March 4, 2014 - Yaskawa Motoman announces the MLX200 Robot Gateway – the newest PLC control platform for Motoman robots. MLX200 enables the control of robots entirely through Rockwell Automation’s ControlLogix and CompactLogix Programmable Automation Controllers (PAC). MLX200 provides easy-to-use programming Add-On-Instructions (AOI) for Rockwell Automation’s RSLogix 5000 software. Multiple robots can be controlled through a single MLX200 Robot Gateway. A full-featured robot teaching and maintenance HMI is provided for Allen Bradley’s PanelView, and it can be customized by machine builders and integrators.
MLX200 enhances the previous MLX100 technology by optimizing the robot motion software; it now consumes significantly less PLC resources, while improving the capability of scheduling algorithms for line-tracking applications, and now includes control through the Rockwell CompactLogix platform. A multitude of applications (including those requiring vision guidance and line tracking) are possible through the MLX200 platform, including assembly, part transfer, picking, sorting, kitting, case packing, palletizing and de-palletizing. Select Motoman robots (4-7 axis; 5-300 kg payload) are offered with the MLX200 Robot Gateway. Any combination of the available models can be used for multiple robot applications.
