Fanuc (Pro)

Connecting to Fanuc industrial robots

Please note that this interface is only included in realvirtual.io Professional

The Fanuc Interface component allows direct communication between Unity and FANUC industrial robots using the SNPX (Robot Interface / SRTP) protocol. It enables real-time control of robot drives, digital and analog I/O, and access to internal robot variables — supporting use cases like digital twins, simulation, and live operation.

Overview

This interface connects Unity to a FANUC controller over TCP/IP (default port 60008), allowing you to:

• Read/write digital and analog signals

• Track drive and axis positions

Requirements

To use the SNPX-based communication, your FANUC controller must support the Robot Interface protocol. This can be configured during workcell creation in ROBOGUIDE.

Enabling SNPX

You must enable one of the following options when setting up your virtual or physical controller:

• R650 FRA Params:

  • Select "FANUC America Corp." in the Advanced tab of ROBOGUIDE's Workcell Wizard (Step 7)

  • Add option R553 – HMI Device SNPX

• R651 FRL Params:

  • Select "FANUC Ltd." in the same Advanced tab

  • No additional options required

Also ensure that:

• TCP port 60008 (Robot IF Server) is open and accessible

• The controller and Unity application are on the same network or subnet

Inspector Fields

Field	Description
Active	Enables or disables the interface
Is Connected	Shows live connection status with the controller
Address	IP address of the FANUC robot (e.g., 192.168.0.179)
Drives	Assign Unity Drive components to robot axes (supports J1–J9)
Num Inputs / Outputs	Displays how many input/output signals are currently active
Thread Status	Indicates the state of the background communication thread
Connect Button	Triggers the connection process to the controller

Signal Mapping

The Fanuc Interface uses string-based signal names to map FANUC robot I/O into Unity. These names follow a PREFIX + NUMBER format and are parsed automatically on startup.

Example of a configured digital output DO3

Supported Signal Prefixes

Prefix	Direction	Description
DI	Input	Device-level digital inputs
DO	Output	Device-level digital outputs
UI	Input	User-defined digital inputs
UO	Output	User-defined digital outputs
RI	Input	Remote robot digital inputs
RO	Output	Remote robot digital outputs
SDI	Input	Safety digital inputs
SDO	Output	Safety digital outputs
WI	Input	Welding-specific digital inputs
WO	Output	Welding-specific digital outputs
AI	Input	Analog integer inputs (e.g., sensor values)
AO	Output	Analog integer outputs (e.g., analog actuators)

Examples:

• DO0 – Digital Output 0

• UI5 – User Input 5

• AO3 – Analog Output 3

• WI2 – Welding Input 2

Signals are case-insensitive in Unity but are documented here in uppercase for clarity.