TwinCAT 3 Analytics and Scope Reporting Function

The TwinCAT 3 Scope View is a software oscilloscope for the graphic representation of signal curves in different chart types. These could be, for example, YT, XY, bar or digital charts. The Scope View Professional extends the Scope View Base version supplied with TwinCAT 3 XAE by additional functionalities. The field of application refers to processes that are to be tracked and monitored over a longer period of time.

The TwinCAT 3 Analytics Workbench is a TwinCAT 3 engineering product for the creation of continual data analyses from various spatially distributed machine controllers. The configuration of the workbench is integrated in Microsoft Visual Studio^® and serves as the graphic user interface. Many algorithms are available in a toolbox for the configuration of the analysis:

The TwinCAT 3 Analytics Service Tool is used for commissioning the machine and for service engineers. Live and historical data can be retrieved for an analysis via the IoT connection. The analysis is configured in Microsoft Visual Studio^® where the user has access to a toolbox of algorithms for implementing the relevant life time, cycle time, envelope or component counter analysis. The outputs of the algorithms can be used as inputs for other algorithms or can be output as a result directly in the graphical editor. Signal paths can be visualized with ease by means of parallel recording with the TwinCAT Scope. Analysis results can be dragged by the user from the analytics configurator and dropped in the charting tool so as to mark the significant positions in the data stream. The interaction between the product components offers advantages in particular for diagnosing machine behavior and can highlight optimization potential. The user’s location is immaterial owing to the IoT technologies used, which means that service technicians can perform system and machine diagnostics from practically any location.

The TwinCAT 3 Scope Server prepares data for the graphical display in the TwinCAT 3 Scope View. It can be used with the Scope View Base or the TE1300 Scope View Professional version. The Scope Server is particularly suitable for autonomous data recording in distributed systems in the production, plant or machine network. It not only has TwinCAT-specific communication interfaces, but also a standardized communication connection via OPC UA.

The TwinCAT 3 Analytics Library is a PLC library with analysis functions for process and application data. It can be used locally on the machine controller or on a remote analysis system with an IoT communication connection. In both use cases, a great deal of engineering time can be saved with the automatic PLC code generation by the TE3500 TwinCAT 3 Analytics Workbench. For local use, only the mapping takes place manually; in the IoT workflow, even the mapping is omitted and is carried out automatically.

The TwinCAT 3 Analytics Runtime is the runtime “container” for the Analytics application, which was configured and developed in the TE3500 TwinCAT 3 Analytics Workbench. The runtime can be installed locally, on remote hardware or in a virtual machine. It also contains the TF2000 TwinCAT 3 HMI Server, which hosts the analytics dashboard. In summary, the TwinCAT 3 Analytics Runtime represents a bundle of different licenses. It contains a PLC runtime, the Analytics PLC library, the IoT connection with MQTT and HTTPS/Rest, the Storage Provider connection, the TwinCAT 3 HMI Server and a corresponding client package, so that several users can view the designed Analytics Dashboard simultaneously.

The TwinCAT 3 Analytics Runtime Base is the container in which the analytics application runs that was configured and developed in the TE3500 TwinCAT 3 Analytics Workbench. The runtime can be installed locally, on remote hardware or in a virtual machine. It is the ideal product if an analysis is to be operated “headless” or if a visualization of your own is already available.