Acronyms & Initialisms

Provides an alias to a name

Drives

HMI

Remote Input/Output Terminals

ANSI is a private, nonprofit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel

Library that can be written to provide a specific application task

An ASIC is an integrated circuit (IC "Integrated Circuits" Miniaturized electronic circuits (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that have been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material) customized for a particular use, rather than for general-purpose use. Modern ASICs often include entire 32-bit processors, memory blocks including ROM, RAM, EEPROM, Flash and other large building blocks

An open-source communication protocol for feedback devices. With BiSS, all of the computation for interpolation in regard to position occurs on the ASIC "Application-specific integrated circuit" An ASIC is an integrated circuit (IC) customized for a particular use, rather than for general-purpose use directly in the encoder

CAM means the use of a wide range of computer-based software tools that assist engineers and CNC machinists in the manufacture or prototyping of product components

CAN is a broadcast, differential serial bus standard developed for connecting electronic control units. Each node is able to send and receive messages, but not simultaneously.

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CF is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices

The Common Industrial Protocol allows complete integration of control with information, multiple CIP Networks, and Internet technologies

A CRC is a type of function that takes as input a data stream of any length and produces as output a value of a certain fixed size. The term CRC is often used to denote either the function or the function's output. A CRC can be used as a checksum to detect accidental alteration of data during transmission or storage

CSV file format is a file type that stores tabular data

DMA is the allocation of memory storage for use in a computer program during the run-time In computer science, runtime (or run-time) describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). Within KAS, runtime also refers to the virtual machine that manage the program written in a computer language while it is running of that program. It can be seen also as a way of distributing ownership of limited memory resources among many pieces of data and code

A network configuration file in XML "Extensible Markup Language " XML is a general-purpose markup language. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own tags format, the ENI file describes the network topology, the initialization commands for each device, and commands which have to be sent cyclically. The ENI file is provided to the master, which sends commands according to this file.

The KAS IDE "Integrated development environment" An integrated development environment is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software. IDEs normally consist of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build-automation tools, and a debugger creates the ENI file after a network discovery, which can be exported or imported. A scan and compile should be redone, if the network changes, in order to regenerate the ENI file.

ERP integrates (or attempts to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system

A device description in XML format. This is a fixed file provided by the supplier of a given EtherCAT device. The ESI file contains information about the device's functionality and settings.

EtherCAT device vendors must provide an ESI file, which is used by the KAS IDE to compile the network information (e.g. process data structures, initialization commands) and create the ENI file.

A function block diagram describes a function between input variables and output variables. A function is described as a set of elementary blocks

Free Form Ladder logic is a method of drawing electrical logic schematics. It is now a very popular graphical language for programming Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). It was originally invented to describe logic made from relays. The name is based on the observation that programs in this language resemble ladders, with two vertical "rails" and a series of horizontal "rungs" between them

This very simple protocol, similar to TFTP, enables access to any data structure in the device. Standardized firmware upload to devices is therefore possible, irrespective of whether or not they support TCP/IP

FPGA is a semiconductor device that can be configured by the customer or designer after manufacturing; hence the name "field-programmable"

The protocol FSoE was specified for the transmission of safety relevant data. It is used to send input information of safety sensors (such as safety light curtains or emergency stop buttons) to a safety logic controller. Based on these inputs, this controller computes the commands for the safe outputs (such as contactors or safety relevant drives) and thus controls the safety functionality of the machine

A GUI is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices

Also known as computer-human interfaces (CHI), and formerly known as man-machine interfaces, they are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures or pressures for further automated control or emergency response

Miniaturized electronic circuits (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that have been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material

An integrated development environment is a type of computer software that assists computer programmers in developing software.
IDEs normally consist of a source code editor, a compiler and/or interpreter, build-automation tools, and a debugger

An IDN preceded by the prefix "P", specifies a product specific (manufacturer) IDN in short-hand notation. The actual IDN number for a product-specific IDN, can be obtained by adding 32768 to the short-hand numeric value. For convenience, the actual IDN number is given in parentheses following the short hand notation. For example, P2 is a manufacturer-specific IDN whose actual IDN number is 32770

IEC is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies

IEC "International Electrotechnical Commission" IEC is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies standard for Programmable logic controllers (PLCs)

IEC 61131-3 is the third part of the open international standard IEC 61131. The current (second) edition was published in 2003.
IEC 61131-3 currently defines five programming languages for programmable control systems
It deals with programming languages and defines two graphical and two textual PLC "Programmable Logic Controller" A Programmable Logic Controller, PLC, or Programmable Controller is a digital computer used for automation of industrial processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines. Used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators and events programming language standards

It is a low-level language and resembles assembly

Industrial PC is the x86 PC-based computing platform for industrial applications. Industrial PC offers features different from the consumer PC on the reliability, compatibility, expansibility and long term supply.
KAS IPC usually includes a touch-screen display as a combined input and output device.

