After almost 25 years since the introduction of the first general purpose, programmable motion controller, many of the major trends for controllers remain the same. How will new controllers use advances in microprocessor technology and software? What can be done to simplify the integration of controllers, drives, motors, I/O, HMIs and factory data needs to deliver more potent automation control?
The answer is integrated solutions from both a hardware and software standpoint that combine motion, I/O, HMI and factory networking. The focus is on smaller footprint controllers, ways to both eliminate wiring and closely couple drives to the control package and programmable automation control that includes high-performance motion control.
Integrated Solutions
“There are continuing gains in processing power that is resulting in motion and logic tasks converging onto a single platform,” says Joe Biondo, strategic marketing manager for Bosch-Rexroth Corp. “More processing power means you can handle more tasks in a single controller than ever before.”
According to Biondo, the trends are toward integrated solutions, programmable automation controllers and integrated software tools where users can program the motion, logic and HMI using one package and target multiple control platforms.
For Galil Motion Control's first motion controller back in 1983, the company used a Motorola 6801 8-bit microprocessor to control one axis of motion. Since then, the company has had a new motion control family every five years that uses newer generation microprocessor technology.
The newest Galil controller uses the extra speed along with clock multipliers, cache for fast memory access and pipelining for executing one instruction while another is loading. These features have boosted the performance of the motion control system and provide servo updates as low as 31 µsec per axis, or four times faster than the prior generation of products.
Changing System Approach
Biondo says the next generations of controller products will use performance increases to place more tasks, onto one processor. “Because of cost pressure, you are going to see more and more consolidation onto single processor-type solutions,” he says. “The winners in this game will be those who can integrate the most processing power onto one processor and make it work.”
The combination of networked drives which use high-speed communications to exchange data and product designs where the controls are built into the drive package itself are increasing the integration between controllers and drives. Other products are blurring the line between controllers and drives by combining these functions into a single piece of hardware. But the bottom line is increasingly sophisticated controllers that can integrate more functions and provide a better level of automation control than ever before.
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 New controllers are using an increase in processing power to integrate functions for motion and machine control. |
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