Robot Pallet layout on HMI

[CharlesM]

I am working on a robot project where I am placing parts on a pallet. I would like to display on my HMI (WinCC Flexible) the layout of the pallet. If it was a VB or Delphi I would just draw it on the screen but I can't do that in WinCC Flex. I thought about putting a bunch of circles on the screen to represent the parts and only display how ever many is on the tray. The problem with this is I could have from a few to several hundred parts. Thats a lot of circles to set properties on. So my other thought is to use a VB script and create new circle objects at runtime. I have checked into this but I don't think WinCC flex will let me do this. The only solution I can think of is to write a program (VB or Delphi) that will read information from WinCC flex and draw it on a screen. I could run this application from a button click in flex.

Any other ideas on how this could be done? Do other palletizer machines show the layout in the HMI?

 

[JesperMP]

Hi CharlesM.

I think it is not possible to do what you want:
To let Win CC Flex dynamically generate screen objects at runtime. Not with scripts or other means.

What is it that you really want to achieve ?
Try to explain in words about your application. Then we can think about a solution.

 

[CharlesM]

I have two basic pallet layouts. Depending on the part size being run sets the number of parts on a pallet. The operator enters the part size and I calcualte the number of parts on the pallet. I want to display this so the operator can see what the pallet will look like without running a pallet full of parts. Attached is the two pallet layouts.

 

[JesperMP]

If there are only 60 positions and not several hundreds, then it is not impossible to do it the "normal" way.

1st make an arraytag to hold the animaton tags. In this way you will only spend 1 powertag.

2nd make an animation object. If you use color animation then you can show more information than just yes/no.

3rd copy the animation object 60 times into the layout of the "straight grid".

4th assign the animation tags to each object (this is the dreary part).

5th copy the entire "straight grid" into another view and realign the layout into the "slanted grid".

 

[CharlesM]

This is one of the largest parts. As you get smaller it turns into several hundred very quickly.

 

[JesperMP]

How many variants are there of these pallets ?

 

[TConnolly]

Are the pallets symetrical in any way or is there any repeating pattern as pallets increase in size? If so then you can create a number of objects to represent the basic pattern and then use visibility animation hide/unhide items as needed.

For example for two pallets you might be able to do somenting like this:

X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X


Where all the red X-s are grouped into one object and all of the blue X-s are grouped into another object. For a 3x3 pallet the blue are invisible, for a 4x4 pallet they are visible. Variants of this can be used as long as there is some kind of repeating pattern from one pallet size to the next.

-----------------------------------
edit: I should have read the rest of the post. You can also use something like this:
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X
X X X X

Again grouping like colors together and use position animation to shift one group up or down to represented nested pallet rows.

 

[CharlesM]

I may be able to show just the corner of the pallet. The pattern will repeat so that may be all I need.

Thanks for the suggestion.

The pallets are all the same size (8"x12") however the part size ranges from 1" diameter to 1/4" diameter.

 

[JesperMP]

You could minimize the work by making a "row" of parts in one graphic object.
Let one tag turn a part on or off by "appearance" animation and the trigger set to "bit in tag". When the bit is zero then set the color to the same as the screen background. When the bit is true, then highlight the object with a visible color.
Up to 32 positions in one row can be animated this way if you use DINT tags. Hopefully this is enough.
You can also add a "movement" animation to every second row in order to achieve the staggered layout.

 

[CharlesM]

Here is what I came up with. I get the layout from WinCC flex write it to a text file and call a Delphi app. The Delphi app reads the text file and makes a pallet layout and saves it to a jpg that is then displayed on another screen in WinCC Flex using an HTML viewer.

Thanks for the help any comments?