The Coordinate System The Coordinate System This section describes the coordinate system used by Adept robots. Locations and Precision Points A robot location specifies the position and orientation of the robot tool tip in three-dimensional space. A robot location is a predefined position at which a robot will acquire or place a part or move through en route to acquiring or placing a part. Locations have controllable characteristics that produce smooth, efficient robot operation. You can define robot locations using Cartesian coordinates (transformations), or Joint val- ues (Precision Points).
Transformations A transformation is a set of six components that uniquely identifies a location in Cartesian space and the ori- entation of the robot tool flange. A transformation can also represent the location of an arbitrary local ref- erence frame (also know as a "frame of reference"). Precision Points A precision point allows you to define a location by specifying a value for each robot joint. These joint values are absolute with respect to the home sensors of the robot, and cannot be made relative to other locations or coordinate frames. Precision point locations are useful for jointed-arm applications and with applications that require full rotation of Adept arms with Joint 4.
They are also helpful where joint orientation is critical to the application, or when you want to move an individual joint. Location Origin Locations are, by default, relative to the base of the robot. See the following figure for an example using an Adept SCARA robot. For a default (World) location, the coordinate offsets are from the origin of the World coordinate system (which is located at the base of the robot). ACE User's Guide, 3.6.x 18316-000 Rev A Page 58