IS THE MARKET for general motion control products nears a projected $7 billion annually, new developments in machine control software are allowing machine builders to interface with more different hardware devices. At the heart of this increase (the market was more than $5 billion last year and is projected to reach nearly $7 billion in 2010) is the demand for control software for Ethernet-based networks.
According to a recent report by ARC Advisory Group, Ethernet-based networks tuned for motion control are opening the door to high-end application performance by enabling levels of speed, capacity, and determinism unthinkable just a few years ago.
“The growing tendency to use motion control software has created a demand for platforms that include features such as human machine interface, logic and motion control, and communications,” states ARC’s report. It notes that the advent of PC-based motion control systems that rely on software has made users aware of the need for open architectures.
Our roundup shows the emergence of a new generation of motion control software products that merge the best features of PLC and PC-based controllers. Many PC-based software platforms in our round-up offer functions that are more convenient than those in legacy systems, but transition costs can be very high, the study adds. This has been a major deterrent to users in the industrial automation sector because so many are already heavily invested in older technology.
However, proprietary control systems that are less vulnerable to virus breakdowns and have reduced dependence on hardware are gaining in market share as the recent trend toward integrating vision and motion systems software increases its adoption in applications requiring high-level precision.
Several new improvements include soft-CNC solutions that offer a complete environment with HMI, multiple-axis motion control, and PLC tasks on one platform without dedicated motion-control boards. Other advances include adding modularized instructions that perform simple to complex ladder logic, which reduces processes to a simple programming block with fill-in-the-blank parameters.
More of the automation suites below enable redundancy, tunneling, recipe management, SNMP, UA, and SAP connectivity. Machine builders now use newer motion software technology to increase machinery throughput by servicing machinery modules offline without process interruption. Motors, drives and I/O modules can be removed and reinstalled to the live network individually or in groups for off-line service or upgrades.
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