MTRN3500 - ASSIGNMENT I  - Computing Applications in Mechatronic Systems  - Solved

1            General Instructions
This assignment has been designed to facilitate online learning allowing you to have more liberal access to the experimental set up which we will call “the PLC System”. However, you can only access these equipment online through remote login. Please follow the document MTRN3500 Remote Access Instructions.pdf in Moodle Week 5 content, for instructions as to how to login. The computer you will be logging in will have one of the PLC Systems physically attached to it. The PLC system will respond to the software you will write. You will also have access to a camera which will allow you to see what happens on the PLC System.

2            Assignment Problem
This assignment requires you to develop an object oriented software package for a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC - and hence PLC System) which in this case is used as a general purpose interface device. PLCs like this are commonly used to control various robotic systems in the industry as they have more functionalities such as process control loops (PID loops). They are equipped with various digital inputs and outputs (for controlling ON/OFF systems, sensing ON/OFF signals and for communicating with encoders) as well as analogue I/O (for dealing with voltage-driven motors or other analogue equipment).

Six of these units have been setup, along with peripheral equipment (encoders, volt meters, LEDs, motors etc.) in the Mechatronics labs at UNSW. You are required to write the necessary software for controlling the PLC. A header file Galil.h has been provided for you. It declares all the functions which you are required to implement. You must create a C++ file called Galil.cpp (NOTE: The file must have this name EXACTLY) and it must contain all the function definitions you will write. You are allowed to add your own member functions or data, but you must not change the existing member functions and data. Having developed Galil.h and Galil.cpp you must be completely prepared to demonstrate the functionality of your object class by using it in a main() function.

You will be coding the assignment in Visual Studio (one of the best C++ IDE’s) Zon the lab computers. This will require you to login remotely to the Mechatronics Lab computers. It is highly recommended that you write the code on your own personal computer and push it to the lab PCs whenever you make changes. This is because you will be automatically logged out of the computers after one hour. We also recommend that you set up the project in your UNSW H-Drive, so that it will be there when you log in to a different lab machine (you will not be able to choose a machine; you will be assigned one when you attempt a login, however, all computers and the experimental set ups are identical).

To start with please download the Galil.h file from the Moodle site under Week 5 content.

3            Overview of the Supplied Code
You can find the following in the Moodle site under Week 5 content.

•     Galil.h: This header file declares all the necessary functions that you must write in your Galil.cpp. Read all the instructions carefully.

•     EmbeddedFunctions.h: This header file wraps the Galil commands in a class structure. Whenever you send a command to the board, send it through this class. Failure to do so will result in mark deduction.

•     OtherFiles: gclib.lib, gclibo.lib, gclib.h, gclibo.h, gclib_errors.h, gclib_record.h, gclib.dll, gclibo.dll, GalilControl.lib: These files contain all the dependencies required to use the Galil library. You must extract the zipped folder on Moodle and place these files in your project / solution folder. Full instructions for setting up the project are found in the next sections.

4            Creating a Visual Studio Solution
To set up the project, please follow the steps below:

1.         Open visual Studio and create a new project. File→New→Project

2.         Select "Empty C++ Project"

3.         Name your project, whatever you like, and choose a directory. Also tick the box labelled "Place solution and project in the same directory". This will create one folder where all the project files are stored

4.         Hit Create

5.         In a file explorer, find the project folder

6.         Extract the contents of the dependencies folder here. This should consist of three folders labelled "lib", "bin", and "header files"

7.         In the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, right click on Header Files→Add→Existing. Select the header files that you pasted

8.         Similarly, add GalilControl.lib in Resource Files

9.         Also right click on Source Files→Add→New and create a file called "main.cpp"

10.      In the Solution Explorer, right click on the project→properties

11.      Navigate to c++→General→Additional Include Directories. Press the browse (...) button and navigate to the "header files" folder

12.      Navigate to Linker→Input→Additional Library Directories. Press the browse (...) button and navigate to the "lib" folder

13.      In the same properties window, navigate to Linker→Input and select the dropdown for Additional Dependencies→Edit

14.      Add "GalilControl.lib", “gclib.lib” and “gclibo.lib”, each on a new line, as shown in Figure 1.

15.      You can now fill in your own main file and start coding. Compiling and linking in VS is called "building", and you can run either with or without debug functionality. Note: The first time you run the code, it may crash because it cannot find the dll files. Copy and paste the dll files into the debug folder (or wherever the .exe is created)