1. An EtherCAT bus control system with a double-PC architecture is characterized in that,

the Ethernet control system comprises a first PC, a second PC and a plurality of EtherCAT slave station modules;

the first PC is used for operating numerical control system software, transmitting a processing program and technological parameters to a second PC, and the second PC processes the processing program and the technological parameters transmitted by the first PC to generate a control instruction and transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module so that the EtherCAT slave station module executes the control instruction.

2. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 1,

the first PC is an operation end PC, the operation end PC is provided with a Windows system, the second PC is a control end PC, the control end PC is provided with a Linux system, the operation end PC transmits a processing program and technological parameters to the control end PC through a TCP/IP protocol, and the control end PC transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module through an EtherCAT bus protocol.

3. The EtherCAT bus control system of the dual PC architecture of claim 2,

the Windows system is integrated with HMI software, the HMI software logs in and accesses a server of the control end PC machine through a TCP/IP protocol in the form of a TCP/IP client, and the HMI software comprises a production task arrangement function module, a processing process parameter setting queue function module and a machine tool running state monitoring function module.

4. The EtherCAT bus control system of the dual PC architecture of claim 2,

the control end PC machine is loaded with a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, the Linux operating system comprises a first user space, a first kernel space and a hardware layer, and the Xenomai operating system comprises a second user space and a second kernel space.

5. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 4,

the control end PC machine comprises an x86 architecture processor hardware platform with at least two physical cores to carry a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, wherein the Linux operating system and the Xenomai operating system are respectively operated on different physical cores.

6. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 4,

the first user space is provided with a TCP/IP server, the first kernel space is provided with a network equipment module and a common network card drive, the hardware layer is provided with a first network card, the TCP/IP server is communicated with the network equipment module, the network equipment module is communicated with the common network card drive, and the first network card carries the common network card drive and is used for receiving and sending standard Ethernet data frames so as to realize communication with an operation terminal PC.

7. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 6,

the Ethernet CAT bus communication system comprises an Ethernet CAT master station module, an Ethernet CAT special network card driver and a Linux system log, wherein the Ethernet CAT master station module is used for achieving whole Ethernet CAT bus communication, the Ethernet CAT master station module is communicated with the Ethernet CAT special network card driver, a second network card is arranged on a hardware layer, the second network card carries the Ethernet CAT special network card driver and is used for receiving and sending standard Ethernet data frames so as to achieve communication with the Ethernet CAT slave station module, and the TCP/IP server monitors the running state of the Ethernet CAT master station module through the Linux system log.

8. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 4,

the second user space is provided with a motion control kernel and a shared memory communicated with the motion control kernel, the motion control kernel belongs to a real-time task and is used for controlling a machine tool in real time, the real-time control comprises path planning, track interpolation calculation and machine tool control instruction data refreshing, the shared memory is communicated with the TCP/IP server and is used for storing a processing program and technological parameters acquired from the TCP/IP server, and the motion control kernel processes the processing program and the technological parameters to generate a machine tool control instruction.

9. The EtherCAT bus control system of the dual PC architecture of claim 8,

the second kernel space is provided with an RTDM interface, a POSIX standard interface and a Cobalt core, the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface are communicated with the motion control kernel, the RTDM interface is communicated with the EtherCAT master station module, the Cobalt core is communicated with the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface, the motion control kernel calls the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface provided by the Cobalt core to refresh the EtherCAT master station module, and the EtherCAT master station module sends the control instruction data to the EtherCAT slave station module through a bus and enables the EtherCAT slave station module to execute the instruction action.

10. The EtherCAT bus control system of dual PC architecture of claim 1,

the EtherCAT slave station module selects an EtherCAT bus servo driver and an EtherCAT bus IO module, and adopts a linear and star topology network structure.

Background

In the field of automation control, pure software control systems based on PCs are becoming mainstream, but products in the market generally adopt a single Windows operating system and carry a numerical control system implementation form of related control system software thereon. The Windows system is suitable for running a numerical control system operation interface software HMI due to the fact that the Windows system is highly friendly in man-machine interaction, and for a motion control kernel with a real-time requirement, the non-real-time property and instability of the Windows system determine that the motion control kernel cannot be run. The existing common solution is to construct a real-time kernel on the Windows system to run the motion control kernel, but the software complexity of the system is increased by the technology, the instability of the Windows system can generate uncontrollable influence on the motion control kernel of the real-time system, and in addition, almost all real-time kernel + EtherCAT master station development kits based on the Windows system belong to charging software, and the software cost is high. Moreover, the numerical control system in the form of a single PC increases the design and material costs of the structure and wiring on the machine tool of the separate control electrical cabinet.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide an EtherCAT bus control system with a double-PC framework, which solves the problem that a motion control kernel of a real-time system is easy to generate uncontrollable influence, ensures that interpolation calculation of the motion control kernel meets the requirement of hard real-time performance, and ensures high precision and high reliability of machine tool machining.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, embodiments of the present invention provide the following technical solutions:

