Motion integration issues have emerged to the forefront, along with maintainability and
connectivity to automation solutions. For this standards are needed. PLCopen has generated
such a standard. A standard in programming language, to harmonize the access of motion
control functionality across platforms. In this way, the generated application program is
much more hardware independent, and re-usable across platforms. The provided standard, the
PLCopen Motion Control Profile, is based on IEC 61131-3 Function Blocks. With the
standardization of the interfaces and the functionality, and implementation on multiple
platforms, it provides a programming standard that is widely supported by the industry.
The stated goals of this standardization are simplicity, efficiency, consistency,
universality, flexibility and completeness. Due to the data hiding and encapsulation, it
is usable on different architectures, for instance ranging from centralized to distributed
control. It is also important to say that it is not specifically designed for a certain
range of applications e.g. packaging industry but it will serve as a basic layer for
ongoing definitions in these areas. As such it is open to existing and future
technologies.
This profile has been published for comments, to make sure that a wide user acceptance is realized. The feedback is now merged into the specification. The combination will be published as an official Version 1.0, to be released by June 2001. Last November, several companies committed themselves to support this standard, so the first implementations are expected to be released shortly after the release of the official version. Adopting the standard for their PC based control architecture, Beckhoff has made a significant contribution to the development of the Motion Control Profile and is among the first to offer a real-life implementation.