Freedrive

Description

Freedrive lets you manually pull the robot arm into position.

On most robot sizes, enable Freedrive by pressing the Freedrive button on the Teach Pendant. Additional ways to enable and use Freedrive are described in the following sections.

In Freedrive, the robot arm joints move with little resistance because the brakes are released. Resistance increases as the robot arm approaches a predefined limit or plane, so pulling the robot into position feels heavier near those boundaries.

Injury to personnel can occur due to unexpected motion.

  • Verify the configured payload matches the payload in use.

  • Verify the correct payload is securely attached to the tool flange.
Enabling Freedrive

You can enable Freedrive in the following ways:

  • Use the 3PE Teach Pendant

  • Use the Freedrive on robot

  • Use I/O actions

Enabling Freedrive while you are moving the robot arm can cause drift and faults.

  • Do not enable Freedrive while you are pushing or touching the robot.
3PE Teach Pendant

Use the 3PE TP button to put the robot arm in Freedrive:

  1. Quickly light-press, release, then light-press again and hold the 3PE button in that position.

Now you can pull the robot arm into a desired position, while the light-press is maintained.

 
Freedrive on robot

Use Freedrive on robot to move the robot arm:

  1. Press and hold the switch configured for Freedrive on robot.

  2. When the Freedrive panel appears in PolyScope, select the movement type for the robot arm joints, or use the list of axes to customize the movement type.

  3. If needed, define the feature type by selecting an option from the Feature dropdown list.

    The robot arm can stop moving if it approaches a singularity. Tap All axes are free in the Freedrive panel to resume movement.

  4. Move the robot arm as desired.

     
Backdrive

During initialization of the robot arm, minor vibrations can occur when the robot brakes release. In situations such as when the robot is close to a collision, these vibrations are undesirable. Use Backdrive to force specific joints into position without releasing all brakes in the robot arm.

 

 

To test Freedrive

  1. Unmount attachment or set TCP (tool center point)/payload/CoG (center of gravity) according to tool specifications.

  2. To move the robot arm in freedrive, see figure below.

    Standard TP 3PE TP

    On a standard teach pendant (TP), press and hold the freedrive button.

    		 On a 3PE TP, rapidly light-press, release, light-press again, and keep holding the 3PE button in this position.

  3. Pull/Push the robot to a horizontally elongated position and release. See figure below.

    Elongated horizontal position of UR robot

  4. Verify the robot arm can maintain the position without support and without pressing the freedrive or 3PE button.