There is described systems and methods for programming and configuring part-processing devices and production stations. Methods of programming the control system of a part-processing device for controlling one or more tooling components, sensors and/or motion systems includes the step of loading a software backplane onto the control system, the software backplane being configured to run on an operating system of the control system and to interface with one or more configurable applications. The method also comprises the step of loading one or more configurable applications associated with the one or more tooling components onto the control system, the one or more applications being configured to interface with the software backplane. The method also comprises the step of configuring the one or more configurable applications to control the one or more tooling components, sensors and/or motion systems pf the part-processing device.

A method for predicting a remaining life of a tool of a computer numerical control machine is provided. In the method, indirect measurement indicators of the tool are selected based on monitoring and analyzing a current state of the tool, a prediction model for the remaining life of the tool is established based on data de-noising, feature extraction and a multi-kernel W-LSSVM algorithm. Thereby, a method for predicting a remaining life of a tool of a computer numerical control machine is provided.

To enable acquisition of operation information of CNC corresponding to periodic operation of PLC, even when the CNC is unable to respond due to the timing of machining, the loading status, etc. The PLC device includes: a special instruction control unit that sets, to a special instruction for acquiring operation information indicating an operation state of a control device from the control device controlling an industrial machine, a cyclic time for causing the control device to periodically acquire and retain the operation information in a case in which the control device is unable to respond, and transmits to the control device the special instruction in which the cyclic time is set; and an acquisition unit that acquires the operation information acquired on the basis of the cyclic time from the control device.

A manufacturing system (20) comprises: one or more stores (84; 80A-80C; 92) for raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), and finished goods; a plurality of manufacturing cells (40A 40F), each cell includes: one or more machines (42A-42C) for manufacturing an assembly; and a programmable logic controller (PLC) (44) for controlling the machines; one or more devices (60, 70) for moving raw material, WIP, and finished goods; and one or more servers (32) for communicating with the PLCs and the devices. The one or more servers further have programming for: instructing (642) the plurality of manufacturing cells to assemble finished goods from the raw materials; instructing (628, 632) the one or more devices to move said raw materials and finished goods; and just in sequence (JIS) skipped assembly recovery steps (730) for the manufacturing cells and devices.

A method for predicting a remaining life of a tool of a computer numerical control machine is provided. In the method, indirect measurement indicators of the tool are selected based on monitoring and analyzing a current state of the tool, a prediction model for the remaining life of the tool is established based on data de-noising, feature extraction and a multi-kernel W-LSSVM algorithm. Thereby, a method for predicting a remaining life of a tool of a computer numerical control machine is provided.

A multi-type industrial robot control system may include: an automation controller; and a programmable logic controller (PLC)-robot bridge. The controller stores a general-purpose robot control function block generated using a unified design standard, calls a corresponding robot control function block for a robot and using robot state data and puts out corresponding first command data to the PLC-robot bridge. The PLC-robot bridge virtualizes robot interfaces of corresponding offline programming functions of different types of robot as a unified virtual interface, calls a corresponding offline programming function via the unified virtual interface according to the first command data, and generates second command data for output to a corresponding robot controller. The corresponding robot controller controls a corresponding robot. At the same time, robot state data from a corresponding type of robot is received via the unified virtual interface and the robot state data is fed back to the automation controller.

A control system includes a programmable logic control section controlling operation of a machine and a numerical control section controlling relative motion between a tool of the machine and a work piece. A method, performed in the control system, includes: evaluating an input signal, received by the programmable logic control section, in relation to a first condition, wherein the input signal includes information about a state of the tool or of a subtractive process performed via interaction of the tool and the work piece; and in response to the input signal satisfying the first condition, providing the information to the numerical control section. The state may for example be tool breakage, tool wear or wrong cutting data. An operator of the machine may for example specify via programs in the numerical control section how the machine is to respond to such states.

The present invention relates to the technical field of industrial automation, and in particular to a method and system for quick customized-design of an intelligent workshop. The method comprises the following steps: step A: acquiring design requirement information of a production line, and performing modeling in a simulation system according to the design requirement information; step B: performing action planning of a physical stand-alone device, performing logistics and motion planning of articles being processed, and compiling motion and action control scripts; step C: establishing, by the digital twin technology, a communication channel among a PLC system of the workshop digitization model, a PLC system of a physical workshop device and a host computer; and, step D: outputting a three-dimensional digital twin model as a blueprint for follow-up design and development of the stand-alone device, a control system and an execution system.

To enable acquisition of operation information of CNC corresponding to periodic operation of PLC, even when the CNC is unable to respond due to the timing of machining, the loading status, etc. The PLC device includes: a special instruction control unit that sets, to a special instruction for acquiring operation information indicating an operation state of a control device from the control device controlling an industrial machine, a cyclic time for causing the control device to periodically acquire and retain the operation information in a case in which the control device is unable to respond, and transmits to the control device the special instruction in which the cyclic time is set; and an acquisition unit that acquires the operation information acquired on the basis of the cyclic time from the control device.

An information processing apparatus includes a first emulator that estimates a behavior of a device for driving a first control target that moves on a first target trajectory and a second emulator that estimates a behavior of a device for driving a second control target that moves on a second target trajectory. A visualization module generates drawing data for visualizing and drawing movement of the first control target and movement of the second control target in a three-dimensional virtual space by using a first command value and a second command value. The first and second emulators calculate the first command value and the second command value that control first and second driving devices in each control cycle according to a calculation command respectively. The calculation command instructs to calculate the command value for setting a movement amount in each control cycle variable.