Basic PLC Program

Input signal from Input device will entrance to PLC by Input module. After that PLC will process Input signal with Processor memory. Then PLC will transfer Output signal to Output device by Output module.

Basic componant of PLC Programs .

1. CPU ( Central Processor Module )
Process software application in ROM/RAM. Some application depend on Brand or Type.

2. Memory Unit
- ROM : Storage functions of the PLC Programs, Have battery to back up.
- RAM : Can be divided into EPROM, which will require special equipment to write and delete
3. I/O Unit
- Digital input module : Receive digital signal from Input device. ( 24VDC/VAC, 110V, 220V )
- Digital output module : Send digital signal to Output device. ( 24VDC/VAC, 110V, 220V )
- Analog input modle : Receive analog signal from Input device. ( 0-10VDC, 4-20Ma )
- Analog output module : Send analog signal to Output device. ( 0-10VDC, 4-20Ma )

4. Power supply
To supply electricity to PLC Program device.

5. Base module
To connect all PLC Programs device.

Industrial Automation News

Advanced Robotics to Revolutionize the Manufacturing Industry

NEW YORK -- As industrial robots become smarter, faster, more affordable, and develop advanced capabilities such as sensing, dexterity, memory and trainability, industrial manufacturers across industries are looking to advanced robotics to gain a competitive business advantage, according to a report released today by PwC US in conjunction with The Manufacturing Institute. Based on a survey of 120 industrial manufacturers, The new hire: How a new generation of robots is transforming manufacturing found that while 59 percent of companies are currently using some form of robotics technology, barriers to adoption still exist due to limitations such as cost, the lack of perceived need, and access to expertise and skills.

According to PwC's report, there are currently over 1.5 million robots working in factories across the globe, with an estimated 180,000 in the U.S. alone. That number is only expected to increase with the global industrial robot market estimated to reach $41 billion by 2020.

"The past several years have recorded a sharp resurgence in orders of industrial robots and this wider adoption comes at a time when manufacturers – both big and small – are trying to squeeze greater productivity from their workforce and respond quickly to customer preferences and expectations," said Bob McCutcheon, PwC's U.S. industrial products leader. "The manufacturing industry is primed for a more advanced integration of robotics and the speed of adoption continues to increase with every dollar invested in these new technologies. At PwC, we see this as the ongoing progression toward the 'factory of the future,' as disruptive technologies such as 3D printing and robotics have the ability to significantly improve efficiency, quality and operations."

A flurry of investor activity has accompanied the rise in adoption of robots, particularly through venture capital investments. According to PwC, investments by U.S. venture capital firms in robotics technology companies rose to about $172 million in 2013, nearly tripling 2011 levels, providing a window into what the investment community believes will be a promising and profitable sector. It also indicates that the robotics industry could see an accelerated development as these venture capital-backed companies grow.

"The rise of robots is primarily attributed to large companies as they have the risk capital to deploy in robotics technology. Larger companies along with the venture community will accelerate adoption and drive down prices making robotics scalable for every size enterprise," continued McCutcheon.

Reshoring

The role of robotics in a company's changing or expanding operational footprint could be significant as manufacturers rethink the viability and attractiveness of offshoring. PwC's report found that automation technology makes it easier for manufacturers to be closer to their customers and perform better for that local consumer, potentially leading to greater reshoring of manufacturing activity to the U.S. market. Machine-to-machine knowledge sharing allows companies to switch production from one locale to another, or from production of one product to another without considerable investments in talent, training, set-up time and related costs. It may also help bring manufacturing back to the U.S. as businesses that deploy robotics look to skilled workforces to oversee these advanced manufacturers.

Talent Development

As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve with automation technologies gaining a larger presence in production facilities, distribution centers and through supply chains, manufacturers need to manage the benefits but also prepare for the implications of displacing human workers. According to PwC's report, 27 percent of respondents believe the biggest impact of robots on the U.S. manufacturing workforce in the next three to five years will be the replacement of workers.

Conversely, a greater robotic workforce could potentially drive a need for more human talent to train and repair that growing workforce and develop the burgeoning technology. Thirty-five percent of respondents to PwC's survey reported the biggest impact robots will have on the manufacturing workforce is that they will lead to new job opportunities to engineer advanced robots and robotic operating systems, followed by 26 percent who believe it will lead to more demand for talent to manage the robotic workplace.

"As companies continue to embrace robotics and other types of automation and become more data-driven, their success will largely hinge on shaping and building a workforce that can better leverage such technological advances. To do that, manufacturers are feeling a growing need to pull from a wider and deeper pool of talent," said Gardner Carrick, Vice President, The Manufacturing Institute.

