All over the week, we will share through our DELMIA Linked’In page, a serie of videos to share what DELMIA is doing for "Virtual Commissioning", to provide our customer a comprehensive solution that will help them commission new automated stations / lines / factories faster, easier, and cheaper than before. 

Today, the third video is about Software-In-The-Loop, to showcase the benefit of bringing the real Control Program, emulated by the Virtual PLC (Software). This will able a very easy validation of the Control Program, by considering Virtual Resources of the Virtual Twin are doing the job of the real ones, that will be implemented in the Shopfloor..

3. Software-In-The-Loop Simulation: Connect DELMIA Robotics and ControlBuild to the Virtual PLC

At this stage, the Virtual Twin (including the plant behavior model) is still represented within ControlBuild and DELMIA.

As we move to SiL, the control model is now executed and emulated by the Virtual PLC, with the control program being developed within the PLC development framework. At this point, we are no longer working with a prototype of the control model. Moving forward, a key focus will be on validating and optimizing the final control program

One strength of our solution lies in its agnosticism: we can connect our Virtual Twin to any Virtual PLC. Thanks to the ControlBuild drivers, specifically developed for this purpose, we can integrate our software with hardware provider tools (SIEMENS, OMRON, BECKHOFF, SCHNEIDER, ROCKWELL…). 

The following video demonstrates the same simulation running with two competing solutions: one part using the Omron SYSMAC PLC code, and the other using the Siemens TIAPortal PLC code emulated in PLCSim Advanced. This clearly showcases our solution's ability to seamlessly connect to any platform, regardless of the provider.

Regarding the HMI, during the SiL validation, the panel developed for MiL can be reused for software validation. However, the ultimate goal would be to integrate the native HMI program developed to manage the machine on-site, with its interface. This will enable the combined validation of both the control program and the control panel. Additionally, this approach can be used for advanced operator training. 

Moreover, SiL gather a lot of interesting advantages: Faster Development and Testing (control algorithms can be tested much more quickly, there's no need for physical hardware setup or debugging),  Flexibility (particularly useful when refining control strategies or testing different scenarios, Scalability (testing scenarios or running multiple simulations simultaneously is easier, as it only requires computational resources)…

The video is already live here, so don't hesitate to share it with your network, and stay tuned for the next one tomorrow!