Beckoff TwinCAT3 Modular Automation of Assembly Lines

Beckhoff will present its PC- and EtherCAT-based control technology at Motek, the 29th international trade fair for handling and assembly technology, which will take place between 13 and 16 September 2010 at the New Exhibition Centre in Stuttgart, Germany. One of the main items at Beckhoff’s booth is the new TwinCAT 3 software generation, with its modular structure and multi-core support.

The new runtime environment of TwinCAT 3 is also modularly structured. With TwinCAT 3, the developer can make use of a large number of existing modules and combine them in a modern development environment based on Microsoft Visual Studio® to form new modules or entire control programs, claims Beckhoff. Both the IEC 61131-3 automation languages and C and C++ are available and can be used equally alongside one another. Additional development tools such as Matlab/Simulink can be used to create modules.

TwinCAT 3 can use all cores of modern CPUs and can also be used on both 32- and 64-bit systems. The TwinCAT tasks can be outsourced to different CPU cores. In addition to PLC and Motion Control, it can integrate functions such as measurement technology, Condition Monitoring and robotics. Beckhoff summarises this functional extension of the PC-based controller under the topic of “Scientific Automation”, a further main item of Beckhoff’s Motek trade fair presentation.