Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the run-time environment of custom applications, including illustrations of the software architecture of the FlexPendant SDK.

Application configuration is detailed as well as deployment of a FlexPendant application to a robot controller. The life cycle of a FlexPendant application is also explained.

The FlexPendant is an integral part of IRC5, yet a complete computer in itself. It has been developed with Microsoft's software technology for embedded systems, Windows CE and .NET Compact Framework, which is a subset of the full .NET Framework that the PC uses.

The following illustration shows the Software architecture of FlexPendant SDK. Two FlexPendant applications, one using VB and the other C#, developed on top of the FlexPendant SDK. The FlexPendant SDK Controller API is the public API offering controller functionality. All communication with the robot controller is done via the internal Robot Communication Runtime. The FlexPendant SDK provides ABB made UI controls suitable for the FlexPendant.

The FlexPendant SDK offer controller functionality through the public application interface called Controller API. The interface can be seen as a specification of the controller services available.