High Performance, 32-Axis Motion, Vision, PLC, Robotics,
and I/O Platform
Aerotech’s ground-breaking, motion, vision, PLC, robotics,
and I/O platform, the Automation 3200, is used in many applications
in semi, data storage, medical laser processing, automotive, and
machine tool industries. The system features a high-performance,
software-only controller (Nmotion® SMC) that offers 32 axes
of synchronized motion control. It is the successor to Aerotech’s
performance-leading and widely utilized UNIDEX 500 and 600 PC-based
motion controllers. The Nmotion® SMC retains the best features
of these previous controllers and combines them with an advanced,
high performance distributed control architecture to produce a
truly state-of-the-art motion, vision, PLC, robotics, and I/O
platform.
The Digital Automation Platform: Automation 3200
The Automation 3200 digital automation platform represents a revolutionary
advancement over traditional PC-bus-based motion controllers.
The A3200 is software-based (no PC slots required) and marries
a robust, high performance motion engine with vision, PLC, robotics,
and I/O in one unified programming environment. The A3200 utilizes
the industry standard super high performance FireWire® (IEEE-1394)
network to provide from 1 to 32 axes of synchronized control with
no degradation in performance as the axis count increases.
The integration of multiple common automation tools into a single
platform provides users the ability to integrate, develop, and
maintain the system faster, with lower cost than ever before.
For instance, coupling the vision module with the motion system
that coordinates a cutting process (laser, drill, mill, etc.)
provides the ability to identify the workpiece and its position,
and to adjust the position and signal to the cutter all within
one system. This integration dramatically reduces wiring and the
necessary components, which not only lowers integration and setup
cost but also increases reliability.
Industry-Leading 32 Axes of Synchronized Control
The Automation 3200 is capable of 32 axes of synchronized motion
through one interface. Aerotech has designed the current platform
to be expandable to 62 axes of synchronized control. Applications
developed on the Automation 3200 platform will be portable to
future releases so users can look forward to future advancements
without having to worry about abandoning legacy programs.
No Degradation of Performance as Axis Count Increases
The Automation 3200 addresses a major shortcoming of today’s
multi-axis controllers: as axes are added, performance markedly
degrades as either the servo update time or program execution
time increases. The Automation 3200 utilizes a distributed control
architecture that enables it to maintain performance independent
of the number of axes being controlled. It accomplishes this by
avoiding the processing bottleneck caused by today’s common
single processor control architecture. Position, velocity, and
current loop closure are handled by Aerotech’s Intelligent
Network Drive (Ndrive). Trajectory generation is done on the PC
using a real-time operating system that runs with higher priority
than Windows®. The PC executes programs and sends the position
commands to the Ndrive via the IEEE-1394 (FireWire®) high-speed
serial bus.
Greatly Simplified System Wiring
All of the external signals including encoder and I/O are fed
directly into the drive, allowing one cable to be used between
the PC and the drive. Drives are networked together with a single
cable.
The Advantages of FireWire™ (IEEE-1394)
In designing the Automation 3200, Aerotech decided that its next
generation controller had to overcome the shortcomings of the
traditional ±10 V network interface. While still viable
for many applications, ±10 V has shortcomings, particularly
when complex motion control is involved such as is common in many
Aerotech applications. For example, noise coupling onto the analog
signals can cause instability in the servo loop that prevents
high system bandwidth. Also, with the ±10 V command, the
controller doesn't have knowledge of how well the current loops
are tracking. With these and other shortcomings, it was decided
that the next generation controller had to utilize a high-speed
serial interface.
Digital networks, such as Ethernet and RS-232, are widely used
in many different industries. Other newer networks such as FireWire®
(IEEE-1394) and USB are becoming increasingly popular. For example,
nearly all new computers now have these interfaces as standard.
With a variety of digital networks available, Aerotech developed
a list of criteria that the Automation 3200 network interface
had to possess. The following list details the key criteria we
used to ultimately select FireWire® (IEEE-1394), and why those
criteria were considered important.
• Deterministic
Complex motion such as contouring requires that all axes receive
their data at exactly the same interval of time each time.
• Capable of greater than 100 Mbps
A faster network reduces the latency between transmitting and
receiving data. Also, this allows the user to view real-time data
on the PC.
• Standard on PCs
As the Automation 3200 does not require a motion card, having
the network standard on PCs eliminates the cost of additional
hardware.
• Supported by Windows® operating systems
Windows® support ensures that the software will work on the
PC with the network.
• Have continued R&D effort by the chip manufacturers
A strong R&D effort by manufacturers allows the performance
to increase and cost of the chips to decrease.
• Tree topology
Unlike a ring topology, a tree topology does not require a link
back to the originating PC, which reduces the cabling effort.
• Peer-to-peer transmissions
Peer-to-peer transmissions allow the transfer of data between
two drives without going through the root node. This allows quick
transmission of encoder or I/O or any other type of information
between drives.
The following table shows a comparison between the different networks.
Based on this information, the IEEE-1394 network was chosen by
Aerotech.
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