An interrupt request refers to the act of interrupting the bus lines used to signal an interrupt

JTAG is used for accessing sub-blocks of integrated circuits, and is also useful as a mechanism for debugging embedded systems, providing a convenient "back door" into the system. When used as a debugging tool, an in-circuit emulator - which in turn uses JTAG as the transport mechanism - enables a programmer to access an on-chip debug module which is integrated into the CPU via the JTAG "Joint Test Action Group" JTAG is used for accessing sub-blocks of integrated circuits, and is also useful as a mechanism for debugging embedded systems, providing a convenient "back door" into the system. When used as a debugging tool, an in-circuit emulator - which in turn uses JTAG as the transport mechanism - enables a programmer to access an on-chip debug module which is integrated into the CPU via the JTAG interface. The debug module enables the programmer to debug the software of an embedded system interface. The debug module enables the programmer to debug the software of an embedded system

Umbrella name for a software package including the KAS IDE and the KAS Runtime In computer science, runtime (or run-time) describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). Within KAS, runtime also refers to the virtual machine that manage the program written in a computer language while it is running software

The KAS IDE is the GUI "Graphical User Interface" A GUI is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with a computer and computer-controlled devices View environment. It is a Windows integrated design environment (IDE) containing all the tools and editors (based on the different IEC 61131 languages) that users need during the entire life cycle of the machine

The KAS Runtime is the engine that provides a soft PLC and a motion controller

Kollmorgen Visualization Builder is an editor that allows the end-user to control the KAS Runtime

FFLD

Sometimes abbreviated as LSB, the least significant bit is the lowest bit in a series of numbers in binary; the LSB is located at the far right of a string. For example, in the binary number: 10111001, the least significant bit is the far right "1".

Graphical computer applications with an MDI are those whose windows reside under a single parent window (usually with the exception of modal windows), as opposed to all windows being separate from each other (single document interface).

Advantages:

- With MDI, a single menu bar and/or toolbar is shared between all child windows, reducing clutter and increasing efficient use of screen space

- An application's child windows can be hidden/shown/minimized/maximized as a whole

- Features such as "Tile" and "Cascade" can be implemented for the child windows

The Motion Library is the interface between the IEC61131-3 IEC 61131-3 is the third part of the open international standard IEC 61131. The current (second) edition was published in 2003. IEC 61131-3 currently defines five programming languages for programmable control systems It deals with programming languages and defines two graphical and two textual PLC programming language standards logical application and the motion engine. It gives access from IEC61131 IEC standard for Programmable logic controllers (PLCs)-3 to pipe and Pipe Blocks parameters and methods as well as to higher levels of functionalities such a homing, tensioning, dynamic correction, etc.

Sometimes abbreviated as MSB, the most significant bit is the bit position in a binary number having the greatest value

In computer networking, NAT is the process of modifying network address information in datagram (IP) packet headers while in transit across a traffic routing device for the purpose of remapping a given address space into another.

A network interface controller (or card) is a hardware device that handles an interface to a computer network and allows a network-capable device to access that network

NVRAM is the general name used to describe any type of random access memory which does not lose its information when power is turned off. This memory is in contrast to the most common forms of random access memory today, which both require continual power in order to maintain their data. NVRAM is a subgroup of the more general class of non-volatile memory types, the difference being that NVRAM devices offer random access, like hard disks. The best-known form of NVRAM memory today is flash memory

A term that refers to containment-based re-branding, namely where one company uses a component of another company within its product, or sells the product of another company under its own brand. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product

OPC is the original name for an open standard to specify the communication of real-time plant data between control devices from different manufacturers

The PCI specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard

Programmable controller which lets you control multiple EtherCAT slave drives and I/O. Essentially a AKD PDMM without an AKD.

(Also known as Servo Amplifiers or Servo Drive A servo drive is a special electric amplifier used to power electric servo motors. It monitors feedback signals from the motor and continually adjusts for deviation from expected behavior)
A Drive can be programmable, which means it has an open hardware and software architecture to make it ready for nearly all conceivable customer-specific modifications

Programmable drive which lets you control multiple EtherCAT slave drives and I/O

PDO is a type of protocol frame used in some fieldbuses A Fieldbus is an industrial network system for real-time distributed control (e.g. CAN or Profibus). It is a way of connecting instruments in a plant design. A PDO contains one or more object dictionary entries, which define the application data transferred between devices.

