The special feature of Yaskawa's new ecosystem is the clever concept of offering a complete solution for industrial control systems that technically coordinates everything from the engineering software to the control hardware to the chips integrated in it. In anticipation of further additions to the i3 CONTROL portfolio, the specially developed i3 Engineer software environment and the first machine controller of this new platform, iC9212M-EC, were recently presented.

Focus on the i3 Engineer software environment

The i3 Engineer software, based on a real-time Linux operating system, is designed to provide access to the entire platform and offers openness, flexibility and scalability for this purpose. It supports IEC61131-3-compliant programming languages and PLCopen function blocks as well as the script languages C#, C++, Python or MATLAB Simulink. According to Yaskawa, this opens up completely new possibilities for the development of individual applications, even in global teams.

At the same time, the software is precisely matched to the performance range of the Yaskawa components. This means that the software always guides the user easily and reliably to the optimal solution for maximum performance, even if the user does not yet have detailed product knowledge.

New iC9212M-EC machine controller

The first market-ready hardware of the new platform is the iC9212M-EC controller. It has an EtherCAT interface (FSoE in the iC9212M-FSoE version) for intelligent, cost-effective and safe connection of Yaskawa servo drives and inverters. HMIs can be connected via an OPC- UA server. In addition, the PLC uses components from the established SLIO system as an I/O platform. This means that the controller offers full versatility right from the start.

TRITON professional processor

The core element of the new controller is the profichip TRITON processor from Yaskawa. Based on VxWorks and specially designed for industrial applications, it is ideal for fast processing of demanding motion sequences thanks to its three individually switchable cores. Architecturally, the profichip TRITON combines a powerful multi-core processor with Gigabit-capable Industrial Ethernet communication and a fast and reliable backplane bus system. It thus offers a future-proof, flexible and scalable solution for the realisation of customised systems that are characterised by a low TCO.

i3 CONTROL: complete system for automation

i3 CONTROL is geared towards the future, which means that the platform is to be continuously expanded into a complete system for control and automation. In the next step, Yaskawa will expand the system to include the motion control functions already available in the MPiec machine controller. This will be followed by the integration of safety functions and later robotics. The overriding goal is to create a uniform platform through which the machine manufacturer can access all functions, from PLC to motion control and safety to robot programming and control, in the same environment.

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