So How to understand the Tool Center Point (TCP) of an industrial robot?
In industrial settings, robots are essentially mechanical arms with multiple axes. To accomplish specific production tasks with a robot, it's common to attach a tool to the end of the robot arm, such as a welding gun for welding robots, a glue gun for adhesive application robots, or a gripper for material handling robots. However, due to variations in size and shape among different tools, a question arises: how do we select a point to represent the entire tool? This leads us to the topic of discussion in this article: the Tool Center Point of a robot.
Tool Center Point," abbreviated as "TCP." The initial position of the TCP is the origin of the Tool Coordinate System. When we command the robot to move towards a specific point in space manually (jogging) or through programming, essentially, we are directing the Tool Center Point to approach that point. Therefore, the trajectory of the robot's motion is essentially the movement of the Tool Center Point (TCP).
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| ABB robot welding gun (Photo: aliexpress) |
A single robot may have different Tool Center Points due to the attachment of different tools, but at any given moment, the robot can only process one Tool Center Point. For example, using welding guns of different sizes will result in different positions of the gun's nozzle. However, we can only use one welding gun at a time; we cannot simultaneously use two.
The tools of robots can generally be divided into two major categories: fixture-type and gun-type.
For fixture-type tools, their Tool Center Point (TCP) is typically determined by extending a certain distance from the TCP of tool0 as a reference point. On the other hand, for gun-type tools (such as welding guns, glue guns, etc.), a four-point method is used to determine the Tool Center Point. The methods for setting the TCP of these two types of tools will be discussed in detail in future articles.
Note: The term "tool data" mentioned in this article is sometimes translated as "tool coordinates" in some articles or contexts. However, we believe that "tool data" is a more accurate translation and interpretation of "Tool Data."
Alright, that's all for now regarding the Tool Center Point (TCP) of robots.