System Variables

INTRODUCTION

What exactly is a system variable?  System variables essentially store important information that may be of value to the end user within the program they are developing.  A system variable allows the user to pull this important information into their program by copying it into a traditional variable such as position, bytes, integers, etc.....

** Please note that not all system variables are available across all controller types.  Please reference the controller specific manuals or reach out to Yaskawa tech support for more guidance. **

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

WHAT DO SYSTEM VARIABLES LOOK LIKE?

A system variable is easily recognizable because it will always start with a dollar sign.  ( $ ).  As an example, consider the examples below:

As you might expect, system variables can be of different types.  The above examples demonstrate a system position variable ( $PX001 ) as well as a system double variable  ( $D004 ).

Specifically.... When it comes to position type variables, you may have noticed in the above example there is also a letter X beside the 'P'.  What exactly does this letter X represent?  What was taught to me is that the letter X is your reminder that "eXtra" information may also be stored.

Consider a system that has a robot and a rotary table.  If we want to get the current position of the robot, that information will be stored in a position variable however... the extra information from the rotary table will also be stored in an external axis variable.

HOW DO I GET A SYSTEM VARIABLE?

The INFORM programming language offers a special command called GETS.  GETS means "get system variable" and it can be found under the arithmetic menu of programming options.

Your robot program needs to "copy" the system variable into a traditional global or local type of variable.

GETS    $PX001   PX123
Get system variable P1 and store it into global variable P123

GETS    $B005    B11
Get system variable B5 and store it into global variable B11