PLCopen®

Kollmorgen Automation Suite supports the International PLCopen® motion standard.

• The PLCopen A vendor -and product- independent worldwide association active in Industrial Control and aiming at standardizing PLC file formats based on XML international standard was created to obtain uniformity of motion function blocks and motion startup between machine control products.
• Users familiar with PLCopen are automatically familiar with PLCopen inside 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.
• The PLCopen function blocks for Motion Control Motion control is a sub-field of automation, in which the position and/or velocity of machines are controlled using some type of device such as a hydraulic pump, linear actuator, or an electric motor, generally a servo. Motion control is an important part of robotics and CNC machine tools; however, it is more complex than in the use of specialized machines, where the kinematics is usually simpler. The latter is often called General Motion Control (GMC). Motion control is widely used in the packaging, printing, textile and assembly industries, is based on the 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 61131-3 Function Blocks concept with these factors in consideration:
  • Completeness
  • Consistency - conforming to the IEC 61131-3 standard
  • Efficiency - in the number of function blocks, for efficiency in design (and understanding)
  • Flexibility - future extensions / range of applications
  • Simplicity - ease of use for the application program builder and installation & maintenance
  • Universality - hardware independent

KAS supports PLCopen motion in these program formats: 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, FFLD "Free Form Ladder Diagram", IL "Instruction List" This is a low-level language and resembles assembly, SFC "Sequential Function Chart" 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, and ST "Structured text" A high-level language that is block structured and syntactically resembles Pascal.

• PLCopen blocks in KAS start with MC (e.g., MC_MoveAbsolute).
  • MC blocks are an alternative to using the ML Motion function blocks (e.g., MLAxisAbs) and associated Pipe Networks in many applications.
• Using MC Motion function blocks does not require a separate motion editor.

See Also