Beckhoff at Motek: Hall 9, Booth 9108

Robotics and Condition Monitoring as integrated components of the PC controller

Beckhoff will present its PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology at Motek, the 28th international trade fair for handling and assembly technology, which will take place between 21 and 24 September 2009 at the New Exhibition Centre in Stuttgart, Germany. The Beckhoff trade fair booth will focus on new Industrial PC series, extended Drive Technology, as well as Robotics and Condition Monitoring.

With its PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology, Beckhoff offers an open automation solution for assembly and handling applications. The TwinCAT automation suite controls the individual process steps of processing machines and offers software modules for different tasks such as cam plates, synchronisation and interpolating movements of several axes.

The modular system is complemented through the integration of robots (delta kinematics, SCARA) and thus interaction and synchronisation with existing Motion Control functions. This results in seamless integration in the overall control system as well as dispensing with additional robot CPUs. The PC-based control system from Beckhoff therefore combines PLC, Motion Control and robotics on a single hardware and software platform.

The TwinCAT Kinematic Transformation software module supports different parallel and serial kinematic systems used for pick-and-place tasks, for example. As regards programming, the software is based on TwinCAT NC I and G-Code (DIN 66025).

Condition Monitoring in compact Bus Terminal format

Another new feature is the integration of high-precision measurement technology and Condition Monitoring in the Beckhoff control system. The EL3632 EtherCAT Terminal monitors the data in the standard I/O system and makes them available to the higher-level PC control system. The fast, high-performance EtherCAT communication system transfers the recorded status data to the PC control. The signals are analysed on the PC using either TwinCAT automation software or user software. In addition to the perfect interaction of all components and the reduction of hardware costs, the engineering is also greatly simplified: configuration, programming and diagnostics take place on one system using TwinCAT.

www.beckhoff.com/motek
www.beckhoff.com/kinematics
www.beckhoff.com/EL3632
www.beckhoff.com/scientific-automation