Lexium Cobot gripper integration

[mirarmughan]

Dear Schneider Electric Community,

I am working on integrating a SCHUNK EGP 40-N-N-IOL Gripper (ID: 1372735) https://schunk.com/de/en/gripping-systems/parallel-gripper/egp/egp-40-n-n-iol/p/000000000001372735  with the Lexium Cobot - Collaborative Robot, 18kg payload. To enable communication, I am using a Balluff IO-Link Master (BNI PNT-508-105-Z067) https://www.balluff.com/en-de/products/BNI00EN as an intermediary device.

My Setup:

• The SCHUNK gripper connects to the IO-Link Master via an M12 IO-Link port.
• The Balluff IO-Link Master connects to the Lexium Cobot Compact Controller via Ethernet/IP.
• The goal is to control the gripper (e.g., open, close, adjust force) directly from the Lexium Cobot controller or any other program on my PC 

Questions:

• Is using the Balluff IO-Link Master the correct approach for enabling communication between the cobot and the gripper? Are there better alternatives? Or the proposed connections look fine ?
• How can I configure Ethernet/IP communication between the Lexium Cobot and the IO-Link Master?
• What is the best way to send gripper commands (open/close) through the cobot controller? Would scripting with the Lexium Cobot Programming Script be required?
• Additionally I have the following available:
  • GSDML file for the the IO link Master 
  • IODD file with device description for the SCHUNK gripper EGP IOL

I would appreciate any guidance or resources to help establish communication and control between the Lexium Cobot and SCHUNK gripper.

Thank you!
Best regards,
Mir Armughan Waseem
Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt