Beckhoff will present its control solutions for automation and robotics at Automatica 2014, which will run from June 3 to 6, 2014 in Munich, Germany. PC-based control from Beckhoff can integrate PLC, motion control, measurement technology and robotics on one powerful platform.
Doing away with separate, single-purpose CPUs and gateways enables more efficient engineering as well as improved synchronization between PLC and motion control functions, resulting in higher accuracy and speed. The synchronization of robotics and motion control applications represents the central theme at the Beckhoff trade show booth at Automatica 2014. Beckhoff will present numerous new solutions including a 6-axis kinematics solution in standard TwinCAT PC-based software.
With Scientific Automation, Beckhoff integrates robotics, measurement technology and condition monitoring into a standard control platform alongside PLC, motion control and safety technology. TwinCAT leverages the multi-core performance of modern processors, so that complex mathematical algorithms for robotic applications or measurement analysis can be performed on separate cores, without hindering PLC performance. When configuring a PC-based controller with a multi-core CPU, the TwinCAT user can define which cores are visible to the operating system and which ones are 100% available to the TwinCAT runtime. This permits the calculation of robot transformations on one core while the PLC program is executed on another.
PC-based control integrates 6-axis robot kinematics into a standard controller
With TwinCAT kinematic transformation, various robot kinematics such as 2-D parallel kinematics, 3-D delta or SCARA can be programmed either with DIN 66025 commands or with the PLCopen-compliant function blocks from the TwinCAT PLC. Beckhoff will present the implementation of 6-axis kinematics in TwinCAT as a new solution at this year’s Automatica trade show. Visitors to the Beckhoff booth can experience the interaction between robots and PC-based motion control systems in various live demonstrations.
Universal multi-touch operating technology
Beckhoff provides optimized operator interface technology at the assembly cell with a scalable range of active and passive panels featuring multi-touch operating technology. Display sizes from 7 to 24 inches as well as versions with different connection types and processor performance ranges provide the user with maximum variety and flexibility. Further advantages of the multi-touch panel series are gained from the use of CP-Link 4, a One Cable Technology for separating the control unit from the PC by a distance of up to 100 m: Video signal, USB 2.0 and the power supply can be carried by a standard Cat 6A cable. The user benefits not only from the higher flexibility, but from the reduced cable and assembly costs.
Acceleration and angle measurement directly in the field
Measures to optimize machine availability, such as condition monitoring, are becoming increasingly important in automation engineering. To integrate condition monitoring, Beckhoff offers an impressive portfolio of special function I/O components and TwinCAT 3 libraries. One of the latest additions to the I/O product family is the EP1816-3008 EtherCAT Box. Equipped with two integrated 3-axis acceleration sensors and 16 digital inputs, it can be used as a cost-effective and easily-installed solution for vibration and shock/oscillation monitoring as well as for tilt monitoring in longitudinal and transverse directions directly in the field. As a result, users can acquire additional data on the status of robotic and gantry type applications with high precision and no great effort.
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