There is an ever-increasing demand from the Industry for a flexible, modular and a cost-effective CNC machine servo controller. The primary aim of this research is to develop a real-time PC-based servomotor control system. Such a machine controller is not only required to perform control functions but also do other functions like database maintenance, tool path planning and optimization, and operator… interface among many other useful functions. In realizing this objective, the environment is not only designed keeping in view the Open Architecture Controller (OAC) specifications but also to launch a platform for total factory automation. Good fault-tolerance, factory floor networking and flexibility in terms of software are considered in designing the system.

RT-Linux has been chosen as the suitable real-time platform with Windows NT as the front-end for the system. RT-Linux is very reliable and gives a good performance with a worst case scheduling latency of 12(sec and a worst case interrupt latency of 10(sec on a 650MHz Pentium III processor. The rationale behind choosing various other components of the system that makes it possible to meet the OAC specifications and the functional requirements is elaborated in this paper. In addition, system working environment and some of its good features will be discussed. This open source based CNC servo control platform is a promising technology for the future of factory automation.

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