an EtherCAT bus control system with a double-PC architecture,

the Ethernet control system comprises a first PC, a second PC and a plurality of EtherCAT slave station modules;

the first PC is used for operating numerical control system software, transmitting a processing program and technological parameters to a second PC, and the second PC processes the processing program and the technological parameters transmitted by the first PC to generate a control instruction and transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module so that the EtherCAT slave station module executes the control instruction.

Further, the first PC is an operation-side PC, the operation-side PC is equipped with a Windows system, the second PC is a control-side PC, the control-side PC is equipped with a Linux system, the operation-side PC transmits a processing program and process parameters to the control-side PC through a TCP/IP protocol, and the control-side PC transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module through an EtherCAT bus protocol.

Furthermore, HMI software is integrated on the Windows system, the HMI software logs in and accesses a server of the control end PC through a TCP/IP protocol in the form of a TCP/IP client, and the HMI software comprises a production task arrangement function module, a processing technology parameter setting queue function module and a machine tool running state monitoring function module.

Furthermore, the control-end PC is loaded with a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, the Linux operating system includes a first user space, a first kernel space and a hardware layer, and the Xenomai operating system includes a second user space and a second kernel space.

Further, the control-side PC comprises an x86 architecture processor hardware platform with at least two physical cores to carry a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, wherein the Linux operating system and the Xenomai operating system are respectively run on different physical cores.

Further, the first user space is provided with a TCP/IP server, the first kernel space is provided with a network device module and a common network card driver, the hardware layer is provided with a first network card, the TCP/IP server communicates with the network device module, the network device module communicates with the common network card driver, and the first network card carries the common network card driver and is used for receiving and sending standard ethernet data frames to realize communication with the operation end PC.

Furthermore, the first kernel space is provided with an EtherCAT master station module, an EtherCAT special network card driver and a Linux system log, the EtherCAT master station module is used for realizing the communication of the whole EtherCAT bus, the EtherCAT master station module is communicated with the EtherCAT special network card driver, the hardware layer is provided with a second network card, the second network card is carried with the EtherCAT special network card driver and used for receiving and sending standard Ethernet data frames so as to realize the communication with the EtherCAT slave station module, and the TCP/IP server monitors the operation state of the EtherCAT master station module through the Linux system log.

Furthermore, the second user space is provided with a motion control kernel and a shared memory which is communicated with the motion control kernel, the motion control kernel belongs to a real-time task and is used for controlling the machine tool in real time, the real-time control comprises path planning, track interpolation calculation and machine tool control instruction data refreshing, the shared memory is communicated with the TCP/IP server and is used for storing the processing program and the process parameters which are obtained from the TCP/IP server, and the motion control kernel processes the processing program and the process parameters to generate the machine tool control instructions.

Further, the second kernel space is provided with an RTDM interface, a POSIX standard interface and a Cobalt core, the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface communicate with the motion control kernel, the RTDM interface communicates with the EtherCAT master station module, the Cobalt core communicates with the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface, the motion control kernel calls the RTDM interface and the POSIX standard interface provided by the Cobalt core to refresh the EtherCAT master station module, and the EtherCAT master station module sends the control instruction data to the EtherCAT slave station module through a bus, and enables the EtherCAT slave station module to execute the instruction action.

Furthermore, the EtherCAT slave station module selects an EtherCAT bus servo driver and an EtherCAT bus IO module, and adopts a linear and star topology network structure.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment of the invention mainly has the following beneficial effects:

