Aerotech Inc., a global leader in precision motion control and automation, continues to develop new products and features for the Automation1 precision machine and motion control platform. The latest additions include new servo motor drives with integrated motion controllers and several advanced features.

“Automation1 continues to excite the world of precision motion control,” said Patrick Wheeler, Aerotech’s controls product manager. “Aerotech’s innovative product development approach is making precision motion control more accessible to more customers and applications.”

Recent developments in the Automation1 motion control platform include:

• Servo Drives with Integrated Motion Controllers – Two new servo motor drives feature integrated motion controllers that can command 12 axes at 20 kHz over the glass optical fiber HyperWire motion bus. The Automation1-iXL2e is a compact, single axis linear amplifier servo drive, and the Automation1-iXC6e is a high-powered PWM servo motor drive. The iXL2e demonstrates industry leading in-position stability and small step size operation, and it generates an extremely low amount of EMI noise. The iXC6e is for larger loads requiring high power output, and it includes a 480 VAC (680 VDC bus voltage) option.

• Automation1 MachineApps HMI Builder for Windows PCs – With MachineApps, machine and system builders can create machine HMIs for each deployed Automation1 motion controller. New features include enhanced layout flexibility with drag and drop controls, indicator lamps and better state-machine control features. MachineApps enables users to apply their own brand to their HMI. The button and indicator feature pairs with the AeroScript programming language so users can develop library functions that are accessible to operators via the push of a button.
   
• Gantry Configuration Support – The Automation1 motion control platform makes it easier than ever to configure cartesian direct-drive gantries. In the Automation1 Device Catalog, users can configure a gantry to be controlled with either decoupling (linear, theta) control or current command coupling control and then added as a Mechanical Device that can be set up using the Machine Setup wizard. This learnable and repeatable process makes advanced gantry control techniques accessible to precision machine builders.
  
• Improved Controller Features – Automation1 drive-based controllers can now be set up to use an analog input to control the velocity or current command of a drive, including velocity feedforward and acceleration feedforward. Automation1 controllers now respond to streaming AeroScript commands in a first-in, first-out process called Command Queue mode.

• Earlier Access to Features – Aerotech continues to release beta features to the market so customers can take an early look and provide feedback that influences features’ development. Current beta features include Work Offsets, EtherCAT distributed clock and MachineApps touch factors.