The integrated tracking function allows programming of motions relative to a moving coordinate system. A typical use case is picking up a product from a conveyor belt and placing it on a different conveyor belt. After defining a dynamic coordinate system for each belt, the user can simply provide target positions for movements that are relative to these coordinate system. CODESYS SoftMotion takes care of superposing the commanded movement of the axis group and the movement of the belt.
A typical tracking motion consists of three phases:
Tracking in: Moving from another coordinate system into the dynamic coordinate system. After the target position has been reached, the axis group will follow the motion of the dynamic coordinate system.
Tracking movement: Moving to a different position inside the same dynamic coordinate system. The commanded movement and the motion of the dynamic coordinate system will be superposed.
Tracking out: Moving from the dynamic coordinate system to a different coordinate system. After the target position has been reached, the motion of the axis group will no longer be influenced by the motion of the dynamic coordinate system.