an EtherCAT bus control system with a double-PC architecture adopts the double-PC architecture, and data communication can be realized only by connecting a network cable between the double PCs, so that the system has wide adaptability and high flexibility; meanwhile, a real-time system for motion control and a Windows system for user operation are isolated by hardware, so that the real-time performance and the stability of the real-time system are improved. The mode has strong advantages on large-scale machine tool equipment of the separated control electric cabinet, and solves the problems of expensive and complex wiring, unstable data transmission and the like between a user console and a remote electric cabinet. The real-time system adopts an open-source free Linux + Xenomai operating system to carry out special real-time optimization on a hardware platform and a software platform, and real-time jitter is kept within 10us, so that the system has higher processing precision. The EtherCAT bus communication is adopted between the machine tool control modules, so that the accuracy and the reliability of data transmission are greatly improved, and the wiring requirement and the cost of the electric cabinet are reduced. The problem of a real-time system is solved, the interpolation calculation of the motion control kernel is ensured to meet the requirement of hard real-time performance, and the high precision and the high reliability of machine tool machining are ensured. The motion control kernel and the EtherCAT bus are communicated and carried on a Linux system which can stably run for a long time, so that the influence of the instability of a Windows operating system on the communication of the motion control kernel and the bus is avoided, and the stability of the whole system is improved. The method solves the problem that the Windows system has influence on a real-time system, such as HMI, CAM or CAD which cause heavy load to the system, and the Windows system is easy to be affected by software virus invasion to damage data.

Drawings

In order to illustrate the solution of the invention more clearly, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the invention, and that other drawings may be derived from these drawings by a person skilled in the art without inventive effort.

Fig. 1 is a system framework diagram of an EtherCAT bus control system with a dual-PC architecture according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a system framework of a PC at a control end according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of reference numerals:

1. an operation end PC; 2. a control end PC; 3. an EtherCAT slave station module; 4. a TCP/IP server; 5. a network device module; 6. driving a common network card; 7. a Linux system log; 8. an EtherCAT master station module; 9. the EtherCAT special network card drives; 10. a first network card; 11. a second network card; 12. sharing the memory; 13. a motion control kernel; 14. an RTDM interface; 15. a POSIX interface; 16. a Cobalt nucleus.

Detailed Description

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used in the description of the invention herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. The terms "comprising" and "having," and any variations thereof, in the description and claims of the present invention and the description of the above figures are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and in the claims, or in the drawings, are used for distinguishing between different objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential order.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

The embodiment of the application provides an EtherCAT bus control system with a double-PC architecture,

the Ethernet control system comprises a first PC, a second PC and a plurality of EtherCAT slave station modules; the first PC is used for operating numerical control system software, transmitting a processing program and technological parameters to a second PC, and the second PC processes the processing program and the technological parameters transmitted by the first PC to generate a control instruction and transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module so that the EtherCAT slave station module executes the control instruction.

In order to make the technical solutions of the present invention better understood by those skilled in the art, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the relevant drawings.

Examples

An EtherCAT bus control system with a dual PC architecture, as shown in fig. 1 and 2,

the system comprises a first PC, a second PC and a plurality of EtherCAT slave station modules 3;

the first PC is used for operating numerical control system software, transmitting a processing program and technological parameters to a second PC, and the second PC processes the processing program and the technological parameters transmitted by the first PC to generate a control instruction and transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module 3, so that the EtherCAT slave station module 3 executes the control instruction.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the first PC is an operation-side PC 1, the operation-side PC 1 is equipped with a Windows system, the second PC is a control-side PC 2, the control-side PC 2 is equipped with a Linux system, the operation-side PC 1 transmits a processing program and a process parameter to the control-side PC 2 through a TCP/IP protocol, and the control-side PC 2 transmits the control instruction to the EtherCAT slave station module 3 through an EtherCAT bus protocol, such as the EtherCAT slave station 1 … … EtherCAT slave station n.

The EtherCAT bus control system with the double-PC framework provided by the embodiment of the invention has the advantages that the operation end PC 1 and the control end PC 2 are arranged, so that the user operation function and the machine tool motion control function are independent and are respectively realized on the respective PCs. Operating numerical control system software such as HMI, CAM or CAD and the like on an operation end PC 1 (namely, a PC operating a Windows system), transmitting a processing program and technological parameters to a control end PC 2 through a TCP/IP protocol, calculating control instruction data of the machine tool after the control end PC 2 receives the processing program and the technological parameters, transmitting the control instruction data to each EtherCAT slave station module 3 of the machine tool through an EtherCAT bus protocol, enabling the EtherCAT slave station module 3 to execute corresponding control instructions, and finally finishing the operation control of a user on the machine tool. Data communication can be realized only by connecting one network cable between the operation end PC 1 and the control end PC 2, the mode has strong advantages on large-scale machine tool equipment of a separated control electric cabinet, and the problems that wiring from a user console to a remote electric cabinet is expensive and complex, data transmission is unstable and the like are solved. The control end PC 2 and the EtherCAT slave station module 3 are communicated by an EtherCAT bus, so that high-speed transmission and stability of data are guaranteed, accuracy and reliability of data transmission are greatly improved, a function execution module of a machine tool can accurately complete received command actions on time, and wiring requirements and cost of an electric cabinet are reduced.

