It looks like a piece of up-market hi-fi equipment but, no, it's Aerotech's new Ensemble Epaq - an integrated, six-axis desktop or 19in rack mounted motion control and drive system with integral 10A peak amplifiers, capable of driving and controlling linear and rotary brushless, brushed and micro-stepping motors. This system can be expanded to control a further three external drives offering nine axes of completely co-ordinated motion and machine control from a single competitively priced unit.
Based on Aerotech's A3200 and Soloist motion control platforms, the Epaq features Integrated Development Environment (IDE), Windows based, HMI software that is simple to operate and adapt while being able handle the most complex motion control tasks. The long list of application-specific features covers multi-axis contouring, electronic gearing, position latching and velocity profiling with integrated I/O control and multitasking programming in a wide choice of languages.
The system benefits from a 225MHz double precision, floating-point DSP that allows multitasking motion coordination with each axis capable of a 20kHz PID servo update rate. Processing execution time is under 1ms for every 1,000 lines of multitasking code. High speed interrupts and position latching provide data logging capabilities and real time links to external systems. Aerotech's extensive software command-set fully complements this processing power with advanced features such as 2D error mapping and single-axis PSO (Position Synchronised Output) which allows ultra precise output on-the-fly for laser users and other applications such as high definition imaging and non destructive testing.
The Windows based IDE features an HMI based graphical user interface with an intuitive program editor that allows users to begin programming immediately in a non-cryptic and simple command set with on-line help and sample motion programs that are easily modified to suit customers' applications. Meanwhile, output windows for axis control, I/O, diagnostics, variables, compiler, and task state allow users to monitor all motion and machine control parameters.