INTRODUCTION
WALLI is a range of mutually compatible robotic
devices, CNC machines and peripheral sub-devices,
such as conveyors, which are representative of the
equipment required for automated manufacturing
processes and component handling. The range has
been designed for the educational sector but all the
items are suitable for light industrial usage.
WALLI3 ~ Walli for Windows is the software that has
been written to provide the overall supervisory control
for the WALLI range of Robots, CNC Machines and
peripheral or sub-devices, and to integrate them into
an automated workcell. The contents of the Workcell
is entirely flexible and may include any combination
and number of the devices that the user may wish to
specify or have the funds for, and it may be changed
at will to accommodate different teaching
requirements.
Because it is written for the environment of the
Windows or Windows 95 operating system, the
software must be installed of necessity into an IBM
PC compatible computer with an Intel 386 processor
as the minimum requirement.
The software will run simply as an installed software
package, simulating all the machine actions, but to
control any of the robotic or CNC machinery
hardware, an interface card must be installed into the
PC, one of a choice of two possible alternatives, but
with a preference for the proprietary serial form of
interface. Both interfaces connect into the internal
ISA bus of the computer and each will drive up to
eight such hardware devices. The alternatives may
co-exist and more than one of a type may be installed,
if the installation becomes that extensive.
In keeping with the style of Windows applications,
Walli3 has extensive Help files to give on-screen
information on any aspect of the operation of the
software, in the form of topics within an inter-linked
and cross referenced structure. There is sufficient
information available on screen in this way, for the
package to be run without reference to printed
material, although any of the topics may be printed as
aid memoirs, from the file menu accessible in the topic
window.
This Manual has been provided as the traditional
means of communicating information on a product
which will be new to the user and it should be retained
for reference independent of the use of the computer.
It will be apparent that some of the written material
also appears on screen in the Help files, although in a
different format and presentation.
The Manual contains a number of sections which are
listed in the Contents pages which follow. The initial
sections range from the Commissioning of the
equipment through an extensive description of the
Software package with its appendices, to a section
containing write-ups on a number of simple
demonstration programs for each of the devices. The
theme for a demonstration is repeated for each robot
because each theme illustrates a basic manoeuvre
WALLI for WINDOWS Revision A
and together they provide a comparison of the means
of achieving the objective, one robot to the other, even
if only in simulation.
The remaining sections of the manual have been
included or not, depending on the equipment that has
been ordered. The possible inclusions are a section
containing notes on robotics as a general reference
for students, sections providing more specific
information and student exercises for each of the
devices, and appropriate sections for maintenance.
This body of information should be sufficient for
anyone who has been responsible for ordering the
equipment, to use it with confidence and to provide
enough background material to form the basis of a
course of instruction on robotics, automated
machining and production.
Anyone who receives an item of equipment is advised
therefore, to rescue the package containing this
manual and the accompanying software distribution
discs, which should be immediately available within
the packing box or crate, and hand it to the person
responsible.
The sections on Commissioning, Hardware and
Software Installation, and Getting Started should be
read carefully before proceeding with these necessary
preliminaries, preferably before unpacking further, to
avoid any potential damage in the process.
The packing box should be searched for all items that
it might contain. This particularly applies to counter-
balance weights for the Mentor and Gryphon robots,
which will have been removed for transportation and
must be replaced before the robot is connected to the
power supply.
The box and packing material should be retained until
such time as the equipment has been brought into
operation and then later if possible, in the event of the
need to return the device to the factory.
The potential user is then in the position to browse
through the contents of this manual, to become
familiar with what it contains and where to make
references. As with most technical literature of this
nature, a studied reading is best done with the system
available for immediate access, or at least after some
initial exploration of its workings. Part of the
exploration should be through the Help files, both from
the menu access and using the F1 key for any window
or item in the window that has the focus or can be
highlighted, using the mouse or cursor keys. If the
user is not familiar with this type of on-screen facility,
he should refer to Chapter 1 in the Windows Users
Guide. Help for Walli3 follows the conventions that
have been defined.
INTRODUCTION page 1