ABB IRB 6400R Product On-Line Manual page 254

Connecting Signals
When the robot is last in a RIO loop, the loop must be terminated with a termination
resistor according to Allen-Bradley's specification.
This product incorporates a communications link which is licensed under patents and proprietary technology of
Allen-Bradley Company, Inc. Allen-Bradley Company, Inc. does not warrant or support this product. All warranty
and support services for this product are the responsibility of and provided by ABB Flexible Automation.
RIO communication concept
Robot 1 - 128 in / 128 out
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Rack ID 12 (example)
Rack size 4
Starting quarter 1
Figure 53 RIO communication concept - Principle diagram
The Allen Bradley system can communicate with up to 64 external systems. Each of
these systems is called a Rack and is given a Rack Address 0-63. Basically, each robot
connected to the Allen Bradley system will occupy 1 rack.
Each rack is divided into 4 sections called Quarters. Each quarter provides 32 inputs
and 32 outputs and a rack will subsequently provide 128 inputs and 128 outputs.
A rack may also be shared by 2, 3 or 4 robots. Each of these robots will then have the
same rack address, but different starting quarters must be specified.
The illustration above shows an example where Robot 1 uses a full rack while robot 2
and robot 3 share 1 rack.
The rack address, starting quarter and other required parameters such as baud rate, LED
Status etc. are entered in the configuration parameters.
The robot may communicate with the Allen Bradley system only, or be used in combi-
nation with I/O system in the robot. For example, the inputs to the robot may come from
the Allen Bradley system while the outputs from the robot control external equipment
via general I/O addresses and the Allen Bradley system only reads the outputs as status
signals.
84
Allen Bradley
control system
128 in / 128 out
Installation and Commissioning
Robot 2 - 64 in / 64 out
64 in / 64 out
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Rack ID 13 (example)
Rack size 2
Starting quarter 1
Robot 3 - 64 in / 64 out
64 in / 64 out
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Rack ID 13 (example)
Rack size 2
Starting quarter 3
Other systems
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
Product Manual IRB 6400R