Communication, Configuration, Application - The Three Layer Concept for Plug-and-Produce

The Plug-And-Play is a synonym for the simple use of computer systems in office applications. This appealing idea also emerges in the branches of robotics and automation. But due to their specific technical and application driven requirements i.e. real-time, determinism, safety... a simple taking over of the technology is not sufficient. Plug-and-Produce extends the “easy to use” for applications in robotics and automation. This will lead to a dramatically reduction of set-up times of work-cells. In order to fulfil the various requirements a three layered Plug-and-Produce architecture is presented. The communication layer addresses all topics regarding the bus-system level; the configuration layer is responsible for the control and operation system level; and the application layer addresses the needs of the user and system programmer. A prototypical implementation is also presented.