Jogging

From Industrial Robotics & Automation - Fanuc Teach Pendant Programming
The JOG keys are the 12 blue keys on the right of the teach pendant. The upper 6 positive and negative X, Y, and Z keys are for moving about translationally. The lower 6 are for orientation about the currently selected frame of reference.

Jogging the robot means moving it around manually via the teach pendant. This is a quick and easy method of determining coordinates for programming points in your programs.

To jog a robot, you must first clear all available alarms. The FANUC robots require you to hole SHIFT before pressing one or more of the JOG keys to move the robot.

The JOG keys are the 6 keys on the right of the teach pendant labeled with pluses and minuses.

In JOINT frame, the keys represent the individual joints, J1 through J6.

-X (J1) +X (J1) Translate X
-Y (J2) +Y (J2) Translate Y
-Z (J3) +Z (J3) Translate Z
- Rotate X (J4) + Rotate X (J4) Yaw
- Rotate Y (J5) + Rotate Y (J5) Pitch
- Rotate Z (J6) + Rotate Z (J6) Roll

Clearing the Alarms To Allow Motion

Highlighted with the red circle is a common fault displayed in the status bar at the top of the teach pendant's LCD.

FANUC employs many safety features that make the job of programming, repairing, and setting up much less risky. FANUC even offers collaborative robots that are designed to be safe for working around (and with) during active operation. For more details on safety devices themselves, see Safety.


Utilizing the teach pendant, you will see available alarms on the top of the screen. Rectify each error's cause and press "RESET" to bring the robot out of the FAULT state. You will see the FAULT indicator go green.

Common errors you may encounter are as follows:

  • DCS Cart. Pos. limit
    • The robot has moved to the safe zone limit and will not continue out of it. Move the robot directly in the direction away from the DCS zone limit.
  • E-Stop
    • The alarm will specify which E-Stop is still active and preventing motion of the robot. For example, TP E-Stop refers to the emergency stop button at the top right of the teach pendant. Our lab only has the two, but there is no limit to how many emergency stops may be added to a robot cell.
  • Singularity
    • The robot is not able to continue moving in a straight line (cartesian motion) in its current joint configuration. Jog J5 in JOINT mode to remove the robot from singularity.
  • DEADMAN Defeated
    • You have let go of or squeezed too tightly on the deadman switch. Starting with the deadman switch in the outermost position, press in until it reaches the center "safe" state.
  • TP Disabled in T1 Mode
    • The teach pendant is in the OFF state. Turn the teach pendant switch (top left) to the ON position
  • Collision Detect Alarm
    • The robot has detected excess force has been applied to the robot arm. Determine what the robot has collided with and adjust it or your program coordinates to prevent the event from occurring again.
  • INTP-105 Run request failed. PROG-040 already locked by another task.
    • The last program run has not reached its END instruction and is still waiting to continue, its variables still loaded in memory. Hit the physical FCTN button and then select "Abort All" in the menu that comes up.


Jogging for Teaching Points

Teaching points on the FANUC robot is a bit easier than just measuring and then entering numbers on the teach pendant.

Once all Alarms are cleared, you can jog the robot by holding shift and pressing one or more of the jog keys to move the robot to the position you desire to use.

Select the line of the motion instruction you want to teach, hold shift and press the soft key (on-screen button) labeled "touchup".

Jogging in Different Frames


Pressing Shift and COORD will bring up this screen. Notice Tool Frame 1, Jog Frame 1, and User Frame 5 are currently in use. Since Tool frame is currently selected, typing the number 5 will switch to Tool Frame 5.

Holding the shift button and hitting COORD will bring up a yellow menu at the top allowing you to change the Tool, Jog, and User Frame numbers to what you desire.


The selection at the bottom will let you change to jogging within a specific frame of reference.


Pressing COORD without shift will change to the next frame system in the list.


In the world frame of reference, the following is true:

X - The X axis on our robot is the forward and back motion of the robot. Standing in front of the robot cart, positive X is toward you.

Y - The Y axis on our robot is the left and right motion of the robot. Standing in front of the robot card, positive Y is to your right.

Z - The Z axis on our robot is the up and down motion of the robot. Standing in front of the robot card, positive Z is up.

W - The W axis is YAW and is the rotation around the X axis.

P - The P axis is Pitch and is the rotation around the Y axis.

R - The R axis is Roll and is the rotation around the Z axis.

See Cartesian Space for more information.