The big Factory I/O Wishlist (Discussion)

[janbumer1]

@bondedamecatronica

1. I’m with you on this one. Cylinders and robots need 2 positions. I can’t reliably work with just the signal to extend and a signal that tells me the axis is moving. How would one do this on real machines anyways? You always have a sensor for each end position! @beatriz.santos I think this would be an important one. The current behaviour/sensor for the axis of the pick-place-station for example don’t really represent a real life scenario.

2. I’m not quite getting you there. Which machine needs an X and Y position? You get a position reading if you set the station to “analogue”, it’s just on a 0-10 scale though. While one can argue that this doesn’t really make sense because you get an integer from an encoder and not a 0-10V signal I would say this is sufficient. If you scale this signal accordingly you get a pretty accurate position.
   I would wish for a different kind of analogue for the elevator and stacker crane though. One where you don’t give it a setpoint but rather a speed (positive or negative) and the elevator would move according to that speed. That way one could do the positioning by themselves. There are still elevators and stacker cranes out there that don’t do the positioning through the inverter but rather use the PLC to position the axis!

3. I think this would burst the scope of this software. You already have the pick and place robot that you can program this way. It would certainly be really cool to have the robot arm (like the one from the CNC machine) as a standalone, but what tools would you give him? Should he be able to pick up pallets? Or just parts?

4. Light grids and safety doors are already available. Safety scanners wouldn’t really make sense because the first-person camera has no body, and safety scanners are for detection of persons or limbs.

5. Actually we normally only have a relatively small interface with most robot cells. We normally only tell them to start their work, to stop their work or emergency stop and that’s it. Most cells are self contained, so the station here is a somewhat accurate representation of a real live example.

@wayneschaefer Yeah, you did. About 5 times.

[wayneschaefer]

Regarding point #1, I have been successful at utilizing the supplied sensors to add Advanced and Returned status to the various individual and embedded cylinders in the simulation. The simulation I shared, along with the video of operation, shows how this can be done. I also was able to add sensors to the pick and place arm … it wasn’t exactly “pretty” but they did the job (needed a Home Position for each axis). Currently, the lack of position indication is a great teaching tool as it forces a discussion in the classroom.

Regarding #5, this would make a great offline discussion and debate. We used to allow Robot and Gantry manufacturers to supply more complex programming but most integrations turned into an nightmare (for many reasons that, I agree, could have been avoided). In the end we adopted a more master-slave philosophy and let the PLC be the master and control compartmentalized motions. Just our experience (automotive machining and assembly operations), which I realize does not necessarily paint a picture for the entire industry.

[shawntierney]

@beatriz.santos thanks for listening to our feedback!!!

[paul.murray]

Hi [bondedamecatronica]

Can you post a link to your YouTube channel?

Mine is here (we can share)

[paul.murray]

I would like to have some basic labelling abilities so that I can indicate what things are, such as “Main Control Panel”

[wayneschaefer]

I’ve watch some of your videos … nice work.

[wayneschaefer]

Along with labelling, more panel size options would be nice as well.

[paul.murray]

We are connecting to Rockwell Emulate and Studio 5000. We generally need to disconnect and then connect FIO after every download from Studio 5000 to emulate. It would be nice to have the disconnect / connect button on the main view. Its a pain to always go into the drivers view to do that.

Also, when will FIO update the names? It not really “Allen-Bradley Logix5000”, it should say “Rockwell Automation Studio 5000”. The name changed years ago.

[Sourison]

I would like to see the FactoryIO implement tank spills.

[Sourison]

Would be nice to see some pipelines for the Water tanks to connect them

[santook]

I tried this magical software. I think it is a very excellent software. But it would be better to add components and functions.
(1) Add basic electrical components, such as circuit breaker, relay, operator role, electric rolling shutter door, motor and stepping motor.
(2) The internal bus is added. When the names of multiple sensors or actuators are the same, they are connected in parallel, which helps to reduce the complexity of the program.

[janbumer1]

What exactly do you want to do with a motor and a stepping motor or a relay or circuit breaker? The machines don’t use power, a relay normally controls a motor or a lamp (but in the simulation you can assign an output directly to a motor/lamp/button), and what do you mean with “operator role”?
A door would be nice tho, I can get behind that one.

What do you mean by “internal bus”? Why would you connect multiple sensors in parallel? Actors maybe (although I have never seen that), but sensors?

