Design of a Framework for Implementation of Industrial Robot Manipulation Using PLC and ROS 2

Abstract

The paper describes the design and implementation of a robot manipulation system on a hardware platform based on a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and The Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2). The controlled robot is a 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) manipulator, designed for high-performance pick and place applications in a picking work cell. The manipulating software system is developed on OpenPLC, an open-source PLC system, using its standard programming tools with the IEC 61131–3 standard and self-designed robot control features. In particular, the paper analyses the advantages and disadvantage of applying PLCs in applications such as fruit picking, compared with common industrial software systems on specialized hardware, with particular emphasis on the flexibility and automation to the proposed architecture.