EFFICIENT MOTION CONTROL

Time for other

perspectives!
Machines are becoming increasingly complex, especially with regard to motion con-
trol. To automate repetitive tasks, production machines and lines are relying on ro-
bots as well as handling or motion systems using kinematics. Such highly auto-
mated solutions necessitate matching safety systems to protect staff and equip-
ment, which in turn leads to greater requirements in terms of automation and mo-
tion control. Siemens’ set of aligned tools and systems enables users to efficiently
implement scalable motion control solutions that can be flexibly adapted to various
production requirements. Turn challenges into success!
 Efficient Motion Control

MARKET TRENDS AND REQUIREMENTS looking for) engineers and skilled workers, increasing ma-
chine complexity by continuously adding new features,

Efficient and countering growing machine complexity with more

extensive training and testing. However, those strategies

Motion
can affect the speed of innovation and the time to market
for novel solutions, as they do not increase the level of ef-
ficiency in engineering, operation, and maintenance.

Control Increasing efficiency along the entire value chain

Instead, OEMS and machine operators should look to new
ways to increase the efficiency of their engineering and
The requirements for machines are get- design processes and support making effective and effi-
ting increasingly complex—but OEMs cient use of available human resources. Using the right

need to meet ever tighter time and set of integrated, digital solutions for engineering, opera-
tion, and service, OEMs and machine operators alike can
budget requirements. The solution: in-
- simplify complex procedures and automate repetitive
creasing engineering efficiency.
and/or tedious tasks to reduce the workload for staff;

- increase flexibility through modular, standardized, and

Ensuring success in a challenging market user-friendly engineering and operation;
The requirements for machines are getting increasingly
- reduce time to market through parallelization and vir-
complex: OEMs need to deliver a broad spectrum of tech-
tualization of work routines; and
nologies and machine capabilities with a short time to
market, enable high production flexibility with a mini- - ensure maximum machine and operator safety while
mum of manual operations, and ensure the highest possi- maintaining productivity and flexibility.
ble degree of machine safety. Developing and engineer- Thus, they can ensure that their systems will meet chang-
ing the corresponding production solutions requires ing market and production requirements over the longer
skilled staff who can adapt solutions and systems to new term, ensuring the best return on investment.
requirements and the increasing amount of automation.
However, finding the engineers and skilled workers is al- Proving their worth in applications
ready difficult for many OEMs, and demographic factors With a set of aligned motion control systems and solu-
promise to make it even harder in the future: a recent tions as well as a framework for the integrated engineer-
Korn Ferry study found that more than 85 million jobs ing of all automation components, Siemens supports effi-
could go unfilled by 2030.1 cient engineering across all industries and technologies.
Flexibly scalable automation solutions with seamlessly in-
Making better use of resources is key tegrated safety functions and efficient engineering in TIA
To meet the demand for flexible, high-performance solu- Portal help make motion control engineering easy—from
tions that can be efficiently engineered, are easy to oper- simple applications like single-axis control to sophisti-
ate, and can be flexibly adapted to new requirements, cated solutions for robot integration or modular machine
companies need to turn to tools that help them make bet- solutions. With a complete range of digitalized automa-
ter use of available resources. But even though the indus- tion services, from digital planning to integrated engi-
try, in large part, is well aware of this, at present there is neering and transparent operation, these solutions allow
still a tendency to address the challenge by “doing more you to take automation and motion control engineering
of the same”—that is, expanding business strategies that to a new level of efficiency.
have been successful in the past, such as hiring (or

1Korn Ferry, The $8.5 Trillion Talent Shortage, 2018,

https://www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leader-
ship/talent-crunch-future-of-work .

