CRI Client Structure

One way to control the robot is via the CRI Ethernet Interface. A custom application connects to the robot control via TCP/IP to receive information and send commands. Currently we can only provide the C# demo client as an example. Creating a basic CRI client in any language should be simple with some programming knowledge.

This article gives hints on how to create such a client. Please refer to the CRI documentation for more details.

Requirements

• Programming knowledge in the desired language, including TCP/IP or sockets programming
• A computer (or embedded computer) that is connected to the robot via Ethernet and can run your program
• Read the CRI documentation!

Basic structure

• Create a program that connects to the robot control via TCP/IP. There should be many examples for this on the internet.
  • Standard IP address: 192.168.3.11 for the embedded control or 127.0.0.1 for connecting to CPRog/iRC on the same computer
  • Standard port: 3920
• The program must send the ALIVEJOG message at least once a second, otherwise the connection will be closed.

CRISTART 1234 ALIVEJOG 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 CRIEND

• Now you should be able to receive and send CRI messages.

Issues and Debugging

Try the following if commands do not work as intended:

• Check for error response messages. Not all commands send these but they can give useful hints to the issues
• Check the log files of the robot control. Most CRI issues get logged there.
• Check the syntax with the CRI documentation.
• Try sending the command with our CRI test client. This can show if there are general issues with your implementation.