In other embodiments, the communication protocol between the operation-side PC 1 and the control-side PC 2 may also adopt OPC UA protocol, and data communication is realized by integrating a server in the control-side PC 1 and a client in the operation-side PC 2.

In this embodiment, the operation-side PC 1 selects a general industrial integrated PC hardware platform with different processor performances according to the load of the user operation software, and mounts a Windows operating system software platform. The Windows system is integrated with HMI software, the HMI software logs in and accesses the server of the control end PC machine 2 through a TCP/IP protocol in the form of a TCP/IP client, and the HMI software comprises a production task arrangement function module, a processing process parameter setting queue function module, a machine tool running state monitoring function module and the like.

The control end PC machine 2 comprises an x86 architecture processor hardware platform with at least two physical cores to carry a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, wherein the Linux operating system and the Xenomai operating system respectively run on different physical cores.

The control end PC 2 is loaded with a Linux operating system and a Xenomai operating system, the Linux operating system comprises a first user space, a first kernel space and a hardware layer, and the Xenomai operating system comprises a second user space and a second kernel space.

It should be noted that, in order to ensure the real-time performance of the task of the motion control kernel 13, an x86 architecture processor hardware platform with two or more physical kernels must be selected to carry the Linux + Xenomai real-time kernel operating system. The Linux kernel operating system and the Xenomai kernel operating system (called Cobalt kernel 16) are respectively operated on different physical kernels, and the Cobalt kernel 16 needs to be allocated with at least one physical kernel. As shown in fig. 2, the operating systems in the system framework of the control PC 2 are called domains, i.e. the Linux domain and the Xenomai domain in fig. 2, and each domain has a respective user space and kernel space.

The first user space is provided with a TCP/IP server 4, the first kernel space is provided with a network equipment module 5 and a common network card driver 6, the hardware layer is provided with a first network card 10, the TCP/IP server 4 is communicated with the network equipment module 5, the network equipment module 5 is communicated with the common network card driver 6, and the first network card 10 carries the common network card driver 6 and is used for receiving and sending standard Ethernet data frames so as to realize communication with an operation terminal PC.

The TCP/IP server 4 runs in a first user space of the Linux operating system, realizes data communication with the operating end PC 1 through a network equipment module 5 of the first user space, and the first network card 10 carries a common network card driver 6 and is responsible for realizing the receiving and sending functions of standard Ethernet data frames so as to realize the communication with the operating end PC.

The Ethernet CAT bus communication system is characterized in that an EtherCAT main station module 8, an EtherCAT special network card driver 9 and a Linux system log 7 are arranged in the first kernel space, the EtherCAT main station module 8 is used for achieving whole Ethernet CAT bus communication, the EtherCAT main station module 8 is communicated with the EtherCAT special network card driver 9, a second network card 11 is arranged on the hardware layer, the second network card 11 carries the EtherCAT special network card driver 9 and is used for receiving and sending standard Ethernet data frames to achieve communication with the EtherCAT slave station module 3, and the TCP/IP server 4 monitors the running state of the EtherCAT main station module 8 through the Linux system log 7.

The EtherCAT master station module 8 runs in a first kernel space of a Linux operating system, is responsible for realizing the whole EtherCAT bus communication function, and realizes communication with the EtherCAT slave station module 3 by carrying a second network card 11 of the EtherCAT special network card driver 9 to receive and transmit data frames. In addition, the TCP/IP server 4 monitors the running state of the EtherCAT master station through the Linux system log 7.

The second user space is provided with a motion control kernel 13 and a shared memory 12 which is communicated with the motion control kernel 13, the motion control kernel 13 belongs to a real-time task and is used for controlling the machine tool in real time, the real-time control comprises path planning, track interpolation calculation and machine tool control instruction data refreshing, the shared memory 12 is communicated with the TCP/IP server 4 and is used for storing the processing program and the process parameters which are obtained from the TCP/IP server 4, and the motion control kernel 13 processes the processing program and the process parameters to generate the machine tool control instructions.

