Understanding Motion Control

[lame153]

Hey guys, I am a beginner in industry. And I am doing a little research on PLCs and Motion control etc… I am the type who likes to use analogy to better understand concepts. There’s a project where I will have to use a delta robot to which I want to continuously send a list of coordinates (from a python program) for objects to be picked (example: [{1,2},{2,2.5},{3,3.4}] is a list of x,y coordinates). The list is gonna be sent via some kind of communication. But once the list arrives to the motion control, the latter is gonna control the delta robot’s every movement to pick up the object.

The analogy (which I would like you to correct if wrong) is that PLC and motion control are two different hardwares that can control a system. But PLC differs from motion control the same way a digital pin differs from an analog pin on an arduino board. PLC is for boolean stuff (on/off) while MotionControl is for analog stuff (servo angle). As for both hardwares, they can be programmed using ladder language on the Codesys IDE (the equibalent of python language on the vscode IDE)

Am I thinking right so far?

[Francesco_Begnoni · Accepted solution]

Hi @lame153 ,
Basically, what you wrote is correct. I would add that in Schneider Electric PLCs and controllers, which are based on Codesys, you can use both ladder programming and structured text programming. This allows you to develop a single program that can execute both logic and motion.
You can use various types of Ethernet-based communication. What you want to do is possible, to send a list of coordinates with a Python script directly to the PLC/controller via a TCP socket.
There are many libraries available that allow you to easily perform motion/robotics operations.
If you haven't already, you can consult Schneider's online help to get an idea -> Machine Expert > V2.2

Regards

[HKTAI]

I also need this controller and Python libs. Which Schneider controller and lib can be used to meet this requirement? @Francesco_Begnoni @lame153 

[Francesco_Begnoni]

Hello @HKTAI 
At this page you have an overview of which controllers can use the TcpUdpCommunication library:
Libraries Overview

Machine Expert has an example to create a TCP server: TCP & UDP Communication Example

You can use the following python script to connect to the controller and send a simple string:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import socket

TCP_IP = '192.168.178.231'
TCP_PORT = 35274
BUFFER_SIZE = 1024
MESSAGE = "AAAABBBB"

# Create socket TCP
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)

try:
    s.connect((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT))
    print('Connected to server')

    # Send MESSAGE
    s.send(MESSAGE.encode())  


except Exception as e:
    print("Error:", e)

finally:
    s.close()
    print('Connection closed')
 

In the Visualization VisuStart provided in the Machine Expert project, you can execute the TCP server and wait the connection from the python script.

Regards