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 Efficient Motion Control

USE CASE

Control of
single axes
How can you implement a flexible mo-
tion control solution for electrical single Figure 1. Single-axis motion control solution

axes in a machine?
Benefits
- Scalable
Users can create their solution based on a comprehen-
Single-axis control is needed for a multitude of tasks in a
sive and flexible, scalable hardware and software port-
production machine, such as positioning, moving, and
folio as well as scalable motion control functionality,
speed control. Engineers need to be able to implement
including safety solutions.
continuous and cyclic axis movements in a production
machine as efficiently as possible while retaining the flex- - Efficient
ibility to create a holistic and seamless motion control so- Users benefit from uniform engineering to create a
lution for their specific requirements. seamlessly integrated motion control solution.

- Intuitive
Challenge
System-integrated technology objects and an intuitive
Given the many applications for single-axis movements,
operation with guided user interfaces (GUIs) help sim-
users need efficient solutions enabling them to
plify the engineering of motion control tasks.
- create new or adapt existing machine concepts so that
they are at the state of the art in terms of flexibility, Example: Engineering a positioning axis
productivity, and efficiency; To create the control program in TIA Portal, users execute
- combine different motion control system components these steps:
or solutions to create the best solution; and - Download the technology object—of type “Axis”—to
the PLC and test it via the axis control panel to create
- handle the high engineering complexity of motion
the project and configure the positioning axis in TIA
control components and solutions.
Portal.

Solution - Include the relevant PLCopen function blocks in the ap-

Siemens helps increase engineering efficiency for single- plication program.
axis control through a scalable motion control hardware
- Parametrize the PLCopen blocks.
portfolio and a set of technology objects that support us-
ers in creating the motion control application (Figure 1). - Download the compiled code to the programmable
For example, TO_Speed, TO_Pos, and the SINAMICS logic controller (PLC).
DriveLib communication blocks enable drive data to be Users can also avail themselves of ready-to-use
read and written within TIA Portal. Users benefit from application examples, which they can download via
easy and intuitive engineering. They also enjoy fast and SiePortal. Using the same set of tools and systems, users
simple integration and configuration as the controller in- can also engineer safety systems based on automation
tegrates motion control functions and drives. components with Safety Integrated.

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 Efficient Motion Control

USE CASE

Control of
coordinated
axes
Figure 2. Control solution for coordinated axes

How can you simplify complex coordi-

Benefits
nated movements in production ma- By using a seamlessly system-integrated motion control
chines? solution, users benefit from:
- Standardization
Ready-to-use applications enable easy adaptation of
The next level of complexity in motion control engineer- the motion control program to the specific require-
ing is setting up dependencies between coordinated ments and streamline engineering and testing.
axes—for example, to synchronize production sequences
- Efficiency
and steps within a production machine.
Being able to implement a comprehensive motion con-
trol solution with a single controller and a single engi-
Challenge
neering framework reduces the complexity of the solu-
Without suitable tools, engineers face several tasks:
tion.
- manually designing, programming, and testing the
synchronization of complex movements; - Flexibility
Users can easily adapt the motion control application
- selecting the best solution from various motion control
to meet more stringent motion control requirements in
system components; and
terms of function and performance.
- efficiently handling the complexity of various compo-
nents and solutions. Example: Engineering a flying shear and press
application
Solution This is how to set up a motion control program for a typi-
The scalable SIMATIC S7-1500 controllers and specific cal application with coordinated access:
technology objects for coordination of axes—such as syn- - Download the technology object “Axis” to the PLC and
chronized axis or cam control—help implement more test it via the axis control panel to create the project
complex motion control functions in the familiar environ- and configure the material and shear axis.
ment of TIA Portal with PLCopen function blocks (Figure
- Connect the leading axis with the following axis with
2). As part of its motion control portfolio, Siemens also of-
PLCopen function blocks.
fers standard application examples that simplify imple-
menting complex axis relations based on integrated tech- - Download the compiled code to the PLC.
nology objects such as the following:
- Test the functionality of the application with the inte-
- Gearing and camming axes with intuitive guided GUIs
grated trace and diagnostics.
- A cam editor for the intuitive programming of the rela-
The matching application example “Flying Shear” is availa-
tions between leading and following axes
ble for download at SiePortal.
- A trace for the diagnosis of the application behavior

