Design and Implementation of an automation trainining panel with PLC and HMI applied to a filling system using servomotors for the power electronics laboratory.

Abstract

The current Project consists on the implementation of an automation training panel for the electronics and automation engineering students at ESPOL University, with the purpose to provide a didactic tool so that the power electronics laboratory’s students could develop any other applications using the equipment and electrical machinery currently available at the laboratory. Also, an auger filling system, consisting of a small conveyor belt and a hopper, was automated as a demonstrative application for the panel. This training panel was designed to have a HMI and a PLC with its digital inputs and outputs wired to terminals on its front face. The same digital inputs on the front face, are represented as two position switches in case it is needed to simulate an external signal, and the digital outputs have pilot lights that work as state indicators. The same principle was applied to the PLC’s analog inputs and outputs, using a variable DC voltage power source to simulate an external signal if desired. The actuators of the filling system were two AC servomotors with their respective AC drives. The control of the devices was made through a PROFIBUS link between the PLC and the drives.