Using Robotics String Functions

Spreadsheet supports VGR Vision-Guided Robotics is an In-Sight Spreadsheet feature that uses machine vision to guide robot motion through Robotics String Functions and VGR commands. applications using the Robotics Strings Functions, which enable communication between the vision system and the robot controller. The Robotics String Functions allow the robot controller to trigger vision tasks, perform calibration and training operations, and request aligment results at runtime.

While the configuration for Robotics String Functions is set up and contained in a Spreadsheet job A job is a user-configured program in In-Sight Spreadsheet consisting of functions and designed for specific applications. You can create and edit jobs using the In-Sight Spreadsheet interface, and load them on a vision system for deployment in a live environment. on the vision system, the execution is driven by commands that the robot controller sends over the network.

To understand how to use these functions in practice, it is important to first understand how the vision system and robot controller communicate during a VGR application cycle.

VGR Communication Workflow

In a VGR application, the robot controller and vision system exchange data over the network to coordinate robot motion. First, you create a Spreadsheet job that contains the Robotics String Functions and vision tools to be executed. Robotics String Functions provide a flexible, command-driven workflow that separates vision logic configuration from robot execution control.

In this workflow, you configure the In-Sight vision system within a spreadsheet job by defining vision tools, calibration behavior, and alignment logic using Robotics String Functions. The robot controller determines when calibration, training, or alignment actions occur by sending commands. Together, these steps describe the high-level execution model for Robotics String Functions in In-Sight VGR applications.

Once your Spreadsheet job is configured and running on your vision system, the overall communication workflow between the robot controller and the vision system operates as follows:

  1. The robot controller sends a command indicating the operation to perform, such as image acquisition Acquisition is the process or result of the vision system acquiring a new image., calibration, training, or alignment.

  2. The vision system receives and parses the command.

  3. Based on the command type and parameters, the vision system performs the requested task.

  4. The vision system stores training or calibration data internally within the job, in the appropriate VGR functions.

  5. The vision system returns a response code or status to the robot controller.

  6. The robot controller uses the response to continue or adjust robot motion.

Using Robotics String Functions, VGR applications are driven by a command-response interaction in which the robot controller controls execution timing, and the vision system performs calibration, training, and alignment tasks based on Spreadsheet configuration. This separation allows flexible, scalable workflows that you can adapt to different robot programs and application requirements.

Additional Information

The following sections provide additional detail on specific aspects of the Spreadsheet workflow.

For more information about the VGR command interface, see Executing VGR Commands and subsections. For guided workflow examples, see Guided Examples and Resources for VGR.