B&R Industrial Automation has introduced readily configurable PLCopen function blocks which can be used to implement conveyor belt tracking.
The PLCopen function blocks can be used for all types of robot kinematics and even allow robots to be synchronized with multiple conveyor belts. The interfaces are also suited for integrating HMI applications for all types of kinematic systems.
The robot can move freely during the synchronization phase, which also enables complex product manipulation. A special feature of the solution is that the conveyor belt is fully integrated in the application. An external sensor that supplies information about the current position of the conveyor belt is all that is needed.
The conveyor belt tracking solution is hardware-independent, which allows the use of different drive systems with different kinematics. The application can be created quickly and upgraded at a later time. The robot can be replaced or the conveyor belts can be upgraded at any time without a significant amount of application engineering work. A large portion of the software can be used as-is.