EtherCAT uses the same communication mechanisms (PDO and SDO) as CANopen. EtherCAT transfers the process data between the master and slave device cyclically. PDOs have several attributes to define their properties.

• PDOs can be exclusive, meaning that no additional PDOs may be assigned to a device if an exclusive PDO is assigned.
• If the PDO type is fixed (Fixed attribute = 1) then the PDO's content cannot be changed by users.

A PID controller is a generic control-loop feedback mechanism widely used in industrial control systems.

An "error" occurs when an event or a disturbance triggers off a change in the process variable.

A PID controller attempts to correct the error between a measured process variable and a desired setpoint Setpoint is the target value that an automatic control system, for example PID controller, will aim to reach by calculating and then outputting a corrective action that can adjust the process accordingly

A Programmable Logic Controller, PLC, or Programmable Controller is a digital computer used for automation of industrial processes, such as control of machinery on factory assembly lines.
Used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events with the flow of outputs to actuators A mechanical device for moving or controlling a mechanism or system. An actuator typically is a mechanical device which transforms an input signal (usually an electrical signal) into motion and events

The Pipe Network concept is an innovative solution to solve axis synchronization problems.
It is based on Pipe Blocks representing the whole mechanical system by analogy

An application is a list of programs. Programs are executed sequentially within the target cycle according to the order defined by the user and displayed in the Project View

Qwt is a graphics extension to the Qt GUI application framework from Trolltech ASA

RTC is the study of hardware and software systems which are subject to a "real-time constraint" (i.e., operational deadlines from event to system response)

RTOS is a multitasking operating system intended for real-time applications

Servo Drive

Servo Drive

SCADA systems are typically used to perform data collection and control at the supervisory level. Some SCADA systems only monitor without doing control, these systems are still referred to as SCADA systems

The SDO protocol is used to read and write values across fieldbuses . The SDO data is defined by the object dictionary.

EtherCAT uses the same communication mechanisms (PDO and SDO) as CANopen. SDO data is non-cyclic and is applicable for non-deterministic data transfers.

It can be used to program processes that can be split into steps.
The main components of SFC are:
- Steps with associated actions
- Transitions with associated logic conditions
- Directed links between steps and transitions

Usually working on PC-based hardware

A high-level language which is block structured and syntactically resembles Pascal

TDI allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them

This Pipe Block is a source block that frequently serves as a virtual master for a system composed of several pipes. Generally, a trapezoidal motion profile generator is used to generate a flow of values with a first derivative which produces a trapezoidal trajectory

UDFB can be used as a sub-Function Block in another program of the application. It is described using FBD "Function block diagram" A function block diagram describes a function between input variables and output variables. A function is described as a set of elementary blocks, LD "Ladder diagram" Ladder logic is a method of drawing electrical logic schematics. It is now a very popular graphical language for programming Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). It was originally invented to describe logic made from relays. The name is based on the observation that programs in this language resemble ladders, with two vertical "rails" and a series of horizontal "rungs" between them, ST "Structured text" A high-level language that is block structured and syntactically resembles Pascal or IL "Instruction list" This is a low-level language and resembles assembly language. Input/output parameters of a UDFB (as well as private variables) are declared in the variable editor as local variables of the UDFB

UDP is a network protocol used for the Internet. This protocol assumes that the Internet Protocol (IP) is used as the underlying protocol. This protocol provides a procedure for application programs to send messages to other programs with a minimum of protocol mechanism. The protocol is transaction oriented, and delivery and duplicate protection are not guaranteed.

USB is a serial bus standard to interface devices

UTF-8 is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode. It is able to represent any character in the Unicode standard, yet the initial encoding of byte codes and character assignments for UTF-8 is backward-compatible with ASCII

A coordinate value or length expressed in user units represents a coordinate value or length in the current user coordinate system. Thus, 10 user units represent a length of 10 units in the current user coordinate system.

XML is a general-purpose markup language. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own tags

Operating system supported by Blackfin microprocessors

A VLAN is a group of hosts with a common set of requirements that communicate as if they were attached to the Broadcast domain, regardless of their physical location. A VLAN has the same attributes as a physical LAN, but it allows for end stations to be grouped together even if they are not located on the same network switch. Network reconfiguration can be performed using software instead of physically relocating devices

XPe is a componentized version of the Professional edition of Windows XP. An original equipment manufacturer is free to choose only the components needed, thereby reducing operating system footprint and also reducing attack area as compared with XP Professional. Unlike Windows CE, Microsoft's operating system for portable devices and consumer electronics, XP Embedded provides the full Windows API, and support for the full range of applications and device drivers written for Microsoft Windows. The system requirements state that XPe can run on devices with at least 32MB Compact Flash, 32MB RAM and a P-200 microprocessor