Research And Construction Of Robotic Manufacturing Cell System Based On MTConnect

As the representative and fundamental component of an automated workshop, robotic manufacturing cell is of high automation, strong adaptability and high flexibility, and is widely applied for round-the-clock unmanned producing in many industries like mould processing, electronic printing, chemical metallurgy, etc. Machines in the robotic manufacturing cell are linked up by robots. In order to enhance productivity, and reduce the product scrap rate as well as the equipment failure rate, the equipment should be well scheduled in closely monitored. Consequently, it is necessary to improve the degree of system information integration and the information management level.However, there are many communication problems among robot, machine and other kinds of equipment. For example, the laggard of communication technology in manufacturing, the lack of a unified standard of communication protocol in the industry, etc. All these problems have erected barriers to the variant equipment information integration. MTConnect is an equipment interconnection technology proposed by AMT. Based on existing protocol of communication, the MTConnect standard enables manufacturing equipment to provide data through a uniform interface. With uniform data available from different hardware, a well solution for variant equipment information integration is opened up to industry.Robotic manufacturing cell as an research object, this paper studied and developed robotic manufacturing cell system integration based on MTConnect protocol standard, the main contents has the following several aspects:(1) Describe the basic framework of MTConnect technology. Analyze the working principle of Agent and data interaction mechanism between Agent and Cilent. Put forward a framework of robot manufacturing cell system based on MTConnect. With the advantages of open-source and cross-platform of MTConnect Agent, it is easier to develop the cell system data server and client, also good for integrating the heterogeneous devices.(2) Research the description method specific component and the XML model in the data flow expression. Design the required interface of manufacturing cell equipment. With the base on MTConnect, put forward the interface between the equipment and the client to realize the task information exchange between the client and the equipment. According to the component feature and object category of the robot and CNC equipment, complete the XML model library of the equipment in cell system. Using the KEBA 6 axis robot and Siemens CNC engraving and milling machine as an example, complete the XML data model which corresponds to the MTConnect Standard V1.30.(3) Research the implementation of the robotic MTConnect Adapter to realize the communication between MTConnect Agent and a no-MTConnect standard equipment. In CoDeSys programming environment, a platform based on the PLC standard of IEC61131-3 language, design the Socket server process for the robot controller to send the data of running status in MTConnect standard. Developed the embedded robot controller Adapter and test results show the data meet the standard.(4) In the Visual Studio 2010, develop the client of manufacturing cell system and complete the functions in each module of client. Finally, finish the manufacturing cell integration by using MTConnect technology and validate the functions in a running instance.