Industry 4.0 machine data collection from CNC machines and robots

At the Hungarian plant of a Japanese automotive manufacturer, the status of the machining lines could previously only be seen on the machines' operator panels. The task is continuous data collection from 32 CNC machine tools – extended with condition diagnostics for further lines – so that utilisation, alarms and the condition of wearing parts can be analysed centrally, including retrospectively. Roll-out is phased: collection is already running on the first machine, and deployment across the entire machine fleet is in progress.

The collector developed by ROBOMIND Systems communicates directly with the CNC controllers and records, on change and with a regular heartbeat, the NC status, the alarms (decoded with the manufacturer's code table), the running program, cycle times and part counters, axis and spindle torque, servo load and temperature, and tool life and offsets. The data is stored in an InfluxDB 3 time-series database, and the per-machine Grafana view follows the customer's data point list.

An industrial edge PC runs in the cell with a segregated machine network and its own web-based configuration interface. Data from the Universal Robots arms on the production line is logged by industrial-PC gateways via the RTDE interface (joint positions, TCP forces, currents, temperatures, safety status), with complete separation of the robot and corporate networks. Data from OPC UA, Siemens S7 and Allen-Bradley PLCs as well as SMC air preparation units can also be connected to the same platform.