
Created: 99-04-30 Revised: 99-09-20 Doc. name: MRS50250-ch1.fm
Fieldbus Interface Board Page: 3
Introduction
MOTOMAN ROBOTICS EUROPE
1.5 Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide instructions for users of the MOTO-
MAN Fieldbus Interface Board (hereafter referred to FBIB). This document is to
provide support for configuration and usage of the FBIB. For information regard-
ing fieldbus configuration and programming please refer to the AnyBus manuals
or contact the supplier of the fieldbus master/scanner system.
This document is limited to the functionality of the FBIB and the connections to
the MOTOMAN Robot Controller (hereafter referred to as XRC) and the fieldbus
system via standard AnyBus modules. It is assumed that the reader has an
understanding of the functionality of the XRC.
1.6 Terms
Throughout this document the term “user“ refers to the person or persons who are
installing and programming the XRC system with an FBIB installed. The end-user
of the robot equipment will be referred to as the customer.
As in all communication systems the terms “inputs“ and “outputs“ can be ambigu-
ous, because their meaning depends on which end of the link that is being refer-
enced. The convention in this document is that “inputs“ and “outputs“ are always
being referenced from the XRC systems end of the link.
1.7 Fieldbus systems
Instead of using traditional wiring to distribute input and output signals, the auto-
mation industry more frequently relays on computer communications. By using
communication systems cost for material, installation, documentation and mainte-
nance can be greatly reduced. The communication system can also be used for
more advanced features like connecting different control systems and to distribute
the control functions to intelligent sub-systems, sensors and actuators.
The communication systems used for these tasks are commonly called a fieldbus
system. Fieldbus systems are used in all sectors of automation: Factory automa-
tion, manufacturing automation, assembly automation, building automation, proc-
ess automation, etc.
Fieldbus protocols are based on ISO Reference Model for Open System Intercon-
nection (OSI-RM), ISO 7498. However, Fieldbus uses only layers 1, 2, 7 of OSI-
RM, layer 3 through 6 are often bypassed for real-time purpose. There is also a
new User Layer added on top of the Application Layer, where distributed control
strategy is implemented and which makes Fieldbus much more than a communi-
cation network.
Different systems are used because of different technical requirements of the
application. Those different requirements are different levels of bus systems, bus
structures, real-time behaviour, amount of data being transferred, transmission
media, distribution of power on the communication media. The difference
between the technical demands and the fact that no system on the market fulfils
all requirements has lead to a wide variety of different fieldbus systems.
A major problem is that many products need to be connected to many of the field-
bus systems on the market. The same product may have to be able to exchange
data over some or all the available fieldbus systems and by doing this fulfilling dif-
ferent of the above mentioned requirements depending on the fieldbus system.
One example are operator panels which must be able to connect on different lev-
els of industrial network systems. In most applications on sensor/actuator level, in
many applications on the process level but also on the factory network level.