[santook]

When there is an internal bus, some simple circuits can be completed with the most basic relays.
The sensor is equal to the normally open or normally closed output contact of the relay.
The actuator is equal to the wire package of the relay.
The internal bus should allow series or parallel logic. In fact, many such circuits do not completely rely on PLC to complete the logic and or operation of the circuit in practical application.
Operator role refers to some characters to enhance the realism of virtual reality. For example, in the first person state, click the button to see the action of the hand. In the flight perspective, you can see the action of the operator operating the button.
The non stepping motor is added so that the virtual laboratory can support more virtual simulation, such as supporting sliding table and other components on the basis of stepping motor.

I think it is still possible to open users to import some 3D models in step or STL format, and allow users to scale the models. For example, like the existing isolation fences, their role is to enhance the visual feeling of virtual reality. Since they do not participate in logic, why not open users to import new 3D models without action? This can also prepare for the future development of user-defined logic model.

[janbumer1]

@jmarti64 made a great video on how to connect fluid-sim to Factory IO and posted it over here.
I don’t think direct relay logic should be added to Factory IO, as the primary goal of this software is to provide a simulation to connect to and simulate your code.

The ability to import custom 3D models is one of my and others long-standing requests.

[thilo.brosinsky]

Allow to import 3d models would be awesome. This would bring the way the factories can look like to a new level.

[janbumer1]

Well, maybe if we much @rita.ferreira and @brunovgr for long enough with it they will get the team to add it.

[justin.anderson]

I think it would be nice to have a shuttle style transfer. Similar to the vertical lift, but on the ground level. We have a lot of applications, where we have 1 infeed, and storage to 3 or 4 SRM’s. It would be a very similar layout and operation.

I would also like the button design to be changed slightly. While the term Start PB and Stop PB are nice for learning, they are not accurate in the real world for all applications. I think the name should be changed to a Normally Open PB, and Normally Closed PB, and have the face plate and indication lamp color be a configuration similar to the hand rails color choices. In our applications, we use a NO PB for start and stop of the automated systems. While on machine level equipment, the stop PB is usually NC, on plant wide systems with multiple zones, the stop is NO and each zone is NC.

[janbumer1]

Hey @justin.anderson, welcome to the forum.

Yeah, I previously asked if we could have a transfer carriage that moves sideways on rails. We use those more or less everywhere. Even more so than the elevators.
I think if we’re already on it a few more chain conveyors would be nice too.

And I fully support your idea about the start/stop button. We too use NO for Start and Stop. Only e-stop is NC. And configurable colours would be really nice! We already have different colours for the guards iirc.

@brunovgr Do you know what the status is on the transfer carriage? Last time @rita.ferreira told be it was on the list?

[brunovgr]

I would like to share what’s happening on the development side, so you can understand where we stand regarding this wishlist.

We have been focused on two distinct development tasks for several years. The first task is the maintenance of the current version of Factory I/O. The goal is to fix all reported bugs and improve critical parts on drivers, documentation, tutorials/samples, user interface, and performance. We strongly believe in quality and we are doing our best to make the experience of working with Factory I/O as simple and efficient as possible.

The second task is dedicated to improving Factory I/O, so we can diligently evolve it and respond to community requests and suggestions. Topics such as this one have motivated us to follow a more focused community-driven development. The quality of the feedback we are receiving made us realize how valuable this information is and the impact it should have on the future of Factory I/O.

Factory I/O was not originally designed to be extended, this means that adding new features (including new parts) is a complex, time-consuming, and error-prone process. In order to overcome this problem, we are redesigning the core of Factory I/O. For this, we have been working on tools that will allow us, and hopefully, the community, to easily extend Factory I/O with new parts, drivers, and overall new features. We are also updating Factory I/O in order to take advantage of the latest technologies available such as new real-time physics, 3D graphics, improved UI, new drivers, XR, among many others. Our big challenge is to be able to develop tools that are simple, yet flexible enough for everyone to use, i.e., the development team and the community.

Many of the requests on this wishlist have been added to the dev roadmap. Some have already been prototyped (industrial robots, new conveyors, …) and others are still in the R&D phase (softPLC, liquids). Once we reach a mature development stage we have plans to open the dev roadmap to the public. The idea is to provide relevant feedback to the community so it’s clear on what to expect from Factory I/O and when to expect it.