- December 15, 2011
- Beckhoff Automation
December 8, 2011 – Beckhoff Automation released TwinCAT 3 software. With TwinCAT 3 and eXtended Automation Technology (XAT), PC-based control software is available that expands the potential of the standard automation world considerably. In addition to the object-oriented IEC 61131-3 extensions, the programming languages of the IT world are available in TwinCAT 3 via C and C++.
Additionally, the integration of Matlab/Simulink facilitates a connection to scientific fields. All of this is possible in one flexible engineering environment. The software modules can run in different languages within a common runtime. The advantage of this modularity is the improved reuse of modules once they have been written and tested. The runtime operates under demanding real-time conditions with the use of multi-core technology and the support of 32-bit or, in the near future, 64-bit operating systems. eXtended Automation Architecture The familiar features of TwinCAT 2 are continued in TwinCAT 3 with the eXtended Automation Architecture (XAA). In addition, all widely used fieldbuses will continue to be supported in the future. Motion control, from point-to-point movements to CNC is still possible using XAA, of course. Automation technology is also significantly expanded with the “Scientific Automation“ themes already presented in TwinCAT, such as robotics, measurement technology and condition monitoring. New features include the possibility to use additional programming languages such as C/C++ and Matlab/Simulink. eXtended Automation Engineering The eXtended Automation Engineering environment (XAE) in TwinCAT 3 is essentially the widely used Microsoft Visual Studio platform. Alongside the already existing C/C++ languages, Beckhoff has also integrated the IEC 61131-3 programming standard into this globally-recognized development environment. As a result, the benefits and convenience of the IT framework are made available for automation. Integration in Visual Studio takes place in two different ways. In the TwinCAT Standard version, only the framework of Visual Studio is used with all of its advantages with regards to handling, linking to source administration software, help functions, etc. In the second variant, TwinCAT 3 components integrate themselves directly in Visual Studio 2010 if it is present. If it is not present, Visual Studio is installed with the TwinCAT 3 components. In this version, the programming languages C/C++ and the connection to the Matlab/Simulink world via the Matlab/Simulink real-time workshop are available to the user. For the programming languages C/C++, a debugger with online monitoring functionality has been developed that extends beyond the normal debugging functions of C/C++. TwinCAT System Manager – the popular configuration tool for I/O and motion – is similarly integrated into the same development environment in TwinCAT 3. The advantage of this is the possibility to integrate further programming languages or to use additional tools, such as source code administration tools, with little effort. eXtended Automation Runtime In the TwinCAT 3 eXtended Automation Runtime (XAR), all modules written in IEC 61131, C/C++ or Matlab/Simulink are processed in real-time. The proven TwinCAT real-time extension for Microsoft operating systems is used here. The tasks can be processed with a minimum cycle time of 50 μs and a very small amount of jitter. TwinCAT real-time has also been extended with the possibility to distribute certain tasks to different cores of a multi-core CPU. This enhances PC controller performance even further. 64-bit operating systems, which are now widely used, will also be supported by TwinCAT 3.
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