Component installation and setup

Pickit integrates seamlessly with Omron TM cobots by means of a a set of TMflow components. Each component is a building block for creating vision-guided applications with Pickit. This document explains how to install the Pickit components as well as example robot programs.

Pre-requisites

Pickit

Verify that the installed Pickit version is 2.1 or greater. The software version can be verified in the top bar of the web interface.

Tip

Do you have an older Pickit version installed? You can upgrade to a more recent version, or contact our support team at support@pickit3d.com.

Robot

The TMflow versions supported by the Pickit components are listed on our downloads page. The TMFlow version can be checked by clicking on the information button on the top bar (highlighted in red below).

TMflow top bar with the information button highlighted

Installing the Pickit TM integration files

To install the Pickit TM integration files, follow these steps:

  1. Download the Pickit TM integration files.

  2. Have a USB drive named TMROBOT with a root directory called TM_Export.

  3. Unzip the archive and copy the contents of the tm_pickit directory to the USB drive, under TM_Export\<your-robot-serial>.

    Note

    TMflow requires USB drives to adhere to a specific naming and directory structure for importing contents into the robot. The above steps adhere to this layout.

  4. Connect the USB drive to the robot controller.

  5. From a Windows PC, open the TMflow application and Get control of your TM robot.

    TMflow robot card for a TM5-900 with the Release Control button, shown after getting control of the robot

  6. Click the hamburger icon on the top-left corner of the user interface to display a panel on the left side of the screen.

  7. Click on System on the left panel, to display the System setting screen.

    TMflow left panel System entry

  8. Click on the Import/Export icon.

    TMflow System setting Import/Export icon

  9. Select Import on the top-left corner.

    TMflow Import and Export buttons, with Import selected

  10. Select Component on the left panel. Browse the contents of the USB drive and select all the listed Pickit components. These are the building blocks for Pickit-based applications.

    TMflow Import screen with Component selected, listing the Pickit component files from perception_pickit_pickit_V01_buildBackground.zip to perception_pickit_pickit_V01_saveSnapshot.zip

  11. Select Project on the left panel. Browse again the contents of the USB drive and select all listed projects. These are example programs that can get you started with little effort.

    TMflow Import project list with pickit_pick_and_place and pickit_calibration

  12. The Pickit components are now imported, but they also need to be enabled to make them accessible to projects. To do this, click the hamburger icon, then Setting.

    TMflow left panel Setting entry

  13. Click on the Component icon.

    TMflow robot settings Component icon

  14. On the component list, select all imported Pickit components, enable them and save.

    TMflow component list with all eight perception_pickit_pickit_V01 components enabled

Enable the Modbus slave

The Pickit integration requires the Modbus slave to be enabled, as it’s used to read the robot flange pose and send it to Pickit. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Click the hamburger icon, then Setting.

    TMflow left panel Setting entry

  2. Click on the Connection icon (called Modbus in earlier versions).

    TMflow robot settings Connection icon

  3. Toggle the TCP slave to be enabled.

    TMflow Modbus Slave settings with the TCP slave status Enable

Using the Pickit TMflow components

The available Pickit TMflow components are documented in detail in The Pickit Omron TM interface.

There are two main usecases for a robot program that uses the Pickit TMflow components:

As long as your application is similar to the above examples, it is recommended to use the above examples as templates, and modify them according to the particularities of your application.

Happy picking!