PLC Recommendation AI / VISION / SORTING

[paintdisposal]

I have worked on small projects using AB Micrologix but now we want to take a photo, process it online, and sort based on returned variables.

What platform or PLC would be the best place to start that interfaces with web components easily? We're currently running the vision capture component on a Raspberry PI as a proof of concept but we'd like to upgrade to a nice industrial system and build out a cabinet, safety parameters, etc...

Automation Direct recommended one of the Productivity1000, 2000, or 3000 lines.
I just wanted to check with the group for any additional thoughts.

Thanks!

 

[Jeev]

To be completely honest, I wouldn't be using a PLC at all. There are a couple of Nvidia Jetson products that have been ruggedized for industrial use on the market now. Using something like this means your R-Pi code is still relevant and comms to a Logix processor is easy. Are you using Python and OCV?

 

[paintdisposal]

Yes, we're using Python and OCV to capture we are doing a few things running our own annotations and processing via an api. What is the easy part of " comms to a Logix processor" from your experience. Which Logix processor would you pair with a Jetson?

In the most simple terms once we process the photo all we need to read is a few sensors and control some air valves typically in the past all 24VDC actuators.

 

[Jeev]

I guess my recommendation would start with you. What are you familiar with, and what's the budget? Quantify a "few" sensors and valves. There are many different ways you could do this with little to no pain, and all of them have different reasons.

For example:

-If "few" is within the GPIO of an R-Pi then you could do the whole lot with an industrialised R-Pi and a few interface relays.
-If you require a PLC (Maybe for later expansion or standardisation?) then you can get python libraries to talk Ethernet/IP, Profinet, Modbus TCP, sockets or serial. This means you can pretty much send data to any PLC out there.

In our case, we were using an R-Pi (Later scaled up to a Jetson Nano) with Gig-E cameras, and OCV to do a vision evaluation. We would then send a simple result string to a CompactLogix using pylogix (Thanks @dmroeder) or PyComm. These same mechanisms allow comms to Micro, Compact and Control, so you have a lot of options even in Rockwell terms.

Sorry for the late reply - You can blame Easter long weekend and a heap of slackin'

 

[mk42]

Most modern PLCs can communicate with non-PLC systems just fine, although depending on what kind of comms you may have to implement the protocol yourself unless you pick something the brand supports.

If this is just a PoC, something like an S7-1200 would come with an OPC UA server onboard, which is the simplest open industrial comm protocol. The PLC also supports open socket TCP comms, and Siemens has several libraries for communication based on this. LHTTP, for example, can make HTTP Get/Post/Put requests.

SIOS

support.industry.siemens.com

 

[James Mcquade]

Several questions that need answering.
1. what is the production rate + 30%
2. what is the camera resolution you are using?
3. What is the camera you are using?
4. what is the interface from the camera, plc, pc, network?
5. what is the interface speed?

you need to answer these questions to see if your components can even meet the production speed requirements.
james