November 5, 2008 - In April this year PLCopen released Part 4 of the motion Control specification for Coordinated Motion for comments. Part 4 of the PLCopen suite of specifications is focused on coordinated multi-axes motion in 3D space which is becoming increasingly important. Based on comments, PLCopen plans to finalize the specification and publish the results at the upcoming SPS/IPC/Drives event Nuremberg, Germany - 25-27 Nov 2008. Although many people checked the document itself, and many are very positive on our work, PLCopen received little comments for changes: overall only 10 feedback issues.
Other parts of the PLCopen Motion Control suite deal with master / slave motion control, a type of coordinated motion control where the master axis position is used to generate one or more slave axis position commands. For three dimensional movements, one goes beyond this point via a grouping of a set of axes, without a master axis. In order to work in 3D, one has to use several coordinated systems, as well as a kinematic model of the mechanics involved. The coordinated systems include the axes coordinate system, the machine coordinate system and the product related system. The current Master/Slave axes have the problem that if an error occurs, the other axes have no knowledge about this, and continue their movement.
By combining axes in a group one knows upfront which axes are involved and has the basis for a better error behavior.
About PLCopen
PLCopen was founded in 1992 as an independent worldwide association for industrial suppliers and users. It is the leading association resolving topics related to industrial control programming. PLCopen creates concepts to reduce the costs of industrial automation. These cost savings are realized in areas such as engineering, training, operation and maintenance. Together with its members, PLC open creates specifications to materialize these concepts.