The second kernel space is provided with an RTDM interface 14, a POSIX interface 15 and a Cobalt core 16, the RTDM interface 14 and the POSIX interface 15 communicate with the motion control kernel 13, the RTDM interface 14 communicates with the EtherCAT master station module 8, the Cobalt core 16 communicates with the RTDM interface 14 and the POSIX interface 15, the motion control kernel 13 calls the RTDM interface 14 and the POSIX interface 15 provided by the Cobalt core 16 to refresh to the EtherCAT master station module 8, and the EtherCAT master station module sends the control instruction data to the EtherCAT slave station module 3 through a bus and enables the EtherCAT slave station module 3 to execute the instruction action.

The motion control kernel 13 running in the second user space of the Xenomai operating system belongs to a real-time task, realizes real-time control of the machine tool, and mainly comprises functions of path planning, track interpolation calculation, machine tool control instruction data refreshing and the like. The motion control kernel 13 obtains data such as processing programs and process parameters transmitted by the operation end PC 1 from the TCP/IP server 4 through the shared memory 12, calculates machine tool control instruction data, and refreshes the machine tool control instruction data to the EtherCAT master station through the RTDM interface 14 and the POSIX interface 15 provided by the Cobalt kernel 16, and the EtherCAT master station sends the machine tool control instruction data to the EtherCAT slave station module 3 through the bus and executes corresponding instruction actions, thereby finally realizing control over the machine tool.

Xenomai is a strong real-time expansion of an open-source Linux kernel, and the BIOS of a hardware platform and the start parameters of the Linux kernel are optimally set in real time when a PC system of a control end is built, so that the real-time performance of the system is greatly improved. In BIOS setting, close hyper-thread and Rui frequency option, set the maximum frequency value of the set display equal to the minimum frequency value supported by the hardware platform. Isolating the multi-core CPU in the kernel starting parameters to ensure that the Linux task cannot be dispatched to the isolated CPU, and then binding Xenomai to the isolated CPU; interrupt isolation is also performed to let the CPU not isolated handle the interrupt.

The EtherCAT slave station module 3 adopts an EtherCAT bus servo driver and an EtherCAT bus IO module, and can adopt a linear and star topology network structure.

The EtherCAT slave station selects an EtherCAT bus servo driver and an EtherCAT bus IO module, connects different numbers of servo drivers and IO modules with different functions according to the function requirements of the machine tool, and can adopt flexible topological network structures such as linear and star structures. The servo driver selects a periodic synchronous position control mode, receives a position instruction transmitted by the EtherCAT master station, and completes a corresponding position instruction by a closed-loop control motor in the servo driver.

The EtherCAT bus control system with the double-PC architecture provided by the embodiment of the invention adopts the double-PC architecture, and data communication can be realized only by connecting one network cable between the double PCs, so that the system has wide adaptability and high flexibility; meanwhile, a real-time system for motion control and a Windows system for user operation are isolated by hardware, so that the real-time performance and the stability of the real-time system are improved. The mode has strong advantages on large-scale machine tool equipment of the separated control electric cabinet, and solves the problems of expensive and complex wiring, unstable data transmission and the like between a user console and a remote electric cabinet. The real-time system adopts an open-source free Linux + Xenomai operating system to carry out special real-time optimization on a hardware platform and a software platform, and real-time jitter is kept within 10us, so that the system has higher processing precision. The EtherCAT bus communication is adopted between the machine tool control modules, so that the accuracy and the reliability of data transmission are greatly improved, and the wiring requirement and the cost of the electric cabinet are reduced. The problem that the motion control kernel 13 of a real-time system is easy to generate uncontrollable influence is solved, and the interpolation calculation of the motion control kernel 13 is ensured to meet the requirement of hard real-time performance so as to ensure high precision and high reliability of machine tool machining. The motion control kernel 13 and the EtherCAT bus are communicated and carried on a Linux system which can stably run for a long time, so that the influence of the instability of a Windows operating system on the communication between the motion control kernel 13 and the bus is avoided, and the stability of the whole system is improved. The method solves the problem that the Windows system has influence on a real-time system, such as HMI, CAM or CAD which cause heavy load to the system, and the Windows system is easy to be affected by software virus invasion to damage data.

It is to be understood that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of some, but not restrictive, of the broad invention, and that the appended drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention without limiting its scope. This invention may be embodied in many different forms and, on the contrary, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes in the embodiments and modifications can be made, and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof. All equivalent structures made by using the contents of the specification and the attached drawings of the invention can be directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, and are also within the protection scope of the patent of the invention.