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Automation &
Robotics
There's never been a more exciting time or better opportunities in the field of automation &
robotics than now! Both hardware and software are becoming more
sophisticated as well as more affordable for the hobbyist, student
engineer, and industry professional. Whether you want to start
learning the basic fundamentals as a hobbyist or the latest
industrial advances as a professional we hope you'll find both
valuable information and encouragement here.
An
automated machine can be considered robotic and a robot can be
considered an automated machine. Therefore we'll treat the two as a
single topic, with the main system categories being listed below.
Please explore these, and visit our
discussion forum or
WorkbenchFun site
if you have any questions, experiences, or projects that you'd like to share with others.
Carnegie Mellon develops robotic device to help mend broken hearts (video page)
Supervisory Control & Data
Acquisition (SCADA):
This
is the most essential part of any autonomous system. Its
purpose is to emulate the function of the human brain as
much as the system requires, and technology and specific resources allow. It
can be as simple as relay or transistor logic, or as
sophisticated as a supercomputer. The most common
systems utilize either dedicated PLC (programmable logic
controller) hardware with proprietary programming
software, or commodity PC type hardware with some type
of programmable SCADA software package. The latter
generally offers more capability, and allows the system
to combine with open technology standards and interface with other
information systems. It also requires additional I/O (input/output)
hardware, however, to receive sensory signals and send
out controlling signals.
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Input / Output (I/O)
Input / Output is
the channel of communication through which the
Supervisory Control sends and receives signals for
sensory, motion, and other associated system devices.
There are many choices for this. Earlier systems, and
many still designed today, use dedicated signal cables
in which a paired cable is connected between each device
and the Controller. There has been a trend, however, in
which system devices use "smart" technology to
communicate over a common bus. On-board circuits convert
the device signal to an addressed, digital signal that
can be transmitted over this bus to and from the
Controller using a communication protocol such as TCP/IP. The bus hardware can consist of Ethernet
cabling, Fieldbus cabling,
fiber optic cabling, or even wireless transmitters and
receivers. There are benefits and drawbacks for each of
these, and the environment, number of devices,
distances, and communication bandwidth must all be taken
into consideration.
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Vision &
Sensory Input:
An automation system cannot
operate effectively unless it's "aware" of its
environment at some level. The limitations of our
current technology do not allow anything like the
awareness of human consciousness, however there are
still many ways that a machine can sense its operating
environment the way we sense ours. Devices ranging from
simple on/off limit switches to sophisticated CCD camera
"eyes" can feed adequate input into the supervisory
control for the system to perform all of its tasks
properly.
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Motion Control:
Without motion a robot is
just a statue, so motion control obviously plays a
critical role. We don't have any super-materials yet
that can apply force with the dexterity of living muscle
tissue, but there are many effective ways to get the
work done that we need. Servomotors, linear actuators,
and pneumatic and hydraulic cylinders are the most
common.
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Human/Machine Interface (HMI):
The purpose of all
machines and robots is to serve us. If that ever
reverses then we will have screwed up pretty badly! :-)
The way we give instructions and collect valuable data
from our mechanical servants is through an HMI or
human/machine interface. In the future this may be
verbal communication - the same way we talk to each
other - but speech recognition technology is still
simple and too unreliable for important applications.
For the most critical tasks, such as manufacturing or
medical, it's still best to communicate instructions in
an explicit way through a workstation keyboard or
touch-screen display. This eliminates the need for
complex interpretation and the room for error that comes
with that.
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Having fun with programming, automation, & robotics:
 If
you've got a PC you already have what you need to to get started
learning about automation and robotics. Companies such as National
Instruments, Microsoft, and AutomationDirect make free demonstration software available
that you can download and start using right away to learn the
programming and operation techniques of these systems. This is a
great way to get the feel of doing the real thing!
National
Instruments LabVIEW Toolkit for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT - Allows
you to download and use the academic version of National
Instruments' LabVIEW programming software package and ad-on toolkit
to program the LEGO MINDSTORMS robot.
Microsoft Robotics
Studio - Allows you to download Microsoft's Robotics
Studio development platform. This package is licensed for
non-commercial use at no charge.
AutomationDirect
Free Software and Demonstrations - A listing of free and
downloadable software to practice and learn Programmable Logic
Controller (PLC) and Human Machine Interface (HMI) programming. They
also have an excellent selection of free
online educational
videos on different segments of industrial automation.
 What's FPGA?
When you need a system that can operate with lightning fast speed an
FPGA chip can offer an excellent solution. It also allows you to
produce a one-of-a-kind custom device that will do exactly what you
want. An FPGA (field programmable gate array) device is a chip
containing up to millions of logic and memory units connected in an
array which can be electrically programmed to perform a user's
defined task. Although they operate somewhat slower than an
application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), they are typically
much faster than a microprocessor running software code to do a
particular job. They can also be "re-programmed" or reconfigured as
the need changes, or to correct system bugs. Here are some excellent
sites to learn more:
educational online demo videos by Xilinx
fpga4fun - an excellent learning site for both the hobbyist & pro* under development * |
