2.3 RapidPlan Controller Profinet Interface User Guide

Owned by Aayush Damani (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 26, 2023
6 min read

 

Overview

As a preliminary feature, Profinet is supported in RapidPlan 2.3. Please contact Realtime Robotics for technical support.

Hardware Requirement

  1. RTR controller V1: Startech ST1000SPEXI add-on card is required.

  2. RTR Runtime Controller.

Profinet I/O Data Mapping

General rules of I/O mapping

  1. Input: from RTR controller to PLC.

  2. Output: from PLC to RTR controller.

  3. all byte and bit offsets are 0-based.

  4. if not defined on bit level, bytes are unsigned integers(0-255).

  5. integers and DINT's are signed and Cyclic values unless specified otherwise.

  6. all bit level requests are edge triggered unless specified as cyclic.

  7. default values should always be 0 unless specified otherwise.

  8. if there's a command conflict due to shared data fields between 2 commands, e.g., SetAlternateLocation with specified config, and a move to pose/config, both commands will be rejected and a command error code will be given.

  9. max. # of presets per robot: 255;

  10. max. # of object states: 255;

  11. max. # of stateful objects: 32
    max. # of targets per project: 16777215 (0xFFFFFF);

  12. max # of move segments per Combined Move: 10

  13. Time-based trigger functionality from the Move command is excluded from the I/O map because the PLC can track the Move status and create its own time-based triggers.

RTR controller I/O module slot assignment

Profinet device Module-Slot assignment
A HW Configuration example of a 2-robot RapidPlan project

  • Input: from RTR controller to PLC.

  • Output: from PLC to RTR controller.

  1. slot 1 is always reserved for 16 byte RTR controller input

  2. slot 2 is always reserved for 16 byte RTR controller output

  3. slot 3 is always reserved for 32 byte object states input

  4. slot 4 is always reserved for 32 byte object states output

  5. slot 5 is always reserved for 48 byte DSM input

  6. slot 6 is always reserved for 48 byte DSM output

  7. slot 7 is always reserved for 64 byte robot 1 input

  8. slot 8 is always reserved for 64 byte robot 1 output

  9. and so on for robot 2, to robot 16, for the slots thereafter. For each robot, it always starts with 64 bytes of input and then 64 bytes of output.

  10. slot 1 to slot 6 are always fixed(not editable) and required.

  11. from slot 7 and beyond, there can be no gaps. For example, a user can't have robot 1, and robot 5 for a 2-robot cell. It must be robot 1 and robot 2. The robot ID numbers are generated by appliance as part of the export lookup table and the same rule is followed.

Export ID’s

In order to address RapidPlan objects efficiently in a Profinet interface, symbolic names must be replaced by numerical values. Therefore, a lookup table is generated by Appliance and can be download from the Control Panel. Anytime a RapidPlan project is changed during runtime, or targets are updated/added/removed, the lookup table must be re-exported and PLC programs must be updated accordingly.

  • robots: 0-15

  • stateful object ID: 0-31

  • robot preset ID: 0-255(0xFF) - may be the same under different robots

  • frame ID and target ID: 0-16777215(0xFFFFFF) - globally unique

  • object states ID: 0-255 - may be the same under different object ID

  • Any time a project is loaded in Control Panel, or targets are added or deleted or renamed, the user is responsible to re-download the updated ID file from CP.

  • Up to 2 external axes are supported by the PNIO data map. There’s no specific look up value for each external axis. External axis#1 is always the axis with lower actuator index number.

An example:

robots: Robot1: 0 Robot2: 1 presets: Robot1: default: 0 Robot2: Preset2_torch: 0 Preset1_no_eoat: 1 Preset3_weld: 2 targets: r1home: 0 r1t1: 1 r1t2: 2 r1a1: 3 r1a2: 4 r1up: 5 r1t3: 6 r1t4: 7 r1t5: 8 r1a3: 9 r1a45: 10 r1alt: 11 r2home: 12 r2t1: 13 r2up: 14 r2a1: 15 r2t2: 16 r2t3: 17 r2a2: 18 r2a3: 19 r2t4: 20 r2a4: 21 r2alt: 22 frames: r1_default_tcp: 0 r2_default_tcp: 1 origin_frame: 2 r1_tcp: 3 r2_no_eoat_tcp: 4 r2_torch_tcp: 5 r2_weld_tcp: 6 objects: torch_latch: 0 weld_gun_latch: 1 vertical_beam: 2 states: torch_latch: present: 0 Suppressed: 1 weld_gun_latch: present: 0 Suppressed: 1 vertical_beam: present: 0 Suppressed: 1

Getting started with Profinet communication on RapidPlan

  1. Ethernet interface used by Profinet must be named fieldbus.

To rename an ethernet interface(e.g., enp2s0) in Ubuntu:

sudo ip link set enp2s0 down
sudo ip link set enp2s0 name fieldbus
sudo ip link set fieldbus up

2. Environment variable must be set - this should be done automatically when a megadeb is installed.

If not done automatically:

sudo systemctl set-environment RAPIDPLAN_PROFINET_ENABLE=true

3. Profinet must be enabled from Control Panel - Settings - Network.

If the Profinet Enabled toggle is turned on, appliance must be restarted for the function to start working.

sudo systemctl restart rtr_appliance_app.service

Profinet can be enabled without a loaded project. However, in order to export ID lookup table, a project must be loaded.

4. If Profinet is enabled for the first time, a Profinet device name must be assigned using TIA Portal. Once assigned, the device name is persistent.

5. IP address is assigned by the PLC after Profinet device name is assigned.

Programming Notes

  • A Siemens PLC library and an application example is available upon request.

  • To reset fault mode, the OperationMode output needs to be manually reset, before the reset output is set.

  • Some API commands only work in Config mode, while others only work in Operation mode. Mode interlock logic is recommended.

  • RTR library UDT type udtOutputRobotSetpoints is being shared by multiple API commands. The instances of each API command must have exclusive control over the udtOutputRobotSetpoints outputs for a given robot.

Known issues

  1. DSM is not support as of 2.3.

  2. ref_frame is not supported for Move commands.

  3. Triggers are not supported as part of a move command.

  4. When appliance restarts, the Ubuntu OS routing table is added with a duplicate default gateway pointing to the IP address assigned by the PLC. This is causing loss of internet access until the duplicate default gateway in the Ubuntu routing table is manually cleared. This is related to Ubuntu OS. Workaround: after Profinet is running, issue sudo ip route del default to restore internet access from the RTR controller.

  5. Occasionally the PLC triggers a Profinet watchdog error. This is due to the Ubuntu Desktop OS is not optimized for real-time communication. OS thread priority should be fine tuned. Workaround: increase the number of retries in the Profinet device IO settings in TIA Portal, while keeping the same 2mS update time.

  6. The Profinet driver is tested on RTR controllers(V1 and runtime) only.

Typical communication latencies

The charts below measure the time delay between a move command sent by a PLC and the ACK signal received by a PLC, with PNIO update time = 2mS.

 

GSD file