Intelligent Industrial Controller Network Based on Modbus Fieldbus

Abstract

Under the impetus of industrial internet of things and smart manufacturing applications, realizing the development and deployment of decentralized industrial controller networks is crucial. This paper designed an industrial controller network gateway, combined with the Grafcet virtual machine, for rapid development and deployment with distributed decentralized controller equipment. A gateway architecture with three microcontrollers for communication protocol management, Modbus device management, and real-time data collection and monitoring engines, respectively, was proposed in this study. The communication protocol management engine is responsible for transmission between the gateway and cloud system, thereby providing an implementation mechanism for cyber/physical system. The device management engine uses Modbus RTU to communicate with the underlying PLC controller. This engine comprises an IEEE1588 time synchronization protocol that provides PLC controller time stamping and synchronization mechanisms. The real-time data collection and monitoring engine is in charge with the data sorting management function, which is used to make the database management have efficient data query function. Finally, experiments were conducted on the basis of multiple PLC controllers and robotic arms motion control to validate this industrial controller network functional usability and performance.