Siemens and ABB robots communicate based on Profibus-DP

1. Configuration of TIA Portal

Create a new project in the TIA Portal software. In this case, Siemens S7-300 PLC is selected, and its model is CPU 313C-2DP. This PLC is an integrated PLC with its own PROFIBUS-DP port. It can be used as a master station or a slave station. In this case, the PLC acts as the master station.

Step 1: Add the GSD file.

In the TIA Portal software, click "Options", "Manage General Site Description Files" as shown below:

Select the GSD file and click Install. The installation may take some time depending on the computer.

Step 2: Double-click "Device Configuration" and switch the view to network view, as shown below:

Step 3: Enter anybus in the search bar in the "Hardware Catalog" function bar on the right, and the following search results will appear:

Step 4: Expand Anybus-CC PROFIBUS DP-V1, hold down the left mouse button, and drag it to the network view, as shown below:

Step 5: Press and hold the left mouse button to select the DP port of PLC_1 and connect it to the DP port of slave_1, as shown in the figure below:

At this point, the hardware configuration of the PLC and the robot has been completed. In order to ensure the accuracy, we need to check the addresses of the master station and the slave station. By default, the PLC is the master station, and its address is 2. The default address of Slave_1, which is the robot side, is 3, as shown below:

2. Robot side settings

Step 1: In the "Configuration" menu of the teach pendant, make sure that the system supports Industrial Network, expand Industrial Network, and make sure that PROFIBUS_Anybus exists in the system, as shown in the following figure:

Step 2: Under the "Configuration" menu, expand PROFIBUS Internal Anybus Device, as shown below:

Step 3: If PB_Internal_Anybus appears in the second step, you do not need to add it. If it does not appear, add it, as shown in the following figure:

In the Name field, enter the name, and in the Input Size (bytes) and Output Size (bytes), enter the corresponding communication capacity, which supports up to 512 bits, or 64 bytes. The rest of the content does not need to be changed. After adding, click OK.

3. Writing of PLC communication program

The communication procedure on the PLC side is relatively simple. It only requires moving the corresponding bit value to the corresponding address. In this case, the PLC and the robot did not input or output a byte from the communication.

Step 1: Expand the distributed I/O under the project tree on the left, expand them one by one, find the device configuration, and double-click it. As shown below:

Step 2: In the hardware directory menu bar on the right, find "Input 1 byte" and "Output 1 byte", and double-click them respectively to make them appear under Slave_1 on the left. This step tells the PLC to send and receive data with the robot in units of one byte each time. As shown in the figure below:

Step 3: Determine the communication address of the PLC. This step is crucial and is related to how the address in the program is determined. Select "Input 1 byte" and "Output 1 byte" respectively and right-click, select "Properties", and use their respective default addresses, as shown below:

At this point, all the configurations have been set.

The final step: add the following program to the Main program block:

This program means that the PLC sends the status value of 1.0-1.7 of channel 1 to 256.0-256.7, where 256.0-256.7 corresponds to the first byte of the receiving end of the robot. We can monitor it in the IO monitoring interface of the robot teaching pendant as shown below: