SUPPLEMENT FEATURE PLCS & INDUSTRIAL PCS reACTION Technology
With reACTION technology, B&R is able to reduce response times in industrial automation applications down to 1µs. This approach allows time critical sub-processes to be managed using standard hardware - all within IEC 61131 requirements - while cutting costs by reducing the load on the controller. The result is an increase in performance without added costs
I
n many applications, control speed has a direct impact on product quality.
When forming PET bottles for example, pressure must be controlled very precisely. The greater the control precision, the thinner you can make the wall of the bottle. Other examples include the high precision speed and position control required in injection moulding applications, and the printing industry where high speed control functions are essential. In fact, the list of applications that could potentially benefit from ultrafast response times is virtually endless. Conventional I/O technology operates
with a minimum response time of around 1ms. Unfortunately a millisecond is no longer fast enough for some applications. Response times in a conventional solution are influenced by a number of factors such as network performance, or the number of nodes on the network - as well as network traffic and controller performance. With conventional signal processing, the input driver in an I/O module reads the input signal and converts it into a logic signal. This signal is then sent over the network to the central PLC, where it is processed before sending it back to the module. The output driver once again converts it and sends it to where it is needed. With this approach, there is no way to achieve response times much below the millisecond range. “When we developed reACTION Technology, our goal was to accelerate signal processing by integrating as much of it as possible directly into the I/O modules themselves,” explained Anton Meindl, manager of B&R’s Controls division “At the same time, we wanted to do so without sacrificing the benefits of centralised software management.” This new B&R solution cuts the delay
between the time the input signal is received and the time the control signal is sent down to 1μs. The technology itself is based on I/O modules with integrated FPGA chips. “We used FPGA chips because of their ability to process signals quickly in parallel,” explained Meindl. With around ten connected function blocks, the processing time in the FPGA is around 0.8μs.
S6 NOVEMBER 2014 | PLCS & INDUSTRIAL PCS
FPGAS One challenge B&R’s developers faced was the difficulty typically associated with programming FPGAs. “We found a very good solution to this problem,” said Meindl. Machine builders can now manage and program FPGAs in the familiar Automation Studio development environment. They do so by developing programs and parameters in the form of IEC 61131 function blocks - communication between I/O and CPU tasks is handled conventionally through the exchange of process variables. Logical operators like AND, OR, XOR and NOT can be used, as can arithmetic operators such as ADD, SUB, MUL and DIV as well as flip-flops, PWM, comparator functions and counters. The
Left: the new B&R solution cuts the delay between the time the input signal is received and the time the control signal is sent down to 1µ
connections created with function blocks can be tested just like regular control code. Simulation is possible by executing the modules on the controller. If everything works as planned, the software function is then assigned to the respective hardware component in the Automation Studio hardware configuration. “Using the same easy approach to software development that B&R customers are accustomed to, reACTION Technology opens up a whole new dimension of speed,” added Meindl. In the interest of making applications as universal as possible, function blocks can be loaded to the modules at any time for local execution.
Below: reACTION Technology was created to accelerate signal processing by integrating as much of it as possible directly into the I/O modules themselves
RAPID FLEXIBILITY reACTION Technology integrates signal processing directly in the module, taking the system bus and central controller out of the response time equation. “reACTION Technology always offers the same ultrafast performance,” said Meindl. Other solutions on the market either don’t offer the same speed or impose unnecessary restrictions on the machine builder with regard to flexibility and programming. With reACTION technology, the FPGA assumes responsibility for certain control functions and reduces the load on the PLC. “Since reACTION Technology takes on
a significant portion of the processing load, a smaller PLC can be used,” added Meindl. This means that machine builders can achieve microsecond control responses using a controller that operates in the millisecond range. “The user now decides the size of processor to be used based on the average load of the application rather than the peak speeds required by a few specific functions,” Meindl concluded. reACTION Technology is available on both IP20 and IP67 I/O modules, as well as on the new X20 compact controllers available with 200MHz or 400MHz processors.
B&R Industrial Automation
www.br-automation.com T: 01733 371 320
Enter 221 /AUTOMATION
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