Barriers to Wider Adoption

Despite strong momentum surrounding the development and adoption of robotic technology, there is still some resistance to its use, holding back widespread adoption. Of those surveyed who do not currently use advanced robotics technology, 27 percent listed the lack of perceived need as the biggest limitation for not adopting robotics in the next three to five years, followed by cost (26 percent) and insufficient resources and expertise (14 percent).

The new hire: How a new generation of robots is transforming manufacturing is the second segment in a three-part series of reports by PwC and The Manufacturing Institute on disruptive technology in the manufacturing industry. The first of the series: 3-D printing and the new shape of industrial manufacturing outlines the opportunities and disruptions presented by 3D printing.

Source:-http://www.sensorsmag.com/news/market-news/news/advanced-robotics-revolutionize-manufacturing-industry-15832

FANUC Announces New EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety Function with CIP Safety for Series 3xi-B CNCs

FANUC America Corporation, the leader in CNCs and robots in the Americas, announces CIP Safety functionality with the new EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety function for the FANUC Series 3xi-B CNCs that enables safety communication with Rockwell Automation controller (Logix PAC) systems at Automation Fair 2014, Booth #151.

The new EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety function with CIP Safety is an enhancement to the current dual check safety function.  The EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety function makes it possible to handle safety signals on the EtherNet/IP Adapter function, transferring safety signals between a master safety controller and CNC. It communicates digital input/output signals across Ethernet with high reliability to further simplify the hardware and connections needed. 

Dual check safety on the FANUC Series 3xi-B CNC supports an integrated safety function over a single cable.  Using built–in redundancy, a special processor monitors safety-related parameters and guarantees the integrity and safety of the system by tracking the actual position and speed of the servomotors, spindle motors and I/O interfaces. 

Using the CIP Safety functionality of the new EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety function with dual check safety, the sending side device cross-checks the safety signals, adds the inspection data, and then transmits both data sets to the receiving side device. The receiving side device ensures integrity and safety by confirming the inspection data and cross-checking the safety signals.

The initial release of EtherNet/IP connectivity allowed for open interconnectivity of FANUC CNCs to factory automation solutions.  The use of EtherNet/IP network architecture allows customers to leverage common tools and technology for device configuration and maintenance across CNC, robot and Logix PAC cell environments.  Benefits of this include: a simplified, lower cost architecture, improved productivity and actionable information across the entire manufacturing enterprise. 

With CIP Safety functionality in the new release of EtherNet/IP Adapter Safety function, end-users and machine tool builders will additionally benefit from the added integrated safety communication between CNC and Logix PAC control environments as well as further simplification of the hardware and connections.  

This new function was specifically designed to communicate between a safety controller and CNC with safety signals for automotive transfer lines. The FANUC and Rockwell Automation integrated automotive architecture, demonstrated at Automation Fair 2014, Booth #151, will show the complete benefits to customers including; simplified architectures, faster startups, improved synchronization between platforms, lower maintenance, integrated safety signal communication, improved productivity and transparent data access across the entire connected manufacturing enterprise. 

Embedded systems design in Brazil is booming

A new freely available report on Brazilian embedded systems design activity in that country has just been completed and published by Embarcados (Embedded in Portugese).


The report is based on a survey of about 900 Brazilian software developers and engineers between July 25 and August 14 of this year. Of these 67.4 percent were engineers and technicians, and 14.2 percent were in informatics and telecom. Almost 40 percent were working engineers and technicians at electronics companies in Brazil.

Interestingly, the survey provides further evidence of the active state of Brazilian engineering design. (Brazilian authors have been active since as far back as 2000 in publishing design articles and technical papers in a variety of international venues.)

According to the survey about 53 percent of those who participated were between the ages of 30 and 50. And reflecting the increased interest in the wireless sensor and Internet of Things segments of the market recently, 47 percent of the respondents were between 18 and 30 years of age.

About 25 percent of the respondents had more than ten years of experience in embedded systems design and 37 percent had between three to ten years of experience.

About 70 percent were involved in firmware/software development, about 60 percent in various hardware/software integration and codevelopment.

Industrial control design applications constituted about 40 percent of their design activity , 28 percent in consumer electronics and almost 20 percent in Internet of Things and wireless sensor design activity.

About 55 percent of the Brazilian engineers activities were involved in projects that included WiFi interfaces, about 33 percent Zigbee, and about 7 percent in 6LoWPAN design activities.
About 71 percent of their current embedded projects were developed using the C language, and about 15 percent used C++.

The survey bears out what regular visitors and readers of design contributions on Embedded.com have probably figured out. As the seventh largest economy in the world, its design activity in almost every important segment of embedded system design is active and growing. A few of some recent articles made available on Embedded.com by Brazilian developers include.

Sofcon  Provide Embedded Training in Noida and Embedded Training in Delhi.

