Creating the Base Project

1. Go to PCDC for Rockwell and download the Version 5 Library of PlantPAx
   1. Note – PlantPAx AOIs and instruction sets are now baked into the firmware of the P controllers from Rockwell and do not require downloading, but the PCDC still allows you to download some ancillary AOIs, configuration utilities, and the application code manager project.
2. Open Application Code Manager (ACM).
3. Create a new test project (File > New > Project)
4. From our Download – we have already installed the PlantPAx library – we will go ahead and open the base project provided from Rockwell by selecting it and clicking Next>>
   1. This is what gives definition to how this project will be created.
   2. Here is where we can select how we would like our control strategies to be implemented.
      1. We are going to use Function Block (FB) diagrams here
5. Give the base project a Name at the top of the Object Configuration Wizard
6. Click Finish

Importing Base PlantPAx Definitions

Now we have our base project created! This is really what is going to give us that backend for generating our .ACD file later as well as our HMI displays.

1. Import some of the base PlantPAx definitions (do that in order)
   1. Add the Historian
      1. System View > Project > Historian > ScanClass > Add
         1. Select the process tab by clicking the + and selecting the item in the line below.
         2. Click Next > Finish
            1. This imports the base definition.
   2. Import the Alarm definition.
      1. System View > Project > HMI > Alarms > Add
         1. Select the process tab by clicking the + and selecting the logical organizer item in one of the lines below.
         2. Click Next > Finish
   3. Import the HMI
      1. System View > Project > HMI > Displays > Add
         1. Select the process tab by clicking the + and selecting the item in the line below.
         2. Click Next > Next > Finish

Additional Definitions

Once all of these are imported, we can go through and set up some additional definitions.

1. Add a Display
   1. System View > Project > HMI > Displays
      1. Click on the project that now shows in as an item below once you click on Displays
      2. Click on Displays in the center rectangular module to the right of Parameters
      3. Right click on the white space of the module > Add New
      4. Rename the display’s Name
      5. Create a Display Title

Now, we have a Display for some of our objects to reference to autogenerate some of their HMI corresponding devices.

1. Now that definitions are set up, we want to drag in our controller
   1. Go to Registered Libraries, expand the dropdown
   2. Expand the Process Library
   3. Expand Controller
   4. Expand ControlLogix
   5. Click and drag the Process Control version from the upper right module to the lower left Controller Preview module. Place it in the Controllers folder.
      1. This will open an Object Configuration Wizard tab.

This gives us all the configuration options available with this controller definition.

1. Give it a Name.
2. Give it a Description.

Parameters > 01 – Controller

Customize the information about this controller by clicking into the line items and modifying them.

• What slot it is in
• The size of the back plane
• The version
• The specific ProcessorType
• Enable the PlantPAxTaskingModel
  • Click the dropdown in the right column of the line > True

Parameters > 01 – HMI

Set up definitions on how the FactoryTalk SE will be integrated with it.

1. Give it an Area
2. Set the Path to [Plant_Controller}

Other Items

You can configure any of the rest of the items, or you can leave them as the defaults.

1. Click Finish

You’ll see that the Controller has now been dropped into the project as well. This has created our base tasking structure, as we enabled the PlantPAx tasking model. We have the Fast, Normal, Slow, and System tasks here with some of the base program definitions already laid out to do some of the backend, or the system level, functions with PlantPAx.

The next thing we’ll do is drop in some of our organizational folders.

1. Expand Organization in the Recent Libraries module on the right.
   1. Expand Folder
   2. Drag the Organization_Folder to the Class View module and into the Plant_Controller folder.
      1. This will open an Object Configuration Wizard tab.
   3. Name the top-level folder.
      1. In the example, we named it Plant.
   4. Add a Description
      1. In the example, we named it Plant.
   5. Next > Finish

This creates an Organization_Folder with our new subfolder.

1. Create a Bioreactor suite.
   1. Double click on Organization_Folder > Add New Instances
   2. Make the Name and Description say BIORX
   3. Next > Finish
2. Create a Reactor within that suite.
   1. Double click on Organization_Folder > Add New Instances
   2. Make the Name and Description say RX_1001
   3. Next > Finish

We can have ACM build out that hierarchy now.

1. Under Class View, select Plant > ChildFolders
   1. Add a ChildFolder by right clicking on the white space of the module > Add New
   2. Click the white space in the line item under ChildFolderName
   3. Click the … > Project > Controllers > Plant Controllers > Organization_Folder > BIORX > Finish
      1. This links it to the bioreactor folder.
2. Under Class View, select BIORX (When asked to Sav Changes to Plant ? select Yes)
   1. BIORX > ChildFolders
   2. Add a ChildFolder by right clicking on the white space of the module > Add New
   3. Click the white space in the line item under ChildFolderName
   4. Click the … > Project > Controllers > Plant Controllers > Organization_Folder > RX_1001 > Finish
      1. This links our reactor instance to our bioreactor suite
3. Click Apply Changes

Now, our folder hierarchy is set!

Next, we will drop in some example devices as well.

1. Open the ControlStrategies folder under the Registered Libraries module on the far right.
   1. Registered Libraries > ControlStrategies > Device Control
2. Grab a valve and drag it into the Plant_Controller folder under the Class View module on the left.
   1. Class View > Controllers > Plant_Controller

Now that we have created our valve, we will go ahead and assign our control module program to our bioreactor.

3. Class View > Controllers > Plant_Controller > Organization Folder > RX_1001
4. Go to the center module and click ChildFolders
   1. Add a ChildFolder by right clicking on the white space of the module > Add New
   2. Click the white space in the line item under ChildFolderName
   3. Click the … > Project > Controllers > Plant_Controller > Program > RX_1001_CMs > Finish
5. Click Apply Changes

The last three steps:

• How to link this device to a display in FactoryTalk SE
  • We can now browse to the display we made at the beginning of this tutorial by finding it in Parameters and clicking on the … on that item’s line.

Select the RX_1001 as our associated display.

1. Click Finish
   1. This brings in that pathway and makes that link on the backend.

Now, we can generate our ACD as well as our FactoryTalk USC configuration with this display and this valve already instance on it.

Generate Our ACD

This is our controller configuration.

1. Class View > Controllers and right click on Plant_Controller > Generate Controller
2. Check Create ACD
3. . . . > Desktop > OK > Generate

This will generate all our configuration as we just defined. It goes fairly quickly because we only have a single device here. It can take a considerable amount of time with a much larger configuration, so be prepared to generate the ACD and maybe go to lunch if you have a larger project.

Click Close once finished.

Now, we can go and open that ACD.

File Explorer > Desktop >Plant_Controller.ACD

Now that our project is open, we can see we have our PlantPAx project module defined on the left.

If you click the Logical Organizer on the bottom right, you can expand the following folders: Plant > BIORX > RX_1001 > RX_1001_CMs and click on the valve XV101

You will then see the valve created as defined in ACM. Now we are done creating our controller configuration!

Generate Our HMI Display

Next, we will go ahead and generate our HMI display information.

1. Go back to ACM
   1. System View > Project > HMI > Displays > FTViewSE_Server
   2. Right click on FTViewSE_Server > Generate Displays > Generate RX_1001_display > Save > OK
2. Go to our sample project we already have set up in FactoryTalk View Studio
   1. We have a blank template Display for our RX_1001
      1. You can view this by clicking on Explorer > Network > PlantPAx > HMI Area > PlantPAxDemoSE > Graphics > Displays > RX_1001
   2. We will now import our ACM configuration.
      1. Do so by clicking Explorer > Network > PlantPAx > HMI Area > PlantPAxDemoSE > Graphics
         1. Right click on Displays > Import and Export… > Import graphic information into displays > Next > No > Next > Single display import file > Select the single display import file: … > RX_1001.xml > Select the display to import to: … > Displays > Process Graphics > RX_1001 > Finish > X (close the pop up window)
         2. By clicking Explorer > Network > PlantPAx > HMI Area > PlantPAxDemoSE > Graphics > Displays > RX_1001, you can see that it instance our valve that we created in ACM.
            1. Right click on the instance > Global Object Parameter Values

That is all we are going to demonstrate for now. We will follow up with some additional ACM videos getting to some of the more advanced configuration as well.

Read More About ACM

• Importing and Customizing a Library with Application Code Manager
• Rockwell Library Designer: Creating, Customizing, and Publishing a Library

Learn more about DMC’s Process Automation solutions and ACM as well as our partnership with Rockwell Automation and contact us today for your next project!

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While both the Distributed Control System (DCS) and MES layers provide automation capability, they serve two very different purposes. PCS neo, our DCS, excels at device level control, sequencing, and visualization. Opcenter, our MES, is geared towards automating workflows and managing data from disparate sources.

By integrating these two layers, we demonstrate a use case of how a complex set of operations (process actions, operator actions, data logging, lab testing, etc.) can be simplified into a repeatable, streamlined standard operating procedure.

As a demonstration use case for the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) integration, we developed a simple scenario where a work order would perform a basic process action and then create a corresponding lab test to verify quality prior to product release. To integrate PCS neo and Opcenter, DMC used OPC UA to facilitate secure and robust bi-directional communication.

In Opcenter, a Supervisor would create a work order instance by selecting a preconfigured template and filling out the required information. In our demo scenario, the Supervisor is manually creating the work order and filling in the required information; however, in a real-world application, this process could be further automated such that an ERP generates the work order on a scheduled period, the completion of a batch on the process control system, etc.

After creating the work order, the Supervisor releases it to Operations. The work order will then appear in the Task List for an Operator to start.

The first thing our work order will do is prompt the Operator to input a level to charge the tank to. In our demonstration case, this could be thought of as a proxy for the Operator inputting or verifying batch formula information, performing any required manual actions, or completing any other general workflow items that are better managed in the MES layer.

Once confirmed, our work order will then send the information to our PCS neo system and trigger an automated transfer of material between the tanks to the set point the Operator previously entered.

After this transfer begins in PCS neo, Opcenter generates a separate workflow in its RD&L (Research, Development, and Laboratory) module to create a sample request to verify product quality.

Once the RD&L results are entered, it will send a passing result back to the Opcenter work order, which allows the order to be completed and the product to be released.

In addition to the above, we also demonstrated the value of putting this on mobile platforms like iPads.

Learn more about DMC’s Siemen’s partnership and contact us today for your next project.

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The Command Line can be accessed from the project tree under the System Folder. Clicking this opens a blank text window with an ellipsis button in the top right.

Clicking the ellipsis gives you access to the Command Wizard, which allows you to select and create commands similar to how you would on a button object.

After creating your command, it will appear in the Command Line. Hit Enter to execute the command, or set of commands.

It’s usually beneficial to have the Diagnostic List up as well to verify that the commands were executed successfully.

After hitting Enter, we can see that the write was successful.

I have leveraged this feature the most for managing bulk updates on a PlantPAx system. For instance, we recently had a system with over 100 interlock conditions that required string descriptions to be entered on a system being commissioned.

This could be done via Rockwell’s Studio 5000 Application Code Manager (ACM) or individually via the PlantPAx faceplates; however, because the software was being commissioned and tested onsite by the customer, it was much easier and faster for us to use excel to create a list of commands. These could be copy-pasted by the customer into the Command Line and entered to update all the fields at once.

The only drawback to the Command Line is that it has a limit of 5000 characters at a time, but this is pretty easily worked around by splitting up the commands you enter into groups less than that number.

Learn more about DMC’s Factorytalk expertise and contact us for your next project.

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Part of the process of equipping the Mobile Worker with the tools they need to successfully execute their job is integrating mobile platforms for them to interface with the processes.

In the case of the MxD Testbed, we are using PCS neo, Siemens' new, completely web-based DCS platform, along with several other web-based applications, such as Siemens' MES platform Opcenter. To maintain security while using a web-based application, both PCS neo and Opcenter use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates.

In one of our demo's applications, we used a Siemens SIPIX tablet to connect to our Testbed via a Siemens SCALANCE wireless access point. The SIPIX tablet runs a Windows OS, so it was straightforward to join to our local domain and automatically receive the required certificates from our Certificate Authority; however, when coming to the off-the-shelf iPad, it required a little more work to integrate.

Integrating an iPad

Because an iPad is an iOS device, it can't fully join a Windows domain and automatically integrate into our Certificate Authority; however, we can still request a certificate from our Certificate Authority to trust as a root certificate.

First, open Safari on the iPad and go to http://<your-certificate-authority>/certsrv. You will be prompted to enter domain credentials.

After logging in, you'll be presented with a generic splash screen with some options. Select "Download a CA certificate." 

This will take you to a certificate request page. On this page, select "Install this CA Certificate."

You may be prompted to enter a password when installing. After the installation, you will have a new "profile" available on your iOS device.

Go to Settings > General > Profile to view the installed profile.

Drill down into the downloaded profile and install the root certificate. This will require you to enter the device’s password.

Now that the root certificate is installed, you will need to enable full trust for that root certificate. In settings, go to General > About > Certificate Trust Settings and enable the newly installed certificate authority.

Once everything is complete, you should be able to browse to any of your associated web-based applications without any issues. As you can see below, we were able to fully interface and operate with our Siemens PCS neo DCS and Opcenter MES.

Learn more about DMC’s Siemens Solutions Partnership and contact us for your next project. 

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To prove to myself that it could not have been an issue of technological limitations (and to have an excuse to play with a Cognex camera, ABB’s RobotStudio, and the Star Wars toys I keep on my desk), I decided to spin up a quick tutorial to show that I could, in fact, locate and retrieve the droid I was looking for.

RobotStudio Integrated Vision

The ABB RobotStudio’s “Integrated Vision” feature is essentially a “Cognex In-Sight Lite,” and as of publication, this is only functional on the 32-bit version of robot studio.

To access the Integrated Vision tab, expand your robot controller (physical or virtual) in the left-hand controller pane and right-click on the Vision System item. Right-clicking will open the Integrated Vision tab of RobotStudio.

Connecting to the Camera

Connect the camera to the robot controller service port switch. Once connected, the camera should appear under Vision System in the left-hand controller tree.

If not, then from the vision tab, select Connect/Add Senor. In this window, you should be able to see all cameras physically connected to the network and can change network settings of the cameras accordingly.

If you are connecting a camera (or an emulated camera) to a virtual robot controller, you will need to define the virtual programming port of the virtual controller to which the camera is connecting.

To do so, find the vc_network_definition.xml file in the RobotStudio/Systems/Controller Name/Home/IV folder. In this XML file, set the IP Address/Subnet to that of the NIC connected to the camera.

Warm restart the virtual controller you are using, and an unconfigured camera should appear under Vision System in the system tree.

Calibration

Now that the camera is connected, you need to calibrate the images from the camera to real-world units of measurement (pixels to millimeters). The easiest way to do this is with the grid calibration method.

To do so, select the Calibrate button from the top ribbon, then select Grid from the Calibration Type drop-down in the context menu. Selecting grid will pull up the configuration options for the grid calibration sizing.

Verify the selection of Checkerboard, with fiducial for the grid type. The other options can be left as is (see below).

The only option that may need adjustment would be the lens model. Select radial for straight-on pictures (for example, top-down) view, or choose projection if the camera is not parallel with the target object (for example, being mounted perpendicular to it).

Once the grid parameters have been set up, select Print Grid to print off a copy of the grid.

Verify the spacing of the checkers on the grid matches the selection in the previous view.

Center the grid within the field of view of the camera, and tape it in place (it’ll be important later that the grid does not move after the calibration image has been taken).

Once in place, select Next in the context menu with the grid setup, and then select Acquire Image within the context menu.

Once the image has been acquired, and the camera can recognize the calibration image, select the Calibrate button to load the calibration data into the active camera job. If the camera does not recognize the calibration image, it may require adjusting the camera position, exposure, or focus.

Now that the camera is calibrated, you will need to align the origin and orientation of the camera image (defined by the location of the fiducial in the calibration grid), with a workobject defined in the robot.

To do so, using a defined calibration pointing tool, define the camera workobject along the same X/Y axis as is on the taped calibration grid (only calibrate the user frame, as the object frame will then be used to shift the coordinate system to move to identified objects). At this point, the camera and robot workobject coordinate systems should be aligned.

Identifying Part Location

Once the camera and robot are calibrated, you can begin setting up your part location tools to locate your target objects. Several tools are available in the Add Part Location Tool menu, all of which will report back part location (X,Y coordinate) and orientation (for brevity’s sake, I won’t discuss the individual configuration of each tool).

Once a location tool has been selected and configured to locate the desired part, the next step is configuring the output parameters to the robot RAPID program.

To do so, select the Output to Rapid button at the top, which will open the Setup Communication context menu. Using this menu, you can define which parameters (Result) of which tools (Group) you want to reference in the RAPID program.

At a minimum, you should send the Fixture.X, Fixture.Y, Fixture.Angle, and Pass or Fail parameters (I’ve also included the Fixture.Score parameter for reference to show how closely the tool models match the captured images).

RAPID Configuration

Once the vision job has been set up and calibrated, and the camera workobject has been defined to align coordinate systems with the camera, the actual part identification/movement can be done.

Using one of the out-of-the-box code snippets available in RobotStudio as a starting point (RAPID/Snippet/Integrated Vision), set up a procedure to execute a camera job. After the job is complete, set the camera object frame to be vision coordinates of the camera result.

  PROC MoveToDetectedObject()
      
      VAR cameratarget mycameratarget;
      VAR wobjdata mywobj;
      VAR tooldata mytool; 
      VAR robtarget myrobtarget;
      VAR string myjob := "myjob.job";
      
      CamSetProgramMode RobotCamera;
      CamLoadJob RobotCamera, myjob;
      CamSetRunMode RobotCamera;
      
      CamReqImage RobotCamera;
      CamGetResult RobotCamera, mycameratarget;
      mywobj.oframe := mycameratarget.cframe;
      
      !During the first cycle, run the program until this point,
      !then jog the tool to the desired grip position and modpos myrobtarget.
      MoveL myrobtarget, v100, fine, mytool \WObj:=mywobj;
  ENDPROC

  PROC MoveToDetectedObject()
      
      VAR cameratarget mycameratarget;
      VAR wobjdata mywobj;
      VAR tooldata mytool; 
      VAR robtarget myrobtarget;
      VAR string myjob := "myjob.job";
      
      CamSetProgramMode RobotCamera;
      CamLoadJob RobotCamera, myjob;
      CamSetRunMode RobotCamera;
      
      CamReqImage RobotCamera;
      CamGetResult RobotCamera, mycameratarget;
      mywobj.oframe := mycameratarget.cframe;
      
      !During the first cycle, run the program until this point,
      !then jog the tool to the desired grip position and modpos myrobtarget.
      MoveL myrobtarget, v100, fine, mytool \WObj:=mywobj;
  ENDPROC

In the example above, the VAR declarations are only shown for clarity, and should most likely be declared in the user module. Additionally, if only one job is being used, the camera job can be loaded (CamLoadJob) in a startup routine to cut down on job cycle time.

To align the position of the targeted object identified by the camera to a robot position (for example, a pick or place position), you will need to run the procedure you created above through the point where the object frame of the workobject is loaded with the location data from the camera.

What this will do is align the robot position you are about to teach to be relative to both the location of the camera coordinate system (defined by the calibration procedure above), as well as the recognized position of the target object within the coordinate system.

You can now jog the robot to the desired position, being sure that the correct workobject and tool are loaded that will be used in your sequence, and save the position. Now, the position of the robot is defined as being relative to the identified position of the object, allowing the robot to consistently track the location and orientation of the object as it moves in the camera coordinate system.

Example

In the pictures below, you can see how the camera is able to track the location and orientation of BB8 as he moves to various locations along a wall in our lab. To do so, I first created a part location tool called BB8_Finder. I chose to search just for his head, as I thought that would be the best way to find a consistent location and orientation for BB8.

Pictured below is the reference picture used by the inspection tool, which looks like a BB8 mugshot.

Once I had my tool configured, I took a few shots of BB8 in different positions and orientations to verify that I could successfully track his movement (and for the record, that is “The Force” holding BB8 in place and definitely not tape…). In the tables below, you can see the camera tracking the position and orientation of BB8 in each of the pictures (the origin is located in the top-left of the picture).

Conclusion

You should now be able to track down and retrieve any droids you are looking for. 

Learn more about DMC’s Machine Vision Inspection and Integration Services. 

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