New Specification for Low-Cost Industrial Controls

The IEEE Standards Association and the National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative have partnered to produce and disseminate a controller specification that will help North American manufacturers create low-cost, flexible automation equipment. The IEEE/NEMI Low-Cost Open Architecture Controller Specification (IEE/NEMI PR 1533-1998) provides for a uniform application programming interface (API) to control industrial machinery such as robots, flexible assembly cells, SMT chip placement machines, machine tools and general machinery that involves motion control.

"As part of NEMI's 'gap analysis' of the electronics industry, we found that most manufacturing systems rely on proprietary control systems, and that means there is limited access to data or functions. Developers must have special training for the non-standard programming languages, and it is difficult to interface to third party equipment," says Jim McElroy, executive director and CEO for the electronics industry consortium. "That translates into equipment that is more costly, takes longer to design and build, and has low reuse."

With a standard software interface that uses standardized operating systems and tools, equipment suppliers will be able to easily port their application software to new hardware and still provide the motion and I/O functionality required. While the specification can serve as a programmer's reference manual, it also contains sufficient details that will allow vendors to implement the entire API. Because the specification can be implemented on a PC, users will enjoy low initial costs, low system integration costs and low maintenance costs. For more information, contact NEMI, Herndon, VA 22170-4005.

I Sing the Hog Electric

A brushless, variable reluctance motor is the motive force of the Lectra production motorbike. The motor, kin to the type used in industrial and appliance applications, uses a shaft sensor to measure the rotor's angular position. From that information, an integrated controller switches current between the various phase windings according to the rotor's rotation. The design also eliminates magnets that could be sensitive to high temperatures, mechanical stresses or EMR.

The motorcycle was designed exclusively on CADKEY software by Baystate Technologies (Marlborough, MA), and has electronically-assisted braking that takes the bike's kinetic energy, and converts and stores part of it for braking. For more information, contact EMB, Sebastopol, CA 95472.

Originally published in the November  1998 issue of designfax.
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