Industrial IoT (IIoT) based Control of Robotic Arm integrated with PLC and HMI

Abstract

Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Internet of Things (IoT) are two different emerging fields which are jointly used to communicate over distributed devices over internet. This provides an added advantage of automation and control with an ease operation and speedy network. A 6V DC input is given to stepper motor STM 981 which is connected to the conveyer belt for its movement. Once the material is sensed by the proximity sensor, then the conveyer belt gets stopped whereas the robotic arm picks the material from the conveyer belt and places it in the required site. The output signal from the robotic arm will be given to the PLC namely Siemens S7 1200 and further it is connected to 24 port-switches. Also, personal computer, IoT 2040 Gateway and Human Machine Interface (HMI) will be connected to the switch. Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) is a portal used to write ladder logic programming for PLC. For communicating PLC with IoT2040 gateway, python code will be written in software called MobaXterm. Also, python program is written in the same software for communicating IoT2040 gateway with Cloud and Cloud with PLC through IoT2040. The whole system is controlled through an online IoT platform called Ubidots, which provides a secure way to build IoT solutions.