Chapter 10: Group Motion

In Chapter 5, we talked about single-axis motion. In this chapter, you'll learn how to move multiple axes at the same time. KINGSTAR offers three kinds of group motion: linear, circular, and helical. We focus on linear and circular in this chapter.

Axes can be moved individually even if they are added to a group.

Linear motion

It works like single-axis motion.
It's up to 32 groups and 64 axes. The interpolation is vectorial and all axes reach their end positions at the same time.
Target positions are arrays with a value for each coordinate.
From KS 4.1, KINGSTAR supports Axis Coordinate System (ACS), Machine Coordinate System (MCS), and Product Coordinate System (PCS). Before 4.1, KINGSTAR supports only ACS.

Circular motion

It's up to 32 groups and 64 axes.
It moves a group in 2D or 3D space.
There are three ways to define a circle: mcBorder, mcCenter, and mcRadius.
The length of the aux point and end point arrays should be three even for 2D circles.

Helical motion

It's up to 32 groups and 64 axes.
It moves a group in 2D or 3D space.
There are three ways to define a circle: mcBorder, mcCenter, and mcRadius.
The length of the aux point and end point arrays should be three even for 2D circles.

Blending motion

There are four velocity blending modes: mcBlendingLow, mcBlendingHigh, mcBlendingPrevious, and mcBlendingNext.
KINGSTAR supports velocity blending for linear and circular motion, and path blending for linear motion. Path blending uses transition modes.
Only one transition mode is supported: mcCornerDistance.

Add a header and .cpp file

You need to add a header and a .cpp file to learn the code of this chapter. The steps of adding them are written in Chapter 2 > Add a header and .cpp file.

Add a header file:

In Solution Explorer, in Header Files, add a header file and name it "GroupMotion.h."

Add a .cpp file:

In Solution Explorer, in Source Files, add a C++ file and name it "GroupMotion.cpp."

Tutorials

Take the following steps to complete the training: