The DMC Drinkbot is a robotic bartender powered by Siemens automation hardware. It was originally created in the DMC Denver office in 2016 using a Siemens S7-1200 PLC interfaced by a 7″ SIMATIC Comfort Panel.

Eight years after creation as Siemens has begun to phase out their COMFORT HMI Panels, DMC wanted to give Drinkbot an HMI upgrade. We received a new MTP700 Unified Comfort Panel that runs TIA Portal V19 WinCC Unified programs to show off the latest and greatest of Siemens HMI technology. This guide will walk through the steps taken to upgrade Drinkbot and the new features developed.

Background and Operational Overview

The DMC Drinkbot uses PROFINET communication for a Siemens G120 VFD drive controlled by an S7-1200 PLC. The user can choose drinks on a SIMATIC key panel or the MTP700 Unified Comfort Panel HMI that this blog focuses on. The user can choose between 44 standard drink recipes made from 8 bottles of alcohol and 6 mixers. There is also a custom drink option where the user can select any ingredient available based on the current configuration of the Drinkbot. 

Without replacing any bottles on the machine, the ability to make alcoholic drinks can be toggled. If the Drinkbot is taken to an event where alcohol is not permitted, the bottles may also be swapped out for flavored syrups and soda water to make “Italian sodas”. The Italian soda switch overrides the selectable recipes limiting the machine to the new available ingredients. The settings screen for these configurations is accessible by selecting the DMC logo in the upper left corner where the user can view alarms and diagnostics and change the machine mode. The motion axis of the Drinkbot can also be manually operated for demonstration and debugging purposes.

For a detailed history of the development of Drinkbot, refer to the following two blogposts.

DMC Engineers Serve up a Siemens S7 Powered DrinkBot

Adding Siemens MindSphere Tracking to the DMC DrinkBot

Data 2 Unified

About half of the work for creating the Unified program was accomplished using the Data2Unified tool by Siemens. This tool does a great job taking an older Comfort program and converting it to Unified, maintaining the basic layout and functionality of most HMI Elements and Controls. For some deprecated elements, the tool will even generate custom VBA scripting to maintain original functionality.

There are current limitations to this tool as the conversion will notably not create alarm lists, faceplates, and navigation elements. Additionally, due to WinCC Unified’s aspect flexibility, it is typically worth touching up the screens’ layout and aesthetics. The custom scripting that is auto-generated may also need to be redone as more efficient element functions can be created manually without scripts. Typically, the automatically generated scripts will function as intended, but the script will be written in unconventional and overcomplicated language. Double-checking these scripts and replacing them with standard functions where applicable is good practice.

After running the conversion, most of the Drinkbot settings screens were recreated to match the previous comfort program to maximize the ease of configuring the system during events. The cleaning sequence screens that use basic elements were converted seamlessly into Unified. Settings screens, like the alarms and diagnostics, were easily replaced with drop-in standard Siemens resources.

The bulk of the work left out by the tool was completed when modernizing the faceplates for drink selection and the recipe management system talked about in the following section.  

Recipe Conversion

In the Comfort program, there was a built-in recipe management feature that the developer could create their own data type and store recipes locally on the HMI panel to be written onto the PLC when selected. In the Drinkbot Comfort HMI the recipe list included 44 drinks detailing their ingredients and quantities.

This recipe feature was a convenient way to store information and access data to be written into the instructions of the PLC. In WinCC Unified, this feature was removed, so this storage was recreated using a user-defined type and a data block on the PLC.

The dbHMI data block stores all of the original recipe data using integers to signify ingredient quantities and a single string for the name of the recipe. Memory on the PLC is conserved by these simple UDTs, provided that the bottle setup in the Drinkbot is always the same. For simplicity, to set up the Drinkbot, the user consults a printout that lists all of the ingredient bottle positions. The string and 18 integers are then fed to the HMI through a multiplexed array 11 recipes at a time.

The 11 recipes are selected to be read based on the page of the HMI drink list the user is currently reading. The last display recipe on the page is number 12 that is left intentionally blank. A custom drink faceplate is opened when the custom button is pressed that displays all possible ingredients in the Drinkbot. The user can select how many of each ingredient to make their drink based on if alcohol is toggled on or the Drinkbot is displaying Italian Sodas. Once completed the ‘Make Drink’ button populates the display recipe 12 and once the Drinkbot completes the cycle the recipe is cleared.

To access standard drinks that access one of the stored recipes, 11 faceplate buttons are displayed on each page. These simple faceplates display the drink name based on page number and intake the recipe parameters once selected. They serve as an in between display button to open a nested faceplate that will display the selected drink in detail. The nested standard drink faceplate used in reading and writing recipe data is talked about in the next section.

Faceplates and Scripting

In the Comfort HMI, having a local way to manage the recipes within the HMI made development simpler as a single popup recipe screen could read the ingredients for each drink and display all possible options at once in a matrix.

The Drinkbot is intended to be used at live events in a fast paced setting so for the WinCC update, the drink recipe popup should prioritize readability and information efficiency. The new Unified program uses a standard drink faceplate that only displays ingredients used in a particular drink recipe.

The maximum ingredient amount in the original 44 drinks was 3 alcohols and 3 mixers. Custom scripting is used to take the recipe fed into the faceplate and populate the drink name plus the ingredients with their amounts. The script takes in the name and amount of each drink in ounces and automatically fills out each box for how many ingredients exist in each recipe. The user then has controls to make the drink and stop the process midway if needed.

For taking Drinkbot to events where alcohol is not an option, the machine can also be configured to dispense “Italian sodas” using soda water and flavored syrup. Selecting this mode locks the display page to an Italian soda mode and makes the button faceplates open a nested Italian soda faceplate. All Italian soda recipes only include up to two syrups and eight ounces of soda so the faceplate is simplified and resized.

For information on how to create a faceplate in WinCC unified, refer to the guide here: Creating Faceplates in WinCC Unified

Conclusion

The updated HMI program improves the usability and functionality of the COMFORT version. The custom scripted nested faceplates using the new recipe storage system in Unified make it easier to order a drink. To celebrate the completion of the WinCC Unified upgrade the DMC Chicago office had a happy hour party to have the Drinkbot make cocktails and entertain.

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DMC’s Denver office in the LoDo district of downtown Denver was a home away from home for our visiting team members. We enjoyed informative sessions, product roadmaps, and hands-on training sessions during the day, and food, live music, and fun activities each evening!

Check out our highlights from the Summit:

Rockies Game

Before the Siemens Summit began, DMCers got together to enjoy a Denver Rockies baseball game!

Our hosts at DMC Denver entertained the group with pizza and beverages at their office. We then traveled to Coors Field to see the Colorado Rockies play the San Diego Padres.

Welcome Reception

After DMC wrapped up our welcome events, the Siemens Summit Kicked off on Monday night. The welcome event, sponsored by the Siemens Solutions Partners,  featured live music, great food, and fun activities such as archery, a fly fishing demo, and simulated calf roping.

There was also a geocaching scavenger hunt, which Leon Grossman and I won! 

Best Brews of Denver

On Tuesday, the DMC team, some of the Siemens Solution Partners, and DMC clients met for a beer tasting tour of Denver. The group traveled together on two trolleys from the event center to DMC’s Denver office’s rooftop to enjoy barbecue and beers before heading out for the evening. The trolleys stopped at two breweries, Odell Brewing and Black Shirt Brewing, before heading back to the hotel to rest before another full day at the convention center.

Summit Demos

DMC Demos with Ice Cream

 

DMC made ice cream at the Siemens Solution Partners Display for visitors during the day. Attendees stopped at our booth to have a quick ice cream snack on the way to see presentations. Built by Prism last year, improved by DMC this year, and paid for by the Sponsoring Siemens Solutions Partners,  the ice cream machine offered all of our guests a reminder of how the integration of programs like these can create imaginative (and delicious) results!

The DrinkBot

DMC’s DrinkBot utilizes a Siemens S7-1200 PLC, 7″ Comfort Panel, Siemens G120, and Siemens 1FK7 Servo Motor with DRIVE-CLiQ encoder to control the operation. The DrinkBot provides eight different alcohols or syrups and six different mixers for a large variety of drink options. 

DMC’s Presentations

Five DMC Representatives were invited to present at the Automation Summit this year, check out their presentations below.

Dynamic and Scalable Systems Using WinCC OA
Leon Grossman

Project Manager Leon Grossman led a presentation on Siemens WinCC OA applied to a client’s application. He demonstrated using this flexible, scalable platform in conjunction with Siemens and third-party components for a complex application. The presentation highlighted some of the critical features of WinCC OA, how it could solve the most challenging applications, and as a bonus, announced the release of the WinCC OA Open Library v1.0!

Auto Code Generation and Rapid Brewery/Distillery Automation
Ryan Landwehr

Project Director Ryan Landwehr showed attendees how the Siemens Brewing template, a TIA Portal based auto code generation tool created developed in partnership by DMC and Siemens, can be used to rapidly create complete automation in rapid breweries and distilleries of all sizes. From craft distilleries to regional breweries, see how the Siemens Brewing Template can help make automation easy!

To learn more about how DMC can facilitate your food and beverage manufacturing automation, contact DMC today.

Multi-site WinCC 7 Development with Centralized Process Historian & Information Server from
John Michael Frullo

John Michael Frullo, Project Engineer, illustrated ways in which WinCC 7 tools and standards can be used to facilitate rapid project development across multiple locations. Frullo also demonstrated how multiple plant locations can be easily connected to a centralized data storage and automated reporting system.

Flexibility and standardization using dynamic IO addressing and option handling from
David Berno

I presented solutions developed by DMC that fully leverage S7’s hardware and development flexibility to create efficient and agile manufacturing deployments.

Taking your Siemens PLC s7-1200 to industry 4.0
James Condon

James Condon, Project Engineer, led a presentation on Siemens PLC Industry 4.0. The presentation covered how Industry 4.0 can offer better efficiency for existing industrial equipment.

Thank you, everyone, who attended the 2019 Siemens Automation Summit. We can’t wait to see what’s new in 2020!

As a proud Siemens Solution Partner, DMC is ready to step in with our extensive knowledge and expert solutions. Learn more about DMC’s partnership with Siemens. 

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