Failed to read from robot EKI server

[Tomas Merva]

Hello, I am trying to connect ROS melodic with KUKA robot KR6 r900 sixx using kuka-experimental. However, after having done all things in README.md about configuring EKI on the controller, I am getting the error:

Failed to read from robot EKI server within alloted time of 5 seconds. Make sure eki_hw_interface is running on the robot controller and all configurations are correct.

At the side of KUKA controller I have done these things:
1. setting IP, creating new port 54600 (for udp)
2. copy EkiHwInterface into C:\KRC\ROBOTER\Config\User\Common\EthernetKRL\ (with same IP as in the previous step)
3. copy kuka_eki_hw_interface.dat and kuka_eki_hw_interface.src to KRC:\R1\Program

At the side of ROS I have done:

1. The hardware_controllers.yaml and controller_joint_names.yaml I have not changed so the names of joints are as follows:

    #Publish all joint states
    joint_state_controller:
      type: joint_state_controller/JointStateController
      publish_rate: 50
   
    # Joint trajectory controller
    position_trajectory_controller:
      type: "position_controllers/JointTrajectoryController"
      joints:
        - joint_a1
        - joint_a2
        - joint_a3
        - joint_a4
        - joint_a5
        - joint_a6
   
      state_publish_rate: 50 # Defaults to 50
      action_monitor_rate: 20 # Defaults to 20
   

   Is the fact that I have written here the wrong names of the joints why I cant read from EKI server?

The test_params.yaml file is as follows:

eki:
  robot_address: "192.168.100.2"
  robot_port: "54600"
  socket_timeout: 5

My launch file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<launch>
    <param name="robot_description" command="$(find xacro)/xacro.py '$(find kuka_kr6_support)/urdf/kr6r900sixx.xacro'"/>

   <rosparam file="$(find kuka_eki_hw_interface)/test/test_params.yaml" command="load" />

   <!-- Start EKI interface -->
   <node name="kuka_eki_hardware_interface" pkg="kuka_eki_hw_interface"
     type="kuka_eki_hw_interface_node"
     respawn="false"
     output="screen"
     required="true"/>

   <!-- Load joint controller configurations from YAML file to parameter server -->
   <rosparam file="$(find kuka_eki_hw_interface)/config/hardware_controllers.yaml"
     command="load"/>

   <!-- Load standard kuka controller joint names from YAML file to parameter server -->
   <rosparam file="$(find kuka_eki_hw_interface)/config/controller_joint_names.yaml"
     command="load"/>

   <!-- Load controllers -->
   <node name="controller_spawner" pkg="controller_manager" type="spawner" respawn="false"
     output="screen" args="position_trajectory_controller joint_state_controller --shutdown-timeout 1"/>
   <!-- Load robot state publisher -->
   <node name="robot_state_publisher" pkg="robot_state_publisher" type="robot_state_publisher" />
</launch>

Does anyone see where the mistake might be?

Thank you all in advance

[Tomas Merva]

https://answers.ros.org/question/334974/failed-to-read-from-robot-eki-server/

[G.A. vd. Hoorn]

Seeing as we already have the post on ROS Answers, I'm going to close this one.