PLC becomes robot controller

Robot programming

Quelle: Stäubli Tec-Systems | Inka Krischke, 06.07.2018

PLC becomes robot controller

With the 'Unival drive' real-time interface, machine manufacturers have been able to easily integrate robots into their own motion controllers for some time now.

Real-time interface Unival drive from Stäubli Tec-Systems

With Unival plc, an interface to all common PLCs from suppliers such as Siemens, Beckhoff, Schneider or Rockwell as well as to PC-based systems, for example via Codesys from 3S, is now available for every robot model from the supplier. The robots are programmed via function blocks in the PLC. The actual path planning is still carried out by the Stäubli controller. The safety functions of the supplier's CS9 controller also remain active. The safety functions run on an additional CPU, which monitors the path planning of the regular CPU and only regulates it if certain parameters require intervention. Communication between the PLC and robot controller takes place via a standard fieldbus, such as Ethercat, Profinet and Ethernet IP. The PLC programmer has access to the robot's position data at all times, and a watchdog monitors the connection to stop the program immediately in the event of a connection error. It is also possible to control several robots via the PLC.

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