With the introduction of openROBOTICS, partners COMAU and B&R are opening up new dimensions of robotics integration for machinery and production lines. The solution is based on a full lineup of COMAU robots that handle payloads ranging from 3 to 650 kilograms.

“With completely uniform programming for every component in the line – including the robotics – our customers around the world gain the full benefit of holistic approaches to operation, diagnostics and maintenance,” says Tobias Daniel, head of sales and marketing at COMAU Robotics. “You won’t find another solution like this on the market.” Traditionally, robotics and machinery have always relied on separate controllers or gateways.

Perfectly synchronized

COMAU robots all over the world can now be completely and seamlessly integrated into machines and production lines equipped with B&R automation components. “The customer simply selects the desired COMAU robot in the Automation Studio engineering environment,” explains Walter Burgstaller, B&R’s European sales director. “With mapp technology, the robot can then be effortlessly incorporated in – and perfectly synchronized with – the machine’s automation software. Conventional solutions with cumbersome interfaces will never achieve this kind of usability and performance.”

B&R software awarded PLCopen certification for Coordinated Motion.

B&R’s Automation Studio development platform now makes programming and configuring multi-axis systems easier than ever before. This is made possible with the addition of PLCopen-certified Coordinated Motion function blocks to the proven Generic Motion Control approach. B&R has constantly been adding to its portfolio of certified PLCopen blocks since 2004.

“Standardization paves the way to the future,” stated Eelco van der Wal, managing director of the PLCopen Foundation, as he awarded the certificate of compliance at the SPS IPC Drives trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany. “Modular and individual machine concepts can only become reality when it is possible to easily swap out components from different manufacturers.”

Vendor-independent

PLCopen Motion Control Part 4 – Coordinated Motion specifications encompass predefined function blocks and machine state descriptions that make it possible to control any multi-axis system with a standardized interface. “What these PLCopen blocks have done is made it just as easy to configure any type of robot – regardless of its kinematic structure – as it is to set up single axes,” explains Gernot Bachler, technical manager of Motion at B&R. Identical command execution is guaranteed by the use of standardized interfaces. “Not a single line of code needs to be changed.”