December 11, 2017 – Beckhoff Automation announced the incorporation of image processing capabilities into its PC-based control system with TwinCAT Vision software. TwinCAT unites a range of machine functionality – PLC, motion control, robotics, high-end measurement technology, IoT, HMI and now machine vision – all in an end-to-end engineering and control platform.
With this level of integration, TwinCAT Vision is intended to eliminate the need for separate vision solutions. The software is designed to open up potential in machine building, for instance, through consistent real-time synchronization with other automation tasks or support of advanced track-and-trace solutions.
TwinCAT Vision provides the required image processing capabilities in the form of PLC functionality on a universal, end-to-end software platform, complete with a specially developed library of image processing functions and function blocks that are called up directly from the TwinCAT PLC. The runtime system in TwinCAT is capable of executing these functions and function blocks in real-time.
GigE Vision compliant cameras of almost any kind are added, even in parallel, via standard camera interfaces and configured in TwinCAT Engineering. The cameras can also be calibrated directly, in the engineering environment or mid-process in the runtime system. With TwinCAT Vision, there is no need for specialized tools or programming languages when coding the image processing logic, because the machine vision applications are created in the PLC, using familiar PLC programming languages.
With stand-alone machine vision solutions, communication between image processing and control applications can be complex and difficult to manage. External factors, such as the operating system, may also have an impact on processing times and data transmission speeds.
