A three-ply reconfigurable CNC system based on FPGA and field-bus

To reconfigure computer numerical control (CNC) system, the authors divide the reconfiguration technology of CNC system into three interactive levels: hardware system reconfiguration, software system reconfiguration, and module reconfiguration. On the software-hardware platform of CNC system designed in this study, hardware system reconfiguration is based on a rapid field programming of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and performed with different FPGA configuration files. Meanwhile, software system reconfiguration is conducted through design, modification, selection, and configuration of different databases on a guiding software reconfiguration development platform. For modular reconfiguration, PROFIBUS-DP industry field-bus is involved as the communication media among function modules of CNC system, to facilitate the increase and decrease of modules. Finally, an application case of aforementioned reconfiguration methods is given. A CNC system with five synchronously moveable axes in total eight stepping axes is reconfigured successfully from the existing CNC system with three synchronously moveable axes in four ones.