What type of real time external board or controller should i choose?

Question

I'm a developer of industrial robots software. I'm a new in this sphere and i need your advice.

The software for simple industrial machine was developed by me. It is use standart LPT port. But the possibilites of LPT port are very limited. And I need to choose next direction of hardware.

Recent months i was studying PLC of Omron. But, i think, it is impossible to manage it fully. I can use only moving to concrete point, it isn't complicated movement (like as a circular, for any configurations of robots). If i take more expencive controller, special for robotics, it has some special configurations only.

So, I need something like real-time external board (like SmoothStepper) or special PLC, or something else, what i can use for my goals. SmoothStepper is used only with MACH3, MACH4, it hasn't any libraries for programmers.

Please, give me advice, what direction should i choose, maybe using PC or only PLC?

Answer 1

For industrial grade Applications take a look to the industrial motion control boards like :

http://www.adlinktech.com/Motion-Control/Pulse-Train-Motion-Controllers.php?utm_source=

http://www.galilmc.com/motion-controllers/multi-axis

you can make your own software and use them as interface for your machine and it has libraries for programmers.