Shenzhen Huacheng Industrial Control Co., Ltd. is one of the leading manufacturers in the field of robotic arm control system development in China. It is a leader among domestic peers in terms of production scale and R&D strength. It has a number of technical patents for single-axis to multi-axis mechanical control structures for robotic arms. Shi Jianjun, director of the company's technology center, started with the current technological development trend of the robotic arm control industry and gave us a detailed introduction to the latest changes in the application market demand, as well as Huacheng Industrial Control's development experience in using Panasonic RTEX bus technology.
The era of bus-based industrial control has arrived.
Huacheng Industrial Control's current business scope mainly includes: injection molding machine robot control systems; punch press robot control systems; CNC lathe robot control systems, etc. In the past three years, the company has shown strong financial growth, with sales revenue and total assets maintaining rapid growth. With the significant improvement in the company's core competitiveness, it is expected that Huacheng Industrial Control's average annual revenue growth rate will continue to remain above 50% in the future. Among these, the bus series products are a significant growth driver for the company's business.
"For end users like equipment manufacturers at this stage, the most obvious advantage of using bus technology is that it can greatly reduce the intensity of installation and wiring, and comprehensively build a high-end brand image for enterprises in terms of operating costs, production efficiency and manufacturing quality," Shi Jianjun said.
He further explained, "Among the customers we've encountered, their biggest concern is the system's maintenance cost. Previously, when using pulse control, the system wiring was cumbersome, and a lot of manpower, resources, and time were required for soldering the wiring connections on-site. However, with bus technology, only a single standard network cable is needed to replace the original wiring installation work, saving manpower, resources, and time for on-site wiring connections and soldering, while also ensuring project quality and significantly reducing the system's later maintenance costs. Therefore, although the bus solution is still slightly more expensive than traditional solutions, its ability to effectively control the overall system investment cost has led more and more manufacturing companies to accept bus technology solutions."
Especially for robotic arm control systems, with the current national policies strongly promoting the robotics industry, Ethernet-based solutions are gaining popularity among developers and end-users. Shi Jianjun stated, "Robotic arm applications are rapidly moving towards high speed and high precision. This is mainly due to the increasing market demand for articulated robots (hands). For articulated systems to work in coordination, they need good synchronization. This requires the control system to support high-speed, high-precision motion and utilize high-speed network cables. That is, within a synchronization control cycle of hundreds of microseconds, commands can be sent to each axis within the system, ensuring consistent, accurate real-time performance and synchronization for each axis. Such requirements are indeed challenging for traditional fieldbus technologies, while Ethernet-based solutions can well meet the needs of these applications with stringent synchronization requirements."
Furthermore, beam-type robotic arms are currently a hot development area in the market. These robotic arms typically move in three directions. When the system moves to a certain point, all three directions need to move to that point synchronously, requiring specific position and posture requirements. The system needs to implement strict synchronous control over the movement process, which is where Ethernet-based architecture solutions excel. With the rise of these practical application needs, the demand for bus technology with high-speed and high-precision control characteristics in the robotic arm market is becoming increasingly prominent.
Looking back on the development process of Huacheng's industrial control bus series products, Shi Jianjun said, "After deciding to adopt Panasonic's RTEX bus technology, we conducted in-depth consultations and communications with Panasonic Shanghai and its Japanese headquarters on the technical principles, and received rapid and timely feedback. Panasonic's RTEX bus provides a complete chip solution with an SDK tool library, which helps manufacturers lower the development 'threshold,' significantly improve the development efficiency of equipment, and shorten the product launch cycle."
Meanwhile, leveraging Panasonic's extensive R&D experience, manufacturers can obtain comprehensive, rapid, and free development support without needing to find third-party developers. For example, on Panasonic's dedicated RTEX webpage (https://device.panasonic.cn/ac/c/motor/famotor/ac-servo/rtex), as shown in the image below, everything is covered in detail, from RTEX basics and corresponding Panasonic products and partner products (excluding motors) to RTEX bus technology development materials. Furthermore, it provides manufacturers with comprehensive technical reference materials on hardware architecture selection, system design and testing, and potential problems, assisting R&D personnel in solving numerous difficulties during product development and thus ensuring high product development efficiency.
Regarding the selection of bus standards, Shi Jianjun believes that the first consideration should be market evaluation. Panasonic servo systems currently have a high market share, therefore, user demand for Panasonic's RTEX bus technology is quite evident. Secondly, in terms of technical specifications, the high speed, high precision, and synchronous control parameters provided by Panasonic's RTEX bus technology fully meet the technical requirements of the robotic arm industry. Furthermore, addressing the pain points encountered in various specific applications, such as the need for 24-hour uninterrupted production in semiconductor and LCD panel manufacturing, where communication interference often easily leads to equipment downtime, the RTEX bus exhibits excellent noise immunity, meeting the basic requirements of industrial buses in these application areas.
Currently, among the bus products developed by Huacheng Industrial Control, the Panasonic RTEX bus technology standard is an important product series, including: the RC series S1-6 axis control scheme for injection molding robots, the RC C2, C4, and C5 control schemes for stamping robots (in conjunction with punch presses); and the RC R4 SCARA robot control scheme and the RC R6 six-joint robot control scheme, which are under development, to gradually improve Huacheng Industrial Control's bus product series.
