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From: =?UTF-8?B?QmrDtnJuIEx1bmRpbg==?= <b.f.lundin@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada for Automation
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 09:52:13 +0100
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Date: 2014-11-18T09:52:13+01:00
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On 2014-11-06 12:14, slos wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> "Ada for Automation" (A4A in short) is a framework, for designing
> industrial automation applications using the Ada language.
> It uses the libmodbus library to allow building a Modbus TCP client or
server,
> or a Modbus RTU master. It can also use Hilscher communication boards
allowing to
>communicate on field buses like AS-Interface, CANopen, CC-Link,
DeviceNet, PROFIBUS,
> EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP, PROFINET, Sercos III, POWERLINK, or
VARAN.
> 

This seems good for writing PLC logic with, for conveyor systems,
stacker cranes, etc for warehouse automation, which is my field of work.

I see others has criticized the project for high latency, eg ns needed
in measuring processes within combustion engines, but in my kind of
automation ms is good enough.

Unfortuantly, the PLC level is nowadays programmed by the vendors of the
machinery. In the 80's and 90's the ancestor of my present day company
did not only WMS/WCS (Warehouse Management Systems/Warehouse Control
Systems) control but also on-board steering software of stacker cranes
and AGVs.

However those days are long gone, since the hardware vendors learned to
do that themselves, leaving us with WMS/WCS. And we _usually_ speak some
serial protocol, or now more commonly some TCP/IP protocol.

Very few sites use OPC, which was believed to be THE way of
communicating in the early 2000s

Talking modbus directly would be nice, but in my field, I don't see
any of the vendors preferring that to TCP/IP.

But If I was given the opportunity to do conveyor system logic
in say a raspberry pi, I'd definitely would look closer to you project.

Much closer.
I see it as an asset.
Good luck

--
Björn