Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new in the world of motion control, and as a Ph.D. Candidate i want to setup a multi-axis real time system for demonstration purposes.We own some drives and we want a master controller.
The case is as follows:

-we want to control two (2) servo drives for position control, ABB ACSM1
http://new.abb.com/drives/low-voltage-ac/machinery/acsm1-04

-and one(1) drive for speed control, ABB ACS800
http://new.abb.com/drives/low-voltage-ac/industrial-drives/acs800-single-drives/acs800-11

-We want also to use a communication protocol (EtherCAT, CanOpen, PowerLink)

My research led me to the following options

-Elmo Gold Maestro
http://www.elmomc.com/products/multi-axis-machine-motion-controller-g.htm

-ABB AC500
http://www.abb.com/product/us/9AAC177288.aspx

My questions are:
-Are the above solutions suitable for our purposes?

-What's the difference between motion controller and PLC? (except expandability)

-CanOpen or EtherCAT preferred for the application above?

Thank you all in advance.

 

Motion controller has some features for high performance motion control vs PLC as interface for digital/analog encoders with MHz frequencies, advanced PID-filter with velocity/acceleration feed forward, internal low pass/Notch filters, dual loop, position compare and position capture, etc. With choosing motion bus you must take into account that unfortunately EtherCAT of controller may be not support the same EtherCAT from other producers. The products from Galil may be suggested also.

You can contact me directly by [email protected]