PRODUCTS & SERVICES
AUTEC
VEGETATION MAINTENANCE MACHINES INCREASE SAFETY AND
SIMPLICITY FOR WORKERS OPERATING ON SLOPED GROUND
Maintenance of green spaces alongside roads, in
forests and along the banks of rivers and canals
calls for work to be carried out on land characterized by
steep slopes where access for operators is not always
safe or easy.
Energreen, an Italian producer of professional
machinery for this type of working environment, has
designed the Robogreen Evo. This radio-controlled
machine has tracks that enable a range of di erent
tasks to be performed, removing the need for manual
operations and allowing operators to reduce exposure
to risks related to working activities.
The company’s multi-year partnership with Autec,
a company based in the industrial area to the north of
Vicenza that manufactures radio remote control systems
for industrial applications, falls within this context.
The team of specialists at Autec has created a
customized radio remote control that provides the
operator with sophisticated remote control of the
machine. A DJR transmitting unit allows the machine to
be maneuvered via two proportional joysticks, while two
potentiometers regulate the travel speed within a range
of 0 to 100%. It also controls the speed of one track in
relation to the other to neutralize the e ect of gravity,
improving stability on sloping ground by allowing the
machine to move in a straight line.
The CRD receiving unit was selected to integrate with
the machine control system, maximizing performance in
terms of e ciency and safety. The transmitting unit and
the receiving unit communicate with each other via
radio in a ‘frequency hopping’ mode, continuously
changing the working frequency and dynamically
checking for the best radio channel availability before
deciding to use it. This allows a stable radio link to be
maintained, even in cases of interference.
The receiving unit communicates with the machine
controller via a CANopen port through which the
operator sends the commands and receives information
regarding the working status. This is then shown on the
transmitter’s display.
Integrated control and data
The continuous development of latest-generation
technologies for new and increasingly advanced humanmachine
interfaces (HMI) has recently enabled Autec to
integrate new communication and visualization
functions into the wireless transmitter and to manage
126 iVTInternational.com September 2019
ABOVE: Customized radio remote
control with 4.3in color display
the status of the machine in line with Industry 4.0
requirements. The hardware support is based on a 4.3in
TFT LCD color display, which is programmable via
Codesys V 3.5 in compli ance with IEC 61131-3.
The HMI has 16 million colors, a resolution of 480 x
272 pixels, six navigation keys, a viewing angle of up to
130°, alarms, temperatures, total hours of operation,
time remaining until the next maintenance, and much
more can also be displayed graphically or numerically.
The collaboration between the technical departments
at Autec and Energreen has made it possible to take a
further step towards the concept of Industry 4.0, with
the inclusion of a host of innovative functions that
improve the quantity and quality of data available
to the user in real time.
The rst of these enables total and partial real
productivity to be measured in reference to the
individual work cycle, providing information on the
screen concerning total working time, distance travelled
and area worked. Temperatures and other key
information regarding the machine are also
graphically displayed.
Additional displays dedicated to the tools mounted
on the Robogreen Evo can also be viewed, along with
the total working hours of parts subject to wear such
as the rotor, roller and belt bearings.
The data collected can be used to program the
necessary routine maintenance operations and once
these have been performed, quali ed personnel can
reset these values directly from the radio remote control.
The result of this extraordinary joint endeavor provides
the operator with an extremely useful and immediately
legible interface, which helps to save time as well as
improving e ciency and productivity, reducing fuel
consumption and mitigating the environmental impact.
It has been demonstrated in this case that excellent
results can be achieved when the relationship between
OEMs and technology suppliers begins with the analysis
of speci c requirements, before proceeding with a
collaborative relationship that bene ts both parties,
right until the nal test. iVT
By Matteo Tennina, application engineer, Autec and
Andrea Serventi, marketing & communications, Autec
Reliable remote
machine control
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