Greetings wonderful people, this is my first post so i would greatly appreciate some guidelines or a starting point on this...
Problem: I have a requirement to connect a SICK flow meter/pressure sensor -> SICK FTMG Sensor to our FANUC Robot LRM200iD with R30iB+ Mate controller. The sensor supports OPC UA and MQTT connectivity. It also supports a web interface. It is powered over POE and of course has an 8-pin M12 connection to RJ45 i.e. ethernet connectivity.
Requirement: To be able to establish link between the robot and the sensor without using an intermediate device such as a PLC and retrieve critical data such as mass flow rate, pressure readings and basically all that the sensor has to offer. Likewise, be able to set pressure thresholds in the sensor using the teach pendent/robot registers/analogue outputs etc. in essence, full integration.
Initial Approach: I am pretty ok with connecting PLC's to the FANUC controller as well as AS-I Gateways, but in this case we do not have a PLC in between or any such gateway so this has to be a direct ethernet connection from the Sensor (POE powered) to the robot's ethernet port.
Questions as follows:
1) I am assuming it won't be as simple as setting up Rack 89 Slot 1, Start 1 and point that to the IP of the flow meter (note: we can assign IP to the sensor)
2) I am not familiar with MQTT and OPC UA, so if someone has done this before, please point me in the right direction.
3) Any method of extracting data from the web-server of the sensor which of course can be accessed from its IP address.
Again, much appreciated and feel free to request any details if you require so.