TwinCAT 3 Kinematic Transformation

TwinCAT Kinematic Transformation integrates robot control into standard automation software, so that PLC, motion control and robotics functions can be executed on a single Industrial PC. 6-axis kinematics are also available in addition to Cartesian gantry, various 2D parallel kinematics and 3D Delta kinematics. The desired kinematics can be conveniently selected and parameterized in the TwinCAT System Manager. The kinematic channel is used to parameterize the robot type (e.g. delta or SCARA) as well as the bar lengths and offsets. Values for mass and mass inertia can be specified for dynamic pre-control. In addition, this TwinCAT software library includes tracking functionalities for synchronizing a robot with a moving object, so it can pick up workpieces from conveyor belts or inclined turntables, for example.

Using TwinCAT Kinematic Transformation, various parallel and serial kinematics such as those used for pick-and-place tasks can be realized simply and cost-effectively. The robot acts as an EtherCAT Slave and the communication with the Beckhoff controller is based on EtherCAT, a global standard in the robotics industry. The seamless integration of robot kinematics into the control system not only avoids the need for an additional robot CPU, it also ensures optimized interaction and synchronization with the PLC and existing motion control functions: direct interfaces replace the complexities and inefficiencies of communicating between different controllers and systems. This results in much higher performance and improved system accuracy.