New "Point and Click" Motion Profile Development Tool Shortens Design Time For Machine Developers

RMCWin software from Delta Computer Systems, Inc. cuts time required for complex motion controller programming and tuning by up to 80%

March 20, 2003 - Delta Computer Systems, Inc. a leading manufacturer of motion controllers, announced that its RMCWin development software with new curve tool has dramatically simplified motion controller programming and tuning for OEMs and system integrators. RMCWin with curve tool allows controls engineers to program and adjust complex motion profiles graphically, cutting development and debugging time by as much as 80% compared to other motion controller programming techniques that involve assembling, managing and calculating extensive sequences of discrete motion programming instructions.

Using RMCWin with curve tool, the engineer uses mouse clicks to graphically place key coordinates of mode, acceleration, deceleration, speed, and position over time to represent motion of an axis. The design tool then automatically connects the coordinates with a smooth motion profile using a third-order cubic spline algorithm (see Figure 1), generating a sequence of high-level instructions which are downloaded into the company's RMC line of motion controllers to affect the motion. This compares to typical proprietary programming tools in which the engineer must program all five functions per point, then calculate the third-order splines between each point.

"With multiple, non-linear slave axes, manually programming these splines would have been a huge part of our project," said Bill Long, president of Altec Integrated Solutions Ltd. (Vancouver, BC), who recently completed the design of a veneer lathe for the forest products manufacturing industry. "The curve tool significantly cut our development and debugging time compared to other motion controller programming techniques. And we were able to integrate this functionality with our PLC-based controls to give the end user a simple front-end interface to a complex process."

The curve tool supports simultaneous programming and tuning of multiple axes, in which the curves are linked such that one axis's motion profile can be slaved or "electronically geared" to the other axis (see the diagrams in Figure 2.) The engineer can time-scale the motion by simply selecting the curves and stretching them, changing the rate of motion while keeping the axes synchronized. Without this capability, an engineer must change each axis separately, perform all the required calculations, then validate the calculations to make sure the axes are still synchronized.

"The curve tool is ideal for rapid prototyping," said Doug Taylor, engineer at systems integrator Concept Systems, Inc. (Albany, Oregon). "On a recent project requiring the coordination of six motion axes on a movie filming set, we were able to set up new, complete motion profiles in seconds whereas it could have taken more than an hour, costing thousands of dollars in lost productivity, without Delta's curve tool."

The newest version of RMCWin with curve tool is available immediately for download at http://www.deltamotion.com/, complete with demo and all documentation, and comes with any Delta RMC motion controller.