Control.com - Nerds in Control

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone had done any Modicon PLC based Machine Vision, in the context of having 1 or more cameras intefaced to a Modicon PLC to establish x,y,z co-ordinates for location.

I am just in the early stages of a project which may or may not yet go ahead. I am wanting to know what is the best solution for this though. Our site is all Modicon/Schneider gear, so I am limited to that really. I am then wanting to interface to 2 cameras to judge x,y,z position by differentiating colour, and then to be able to fairly accurately have a tool do a piece of work on a said object.

If anyone has anything they think they might like to share with me, that would be excellent.
Just want to know what would be the best solution for this, if its possible to interface a camera or 2 into a PLC and have sufficient control to determine colour, etc.

It may be better to do this with PC based control, but I don't particularly want to make an 'orphan' on site.

Cheers
J

I have interfaced to Cognex Insight cameras over Modbus TCP (i.e. Cognex supports Modbus TCP). My project reads coordinates from the cognex camera to position a servo. I am triggering with a hardware output, waiting on a busy signal, and then reading the contents of their spreadsheet cells (i.e. the coordinates).

I haven't actually done this with Modicon, oddly enough, but with a Modbus TCP master module from Mitsubishi. I can't see how the Modicon version would be any worse. :o)

~Ken