Fieldbus PCI-Card
1.8 Terms
Throughout this document the term “user“, refers to the person or persons who are installing and
programming the robot controller with a fieldbus PCI-card installed. The end user of the robot
equipment will be referred to as the customer.
As in all communication systems the terms “inputs“ and “outputs“ can be ambiguous, because their
meaning depends on which end of the link that is being referenced. The convention in this document
is that “inputs“ and “outputs“ are always being referenced from the robot controller end of the link.
1.9 Fieldbus systems
Instead of using traditional wiring to distribute input and output signals, the automation industry more
frequently relays on computer communications. By using communication systems cost for material,
installation, documentation and maintenance can be greatly reduced. The communication system
can also be used for more advanced features like connecting different control systems and to
distribute the control functions to intelligent sub-systems, sensors and actuators.
The communication systems used for these tasks are commonly called a fieldbus system. Fieldbus
systems are used in all sectors of automation: Factory automation, manufacturing automation,
assembly automation, building automation, process automation, etc.
Different systems are used because of different technical requirements of the application. Those
different requirements are different levels of bus systems, bus structures, real-time behaviour,
amount of data being transferred, transmission media, distribution of power on the communication
media. The difference between the technical demands and the fact that no system on the market
fulfils all requirements has lead to a wide variety of different fieldbus systems.
When designing a product which includes fieldbus systems it is necessary to also take the local
computer network or communication system into consideration.
1.10 Introduction to the fieldbus PCI-cards
The PCI-cards are designed to make it possible to connect the robot control system to the most
commonly used fieldbus systems on the market. It controls the exchange of data between the robot
control system and the AnyBus system modules.
1.11 Hardware compatibility
The fieldbus PCI-cards are electrically compatible with the motherboards in all current models of
robot controllers. From the users point of view the fieldbus board will be used as a standard I/O board
available for the robot controller.
Page 10 Reg.No. ME00107EN-02
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