A novel architecture of the embedded computer numerical control system based on PLCopen standard

Abstract

Advanced manufacturing industries demand the embedded computer numerical control system having less vendor and hardware dependencies and more powerful computing capacity and intelligence. It is very important to build such an embedded computer numerical control system, and fortunately, PLCopen standard combined with Cloud Computing brings a brand new opportunity. Hence, this article presents an approach to fulfill those requirements based on PLCopen standard and Cloud Computing. A novel architecture of the embedded computer numerical control system is proposed, and the characteristics of the embedded computer numerical control system are discussed. The PLCopen standard is charged of real-time motion control, offering interoperability, feasibility, simplicity, and universality characteristics. The Cloud Computing technology is used to improve the system performance and to extend functions, overcoming the problem that the intelligence requirement is not compatible with limited hardware resource. A thermal error compensation experiment is described to illustrate the embedded computer numerical control system, and the result demonstrates that the PLCopen standard and Cloud Computing technology can be perfectly applied to the embedded computer numerical control system.