message that informs about an error in the application

  • FATAL - message that informs about a severe error that causes the application to abort

• MESSAGE - text that briefly describes the event

• VISION SYSTEM ID - optional, expresses affiliation of the particular event to a specific vision system

All console messages are logged and available for download. To do so, open the BPS menu (top right corner) and select the option Download deployment console logs.

5 Visualizers

Main visualizer

The main visualizer displays your robotic cell in real-time. It offers the following widgets:

• View - selection of one of the predefined viewpoints

• Camera - option to choose the desired camera mode

  • Orbit - keeps the base in a horizontal position

  • Trackball - enables a complete 360-degree rotation

• Visibility - option to toggle visibility of the environment objects, sensors, and individual links of the robot and the gripper

• Axis - option to visualize the origin of the coordinate system of environment objects, sensors, and individual links of the robot and the gripper

• Measure - activates the measurement tool which enables the selection of two points in the scene to get the distance between them

• Point Cloud - option to toggle visibility of the point cloud, change the point size and its color

• Scan - provides information about the type of the last triggered scan (full/fast), the number of points in the point cloud from the last triggered full scan, and vision system affiliation

• Joint States - current joint values of the connected robot

• Bounding Boxes - option to render the localization bounding box for a vision system (if enabled)

The visualizer shows the localized objects as well as real-time visualization of the movement of the real robot (if the connection to the Robot State Server is valid).

Image 7 - The main visualizer on the Deployment page

The localized objects are rendered in different colors that are changing as the object goes through the bin picking path planning pipeline. The colors represent the stage of the processing the objects are currently in.

All localized objects are clickable - a window appears containing more details about the object with the option to open the Inspector - an advanced inspection tool.

To find out more about the object status colors and the Inspector please read Performance troubleshooting.

Object status chart

This simple dynamic chart provides information about the percentage representation of individual object statuses of all localized objects.

In order to get detailed information about the proportion of a specific status among the localized objects, hover over its color - a window appears telling precise count out of all localized objects and the percentage value.

Image 8 - The Object status chart showing the count and percentage value of “Ready to pick” objects

6 Cycle timer

The cycle timer can be used to get some insight into the overall performance of your bin picking application.

Cycle time is measured on the vision controller. One cycle represents the amount of time that passed between two consecutive action requests for scan or trajectory (option to choose). The time is exactly measured in the moment of sending the response to the received action request from the vision controller to the robotic controller.

Cycle time is measured per vision system - between action requests for the same vision system.

The cycle timer displays up to twenty last cycle times in the form of a bar chart. Each vision system (its samples) has its own color representation, samples (action requests) that resulted in an error are rendered in red color. It is possible to toggle the visualization of the data for an individual vision system by clicking the corresponding VS ID button above the chart.

The vertical axis of the chart represents the time axis [seconds]. The height of a sample in the chart represents the duration of the cycle time. Precise value can be seen upon hovering over the specific sample with the mouse cursor - a label window shows up with information about the vision system affiliation and the precise cycle time value. For trajectory requests, in case of an error, the error message is also displayed.

The average cycle time is calculated from all visible samples in the chart. Toggling of data visualization of a vision system will affect the calculated value.

Image 9 - The Cycle timer with cycle times for two vision systems measured between action requests for trajectory