Laboratory of Applied Informatics

LoAI

Sorting Line with Pneumatic Robot

To teach PLC programming, the classroom has been using machines from the Czech company AMiT, spol. s r. o. since 2020, which were once acquired by Ing. Jan Fuka with input and output panels, see Figure 2a. For these teaching purposes, a Sorting Line Model was purchased from school resources in December 2019 for 16 419 CZK; in October 2023 a Robot with vacuum gripper for 21 189 CZK. These two aids have already created quite a complex task for the pupils and especially the students in this area of automation.

It is worth mentioning the graduate thesis [1] from 2021, within which a virtual model of the above-mentioned sorting line was created, which is a faithful copy of the real one. This means that the PLC automaton that controls the real model of the sorting line can control its virtual copy with the same program.

Sorting line Inputs and Outputs

Actuators: motor, compressor, 3 pneumatic solenoid valves
Sensors: 5 optical barriers, pulse position sensor, "color sensor"

Inputs and outputs of the vacuum gripper robot

Actuators: 3 motors, compressor, vacuum gripper with pneumatic electrovalve
Sensors: 3 end position sensors, 3 motion encoders

Figure 2: PLC AMiNi2D; robot with vacuum gripper; sorting line

Used for teaching

SS: connection of sensors and actuators to PLCs
SS: PLC programming (creation of simple logic functions)
SS: PLC programming (partial control of a sorting line or robot with vacuum gripper)
TTS: creation of a complete program for the control of a sorting line
TTS: creation of a complete program for controlling a robot with a vacuum gripper

Problem with output signals on the Sorting Line Model

Because connecting the PLC to the Sorting Line caused changes in the voltage levels at the outputs of the optical barriers, a board was manufactured in 2025, see Figure 3, which solved this problem.