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Jack H

19.5.1 Overview

A workcell has been constructed using one light industrial robot, and one NC milling machine. Some automated fixtures are also used.

All of the devices in the workcell are controlled from a single Sun computer. This is an engineering workstation with UNIX. Thus, it is capable of multitasking (running more than one program at once).

Software drivers, interfaces, and applications have been developed, to aid in teaching and demonstration.

The following pages will describe the interfacing in the workcell, as an example of the connection between process control computers and a plant floor computer. A project in development will be discussed for networking Plant Floor (and higher) computers.