what is ladder logic when programming robots?

Answer 1

car manufacturer ford were first to bring in the idea of the PLC - programmable logic controllers.

the idea being that all the machinery was in place with wires and sensors and all they wanted to do was alter how it operated slightly without a lot of work, re-wiring relays and switches.

the idea came about to wire all devices to a box and this box could be programmed to operate the machinery.

because programming languages or machine code is quite difficult to understand unless you have programmed it, ladder logic was created.

each output is designate a coil and each input designated a contact.

very simple to understand and looks like a ladder.

Answer 2

Ladder logic is a graphical way of representing a programs logic in a similar fashion to that of an electrical diagram. In fact a simple ladder logic diagram could be hard wired using switches and function like the PLC program.

Evaluating the ladder logic program is done Top to Bottom And Left to Right. Start at the top most rung and evaluate the logic on that rung from left to right.

--------| SWITCH A|---- |SWITCH B|---------(COIL)------

A*B=C if either switch is off (0) the coil is off

Answer 3

ladder logic is a sequential logic system where one thing will not happen unless a certain sequence of things happened previously. this is unlike using a system involving interupts.

Answer 4

a game to test the robots:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_Logic