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 Efficient Motion Control

USE CASE

Control of
kinematics
How do you integrate and handle
standardized as well as user-specific ro- Figure 3. Solution for controlling kinematics in production machines

bot mechanics with up to six interpo-

lated axes?
Benefits
Employing a flexible motion control solution helps users
An increasing number of production machines and lines implement kinematics by supporting:
rely on robots as well as user-specific kinematics for re- - Standardization
petitive handling tasks that call for suitable solutions for PLCopen-compliant function blocks and tested soft-
implementation and operation. ware applications reduce engineering times and in-
crease software quality.
Challenge
- Efficiency
To implement the corresponding motion control solutions
Users can implement a comprehensive motion control
efficiently, users need to be able to
solution with a single controller and a single engineer-
- integrate different kinematic components and solu-
ing framework.
tions with high engineering complexity;
- Safety
- design, program, and test complex kinematic move-
Certified software tools for safe monitoring of move-
ments in 3D Cartesian space; and
ments facilitate the design of a safety solution in full
- standardize the required safety solution to ensure ma- compliance with current regulations.
chine and operator safety while streamlining engineer-
ing. Example: Engineering of kinematics in TIA Portal
One can engineer kinematics applications in TIA Portal by
Solution means of a few easy-to-follow steps:
In TIA Portal V18, users can implement kinematic features - Configure the technology object TO_Kinematics.
with up to six interpolating axes using selected SIMATIC
- Select the matching kinematics model (e.g., Cartesian
S7-1500 Technology CPUs with no need for additional
portal, roller picker, or articulated arm).
tools (Figure 3). The Handling and Robotics Toolbox pro-
vides ready-to-use applications that can significantly re- - Connect the axes to the kinematic axes.
duce engineering time. Moreover, the PLCopen-compli-
- Configure the mechanics.
ant, open-source software applications are easily customi-
zable to accommodate specific or changing requirements. - Move the selected kinematics via the integrated con-
With the integrated and certified software-based solution trol panel.
SIMATIC Safe Kinematics, users can monitor movements - Test the application with the integrated kinematics
with predefined kinematics in 3D and with up to 12 inter- trace.
polating axes in a safe environment, facilitating the im-
Users can download the ready-to-use application example
plementation of robotic safety requirements in accord-
Robot Control Suite for SIMATIC S7-1500 T-CPU from
ance with EN ISO 10218.
SiePortal.

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 Efficient Motion Control

USE CASE

Robot integra-
tion
How can you integrate robots from dif-
ferent manufacturers into your automa-
tion project?
Figure 4. Robot integration with SIMATIC Robot Integrator and the
SIMATIC Robot Library

Increasingly, production solutions rely on robots for a

Benefit
broad variety of tasks. Very often, the operating company
By being able to integrate robots into their automation
or facility will also specify a vendor for the robots to be
solution via a uniform interface for programming and op-
used, so OEMs have to find efficient solutions for integrat-
eration, users benefit from:
ing robots from different suppliers into their machine so-
- Reduced effort
lutions.
Having a uniform environment for the PLC and robots
saves time in engineering and operation.
Challenge
To integrate robots into a machine or line in an efficient - Increased efficiency
manner, OEMs need to be able to A uniform faceplate for robots from different manufac-
- engineer robots from different manufacturers; turers streamlines project engineering.

- handle vendor-specific programming languages, hu- - Higher program quality

man–machine interfaces (HMIs), software, and inter- Vendor-neutral robot programming helps reduce errors
faces with the automation system; and and the associated costs of troubleshooting.

