Development Of A Generic Communication Service Between Programmable Logic Controllers And Personal Computers Using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio For Data Collection In Automated And Semi Automated Manufacturing Processes

During the period of 1950-1990 productivity in United States industries increased 50 percent due to technological innovation. High-value-added products were a consequence of more efficient manufacturing processes and data processing equipment. It is predicted that in the next decades productivity increases will be largely due to the ability to add flexibility and improve infrastructure through the collection and management of product data. By achieving the goals set forth in this project, a valuable tool for educating future students will be added to our program and we will also continue to improve our laboratory facilities for applied research, education and industrial partnerships. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) is a Windows based environment used to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware already in the market and hardware yet to be built. These characteristics can help to face the major challenge that industry is facing: an industrial environment that brings together a wide range of computer systems, data acquisition systems, technologies, system architectures, operating systems, and applications. This variety makes it increasingly difficult for people and machines to communicate with each other, especially when they describe and format data differently. MRDS and its’ compatibility with other Windows products can help with the task of bringing together large amounts of data and formatting it so it can be shared easily. The primary motivation for working on this project is the lack of affordable open-architecture alternatives for teaching, trying out new ideas and interfacing existing and new devices and equipment into the current workplace. Furthermore, it focuses on the creation and development of a generic communication service for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, which is free for personal, academic, and development use. Thus, it is an important added value to engineering academia, because it opens the door to other research areas and innovation that can be converted into highly efficient applications in manufacturing. MRDS and Education: The benefits of the Know-How in the creation of generic services This paper is justified for the actual tendency of all major computer companies, including BEA, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Sun Microsystems that have adopted and supported the SOC computing paradigm, its technologies, and its features. [1][4][5][6][7] Service-Oriented Robotics Computing is important not only in application software development but also in education. SOC-based robotics programming is easier than traditional robotics programming. Sponsored by the US Department of Education, a SOC-based robotics-computing curriculum is developed for high schools in United States. [2] P ge 15401.2 VPL provides an easy way to define how data flows between services. For neophyte programmers it is useful and straightforward to implement algorithms. The opportunity area offered by MRDS is the capability to provide the CCR (Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) and DSS (Decentralized Software Services) components to develop and perform generic services for different types of devices like sensors, motors, displays, PLC’s, etc. When VPL application starts, it can be find on the left side of the main window, all the services already developed and that are included ones you download the free version such as joysticks, simulation places, generic encoders, generic motors, analog sensors, etc. Fig. 1 Fig. 1. Generic services in VPL Because of the nature of MRDS and its proclivity in industry, is very important to start introducing to students an easy way to create generic services and how to use them in the VPL application. This can bring high schools and universities the huge possibility to create generic services for any kind of device (existing or new) in their workshops maintaining updated the laboratories and promoting the students to get familiarize with the new tendencies in software, automation and manufacturing processes. The challenge in the development of this project is to have a guide and a good explanation of the Know-How in the creation of these services. Actually there are books and literature available in the web; however it is not simple for all the engineering backgrounds to understand how the architecture behind the services interacts or how to create one. Having a good description of the Know-How can bring to the academia and industry a new low-cost perspective in the implementation of automation. Many robot manufacturers have moved their programming platform to VPL, including Coroware, irobot, kuka, LEGO NXT mindstorm, Parallax, Robosoft, Robotics Connection, Whitebox Robotics, etc. [3] P ge 15401.3 Brief introduction to MRDS Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) uses Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) as the set of methodologies, concepts and principles to create robotics applications and services. The main components of MRDS are: ≠ The Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR) ≠ Decentralized Software Services (DSS) comprise the run-time environment ≠ The Visual Simulation Environment ≠ Visual Programming Language (VPL) . The first two components are both manage libraries, so the robotics “services” that operate within their environments are also implemented using managed code. [3] The Visual Simulation Environment is a 3D simulator with full physics simulation that can be used to prototype new algorithms or robots. The Visual Programming Language (VPL) is a graphical programming environment that can be used to implement robotic services. [3] The Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) is the application designed specifically to work with DSS services. The advantage of this application is that programs are defined graphically in flow diagrams. CCR (the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) CCR (the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime) is a programming model for handing multithreading and inter-task synchronization, whereas DSS is used for building applications based on a loosely coupled service model. [3] Is a managed library that provides classes and methods to help with concurrency, coordination, and failure handling. The CCR makes it possible to write segments of code that operate independently. [3]