Embedded Vision Growth Predicted | Embedded Training at Sofcon

Shipments of embedded vision devices in the automotive, industrial automation, physical security and business intelligence markets are forecast to exceed 14 million units in 2018, up from almost four million units this year.

Utilizing a combination of embedded systems and computer vision, embedded vision enables devices to use video inputs to better understand their environment, applying logic and decision making to video signals.

The maturity of embedded vision algorithms varies by application market. For instance, while embedded vision technology has been active for some time in markets like physical security and industrial automation, the consumer industry represents more of an emerging opportunity.

However, despite the synergies in algorithm requirements across application markets, there are very few vendors that are active across multiple applications. In some markets, like automotive, the long sales cycles and high qualifying requirements have limited new competition. In others, such as physical security, the fragmented equipment market means that algorithms need to be optimized for a large number of products which can act as a barrier to new entrants.

While the software and hardware vendors in embedded vision are unlikely to move into every application market overnight, developments in the automotive space, in particular, should help spur more accurate and reliable algorithms across the embedded vision industry. This trend, combined with increased awareness in the consumer market for augmented reality and gesture recognition, means that demand for embedded vision devices will grow rapidly in the decade ahead.

IHS Technology has research teams focused on automotive, industrial automation, physical security, gaming, digital signage and cellular communications. Bringing together these industry experts, in turn, has helped provide for the first time a substantive overview of the size, penetration rate and forecast growth of the embedded vision market.

Automation Industrial News Mitsubishi Electric Opens Training Center in Massachusetts

April 10, 2014 - Mitsubishi Electric Automation opened a Certified Training Center at Gibson Engineering in Norwood, Mass. The training center gives customers in the Northeastern U.S. more convenient access to the same quality training, hardware and material that was previously available to them only at Mitsubishi Electric Automation headquarters near Chicago, Ill.

“The opening of this new training center will make it much more efficient for our customers in the Northeast to get the training they need,” said Mark Werthman, director, technical support group, Mitsubishi Electric Automation. “We have a high concentration of customers in that area of the U.S., so we’re pleased to be able to offer them a more localized training facility.”

Werthman explained that the new training facility is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to provide superior automation technology and support to its customers. “We not only want to provide the most technologically advanced automation products and solutions. It’s also important that plant managers, engineering managers and others who operate our equipment be able to effectively implement and maintain it in order to help their organizations maximize productivity and stay competitive,” he added.

Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc.
Headquartered in Vernon Hills, Ill., Mitsubishi Electric Automation, Inc., offers a wide range of factory automation products, solutions, training and support services for the industrial and commercial sectors.  A U.S. affiliate company of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Automation represents more than 75 years’ experience in the automation industry. A broad product portfolio includes programmable automation controllers (PAC), programmable logic controllers (PLC), human machine interfaces (HMI), variable frequency drives (VFD), servo amplifiers and motors, control software, computerized numerical control (CNC), circuit breakers, robots and motion controllers. The company takes its motion control solutions on the road with the 53-foot long Solutions in Motion mobile showroom that appears at tradeshows, training seminars and other events across North America.

In addition to factory automation, Mitsubishi Electric US group companies’ principal businesses include semiconductor devices, automotive electrical components, elevators and escalators, heating and cooling products, solar modules, electric utility products, and large-scale video displays for stadiums and arenas. There are 50 locations throughout North America with approximately 3,600 employees.

Source:-http://www.automation.com/automation-news/training/mitsubishi-electric-opens-training-center-in-massachusetts

Software Solution Access to any HMI, Anywhere at Any Time

Invensys has released its Wonderware InTouch Access Anywhere software solution which is said to enable users to access plant-floor data via Wonderware InTouch software.

The solution runs securely inside a web browser so users can connect to other InTouch applications at anytime from anywhere, using any mobile device. Because users are not required to install any software on their mobile device, the offering is easy to deploy, manage and maintain.

Commenting on the offering, Craig Resnick, vice president, ARC Advisory Group, said: “This new offering complements Invensys’ broader mobile strategy to provide and improve real-time visualization, collaboration and execution at multiple levels of an organization. Along with delivering mobile solutions for reporting, decision-support, dashboards, workflow and workforce execution, this new offering also brings HMI visualisation capabilities to mobile devices. 

These capabilities extend the company’s operations management software portfolio by providing plant operators and other key individuals with modern process optimisation tools, regardless of their location or the task being performed, and in real time.”

InTouch Access Anywhere software is the newest capability in the Invensys suite of mobility solutions, which now includes workflow, reporting, analytics, visualisation, maintenance management, operator training, data gathering and procedure management. 

Source:-
http://www.controlengeurope.com/article/60656/Software-solution-access-to-any-HMI--anywhere-at-any-time.aspx