Freedrive

Description

Freedrive allows the robot arm to be manually pulled into desired positions and/or poses.

 

The joints move with little resistance because the brakes are released. While the robot arm is being moved manually, it is in Freedrive.

Resistance increases as the robot arm in Freedrive approaches a predefined limit or plane. This makes pulling the robot into position feel heavy.

Injury to personnel can occur due to unexpected motion.

  • Verify the configured payload is the payload being used.

  • 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 it to drift leading to faults.

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

To use the 3PE TP button to freedrive the robot arm:

  1. Rapidly light-press, release, light-press again and keep holding the 3PE button in this position.

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

 
Freedrive on robot

To use Freedrive on robot to freedrive the robot arm:

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

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

  3. You can define the type of feature if required, by selecting an option from the Feature dropdown list.

    The robot arm can stop moving if it approaches a singularity scenario. 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 may be observed when the robot brakes are released. In some situations, such as when the robot is close to collision, these vibrations are undesirable. Use Backdrive to force specific joints to a desired position without releasing all brakes in the robot arm.