Glossary

A cylindrical robot, having two parallel rotary joints (horizontally articulated) and provides compliance in one selected plane. (ISO 8373) Note: SCARA derives from Selectively Compliant Arm for Robotic Assembly

A unit of programming used to create, display, and edit programs on the CX-Programmer. Sections can be named. Sections are executed in the order they are displayed in the project tree, from top to bottom. Sections can be moved to change the execution order or to move them to separate programs, and they can be copied. Dividing programs into smaller units enables standardization when creating, displaying, and editing programs.

To determine certain physical or chemical characteristics and transform them into an electrical signal to make them digitally process able. Sensors form the backbone of the IoT, helping to bridge the gap between digital and physical.

A control method in which the control process is divided into single steps that are processed one after another according to an initially determined procedure.

An electrical power mechanism used to effect motion or maintains position of the robot (for example, a motor which converts electrical energy to effect motion of the robot) (R15.07). The motor responds to a signal received from the control system and often incorporates an encoder to provide feedback to the control loop.

An alternating, current electrical power mechanism that is controlled through logic to convert electrical supply power that is in a sine wave form to a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) square form, delivered to the motors for motor control: speed, direction, acceleration, deceleration and braking control.

A setpoint (SP) is represents the desired level for a process variable (PV). An acceptable alternative spelling is set-point. Control systems attempt correct the variable when it deviates from this setting. In the case of a household thermostat, the setpoint (SP) represents the desired room temperature. The process variable (PV) is the actual temperature of the room, which may be different than the setpoint (SP) temperature.

A graphical programming language developed to facilitate programming step control to control sequential processing. It is defined by IEC 61131-3.

The first or second axis of a robot is sometimes referred to as a shoulder axis as it somewhat resembles a human shoulder. This is often used in describing humanoid or dual-arm systems such as the Yaskawa Motoman® SDA10D.

The sidebar contains panels that provide a number of useful tools within the editor. These include panels to view more information and help about a node, to view debug message and to view the flow’s configuration nodes.

A graphical computer program that represents the robot and its environment, which emulates the robot's behavior during a simulated run of the robot. This is used to determine a robot's behavior in certain situations, before actually commanding the robot to perform such tasks. Simulation items to consider are: the 3D modeling of the environment, kinematics emulation, path-planning emulation and simulation of sensors. See Sensor, Forward Kinematics and Robot.

Buildings designed and equipped to try to minimize costs and environmental impact. This is achieved by connected systems and effi cient use of energy through new, automated technology that intelligently responds to certain circumstances (available solar energy, temperature inside the building, etc.)

A concept that tries to create a more intelligent city infrastructure by using modern information and communication technologies. Smart cities are about a more flexible adaptation to certain circumstances, more effi cient use of resources, improved quality of life, fluent transportation and more. This will be achieved through networking and integrated information exchange between humans and things.

Refers to the networking of household devices and systems through information and communication technology. This way, processes within a household can be monitored and controlled automatically to optimize quality of life, costs, security and environmental impact.

The smart instrument is a device both PLCs and DCS systems can interface to. Although this term is sometimes misused, it typically means an intelligent (microprocessor based) digital measuring sensor (such as a flow meter) with digital data communications provided to some diagnostic panel or computer based system.

Simple Network Management Protocol: commonly used to configure or monitor the status of devices connected to a LAN; usually performed by a web browser

ETAT

Spherical Robot or Polar robot feature a combination of two rotational joints and one linear joint. Their design creates a spherical-shaped working space. It can be used for injection molding, painting, arc welding, and spot welding. They can have a long reach when equipped with a suitably sized linear arm. Polar robot are an older technology and can be replaced with articulated arm robot, although in some applications the polar robot may still be more cost-effective than its alternatives.

A statement is part of a suite (a “block” of code). A statement is either an expression or one of several constructs with a keyword, such as if, while or for.

A unit that indicates the length of an instruction. This indicates how much space is required in user memory to store the instruction. The number of steps varies for each instruction.

A program control method in which the order of execution and the execution time are determined for each step in the entire process.

Method in which an Ethernet switch will wait to forward a frame until entire frame is received.

Short for “character string”, a sequence of zero or more characters.

A Subflow is a collection of nodes that are collapsed into a single node in the workspace.

Specifies which part of the IP address is used as the subnet address

A program area that is accessed by branching from the main program using a subroutine instruction or a macro. Subroutines must be placed after the main program.

(SCADA) A system whereby computers are used to collect real-time data from plant machinery to provide central monitoring, control and process visualization of the plant and its facilities. Plant instrumentation (sensors, switches, motors, pumps, valves etc.) is connected to the PLC, which in turn is connected to the PC running the SCADA software.

A Layer 2 device which serves to connect devices on the network; forwards packets based on addresses unlike a hub which forwards data to all ports

An address that has been given a name in the I/O memory. For function blocks, however, the term "variable" is used and it indicates a storage location for data rather than a name used to indicate an address. "Symbol" is used in all other contexts. When monitoring I/O memory with symbols in the CX-Programmer, the specified size of data from the first address specified with the symbol is displayed for the specified data type.

The rules that define how code must be written for a computer to understand.

A programming error that occurs when statements are in an order or contain characters not expected by the programming language.