Apollo Sensor News: In today's increasingly competitive global market, efficient industrial production capacity usually depends on the speed, accuracy and reliability of each factory automation system. Even in areas with low labor costs, manufacturers are eager to improve the precision of their automation systems because they know that failure to do so will endanger their position in the global economy.

In today's increasingly competitive global market, efficient industrial production capacity usually depends on the speed, accuracy and reliability of each factory automation system. Even in areas with low labor costs, manufacturers are eager to improve the precision of their automation systems because they know that failure to do so will endanger their position in the global economy.

The heart of industrial automation is a new generation of advanced intelligent sensors. It enables the product line to run continuously. It connects to high performance programmable logic controller (PLC) and human-machine interface (HMI) system through low delay and real-time network. Of course, for manufacturers, time is money. As long as the manufactured product can reach the required quality level, the efficient production line will continue to run as fast as possible. High-speed, reliable sensors must monitor or measure the state of the production line very quickly (milliseconds or even faster). Later, the network must transmit this information with minimal delay and without interruption of production. We need a large number of industrial communication protocols to achieve the required key communication performance, such as PROFIBUS/PROFINET, Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, POWERLINK, etc. SERCOS III, etc. In addition, processing elements such as PLC must respond correctly in real time, otherwise it will affect productivity and cause loss of profits.

Texas Instruments (TI) has rich experience in providing comprehensive high performance, high efficiency and scalable technology for industrial automation. Dezhou Instrument's wide range of analog and embedded processor products can help customers design complete system-level solutions. This paper focuses on TI's innovative and highly differentiated solutions, which make industrial communication cost lower, access more convenient, and promote automation and production efficiency.

Introduction to Industrial Automation

Typical industrial automation systems are generally composed of four parts, which can implement low latency and real-time high-speed communication. These four components are sensor, human-machine interface, PLC and motor driver.

sensor

The information and data transmission of modern factory automation system are more and more dependent on Intelligent sensors. In the past, sensors were only responsible for monitoring and measuring, but not for analysis. Now, as sensors become more intelligent, they can better evaluate the work they detect and complete tasks in real time. Many functions of the sensor include temperature, motion, optical object and position, weight, acceleration, chemical composition, gas, pressure or other pressure, liquid flow and other aspects of the physical world.

Human Machine Interface (HMI)

Man-machine interface is a unit or subsystem that communicates with the operator. With the current state-of-the-art technology, most of the man-machine interfaces of industrial automation systems are integrated with graphical display subsystems, such as touch screens, because such systems are intuitive, simple and easy to learn.

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

Generally speaking, PLC is a system based on microcontroller or processor. The information they receive comes from various sensors and system operators distributed in the factory. According to the information provided by these two information sources, PLC initiates actions to control the process of production line.

motor driver

Motor driver is some machine parts that respond to PLC instructions. For example, in an automobile assembly plant, sensors provide information about the position of the car body to the PLC. The PLC will respond to this information and send instructions to the motor control unit to control the mechanical arm to spot weld the car.

In industrial automation system, the connection of these four parts is realized by high-speed and low-delay network. This network ensures that the PLC responds quickly to sensor or operator input. Generally speaking, today's industrial automation system is a real-time, high-precision system with decision-making ability, which can accurately control the high-speed production process.