Sercos to demonstrate data benefits of Industry 4.0 at SPS IPC Drives 2017

Summary

October 31, 2017 - Sercos International, provider of the Sercos automation bus, is presenting various exhibits, such as an Industry 4.0 Demonstrator, during SPS IPC Drives in Nuremberg, Germany November 28 - 30, 2017, in hall 2, stand 440.

The Industry 4.0 Demonstrator highlights how process and device data are made available both locally via the real-time bus and also via OPC UA for a range of application scenarios in a uniform and cross-manufacturer manner. This is designed to make data exchange between machine peripheries and superior IT systems easier and also support the requirements of Industry 4.0 regarding semantic interoperability.

The multi-protocol capability from Sercos makes various implementation options possible. One option is integration of the OPC UA server functionality that can be integrated into a machine control, where the control acts as a gateway in which the mapping of Sercos services and data is implemented. With Sercos III it is also possible to integrate an OPC UA server directly into a Sercos field device (drive, I/O station or sensor). In this case, the OPC protocol is routed directly to the relevant Sercos slave device. The gateway functionality of the control is thus reduced to the function of an Ethernet switch. Due to the Sercos transmission process (no tunneling!), the ability of an OPC client and an OPC UA server to communicate with each other is preserved even without continuous Sercos communication running.

The Sercos TSN Demonstrator shows the transmission of the Sercos III real-time protocol via IEEE 802.1 TSN (time-sensitive networks). It shows the possibilities for providing a real-time and multi-protocol-capable network infrastructure based on TSN for automation technology. The demonstrator was developed at the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units (ISW) at the University of Stuttgart with the support of several industrial partners.

Here, a TSN-based Sercos III SoftMaster with a Soft-CNC from Industrielle Steuerungstechnik (ISG) is used, which communicates with Sercos III servo drives from Bosch Rexroth via TSN switches from Hirschmann Automation & Control. At the same time, video streams from a web cam are transmitted to a remote display via the same TSN network infrastructure, but without hampering the characteristics and functionality of the Sercos real-time communication.

The Sercos SoftMaster Demo scores points with an open “upward” and “downward” communication link. It is based on a Sercos III SoftMaster core, which was developed in cooperation with Bosch Rexroth and is available as open-source software.

With the Sercos III SoftMaster, a specific Sercos III FPGA or ASIC master component is not required. Instead, a standard Ethernet controller is used and the Sercos III hardware functions are emulated in host-based driver software. This implementation approach ensures adequate real-time behavior for a large number of applications. Using the SoftMaster in combination with the powerful Intel I210, the CPU load is significantly reduced.  Control manufacturers can use an industrial PC without special fieldbus hardware and without PCI slots to control a machine.