- supply the required technology and engineering skills. - Integrated diagnostics

The extensive diagnostic features of TIA Portal also in-
Solution clude the robot and the robot cell.
In its motion control portfolio, Siemens offers tools that
facilitate the integration and operation of robots (Figure Example: Programming robots with TIA Portal and
4). SIMATIC Robot Integrator is a ready-to-use application SIMATIC HM
that is directly integrated into a TIA Portal machine pro- To integrate a robot into TIA Portal, users simply
ject. SIMATIC Robot Integrator enables the easy integra- - select the supported robot vendor in the SIMATIC Ro-
tion of industrial robots from different vendors into line or bot Library;
machine automation solutions using TIA Portal. Users can
- program the robot in TIA Portal;
create robot paths directly via their SIMATIC HMIs with no
assistance from external specialists and without having to - reuse the program for other robot vendors;
use dedicated operator panels for different robots. The - test the functionality of the application with the inte-
SIMATIC Robot Library provides a uniform interface that grated motion path; and
enables communication between the PLC and the robot
regardless of the robot’s specific make or vendor. As a re- - teach the robot and test the robot’s movements in

sult, users no longer need to use vendor-specific libraries their SIMATIC HMI.

but can reuse their program for all supported robot ven- The SIMATIC Robot Library is available for download via
dors. SiePortal.

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 Efficient Motion Control

USE CASE

Simulation of
motion control
applications
How do you test and simulate a produc- Figure 5. Different modeling solutions for simulation

tion machine in a virtual environment? Benefits

By using tools for simulation and model-based testing of
motion control, users can establish processes that are:
Testing and verification are two of the most critical - Error free
phases in the engineering process. To meet the demand Simulation helps identify and rectify errors at an early
for shorter project lead times and to save valuable re- stage of the development process.
sources, OEMs and machine operators need to find new
- Efficient
ways to test their designs and modifications early on and
Simulation helps improve interdisciplinary collabora-
to identify and eliminate errors quickly.
tion and parallelize workflows.
Challenge - Sustainable
To bring new machines to the market faster, OEMs need Simulation enables testing and validating applications
to establish efficient processes that help them in a virtual environment, eliminating the need for
- validate and optimize motion control applications hardware and resource-intensive physical prototyping.
without prototypes and hardware;
Example: Simulation of a motion control application
- reduce material damage and waste; and
Creating a simulation of a motion control application us-
- visualize complex movements to support collaboration. ing the integrated tools and capabilities in the Siemens
motion control portfolio is a straightforward process:
Solution
- Start the simulation on the automation level by using
Siemens offers powerful and seamlessly integrated solu-
an integrated simulation application like Kinematics
tions for simulation and testing using a virtual system
Trace.
without the need for physical hardware (Figure 5). On the
automation level, users can test their programs using the - Add a virtual PLC with SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced to
simulation capabilities of TIA Portal and the virtual simulate the real PLC.
SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced controller. To test the be- - Expand your simulation to include electrical and drive
havior of drive systems, SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM Advanced can systems with SIMIT.
be combined with SIMIT simulation software. Combining
- Combining NX MCD and SIMIT helps users create a
this solution with the NX Mechatronics Concept Designer
model for mechanical and kinematic behavior includ-
(MCD) enables users to create a digital twin of their plant
ing a 3D visualization of the machine.
to model and test the behavior of mechanical and kine-
matic systems, including visualization in a 3D environ- - Users can control the digital twin via a virtual HMI to
ment. simulate the operator experience.

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Tools, support and trainings
General information
SIMATIC Motion Control

Project and product support

TIA Selection Tool
Siemens Industry Product Support
SIMATIC Motion Control Product Support
SIMATIC Motion Control Support Forum

Applications examples in SiePortal

Standard application axis control
Engineering example “Flying Saw”
Robot Control Suite
SIMATIC Robot Library
For more application examples please refer to SIMATIC Motion Control Product Support

Trainings
SIMATIC Motion Control in the TIA Portal

Published by
Siemens AG

DI FA S MP PY
Gleiwitzer Str. 555
Moorenbrunn
90475 Nuremberg
Germany

© Siemens 2024

Subject to changes and errors. The information given in this document

contains only general descriptions and/or performance features that
may not always specifically reflect those described or that may
undergo modification in the course of further development of the
products. The requested performance features are binding only when
they are expressly agreed upon in the concluded contract.

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