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In this video, we demonstrate some of theÂ
advanced motion control features and MQTTÂ Â communication capabilities of the BRX seriesÂ
PLC. MQTT is a lightweight protocol designed  for micro controllers. It allows it theÂ
PLC to communicate to IT infrastructure and  IOT platforms. If you send messages over theÂ
internet, these messages need to be encrypted.  BRX includes MQTT over TLS to securely transmitÂ
messages. The PLC instruction set provides all  you need to retrieve the JSON that s embeddedÂ
in the MQTT message. The BRX PLC has specific  instructions to parse and format JSON which isÂ
typically the format used in the MQTT protocol. In the first example we demonstrate a simple butÂ
difficult task: Finding out the status of the PLC.  In the past, this would require a controlÂ
engineer to open the programming software  and in some instances open the PLC cabinetÂ
itself. Newer PLCs have an embedded website  for you to check the status, but what if weÂ
could just ask the PLC what the status was? OK Google, ask BRX Status. Alright, here's theÂ
test version of BRX. Hi Smiley, I currently have  zero errors and two warnings. Three of myÂ
inputs are on and one of my outputs are on. In this example, we ask the GoogleÂ
assistant Hey google, ask BRX status?  When the request is made to the Google assistant,Â
the google assistant hands the message to node red  which is a codeless processingÂ
agent that can enrich the JSONÂ Â which it then sends to the IBM Watson IOTÂ
platform. This platform then directs the  message to the BRX PLC which parses theÂ
JSON and returns the appropriate status. What if you could use the google assistantÂ
to actually execute commands in the PLC? OK Google, ask BRX to go home. OK, let'sÂ
get the test version of BRX. OK Smiley,  got it. I am going home inÂ
a few seconds. Stay clear. As you can see, the PLC executed the program. BRXÂ
PLCs support up to 27 different axes of motion.  You can also have up to 7 groups of coordinatedÂ
motion with up to 4 axes in each group. As you  can see when we home the delta robot.
The last example, I ask Google:Â Â OK Google, ask BRX run program one .Â
Alright, let's get the test version of BRX.  OK Smiley, I will run program one in aÂ
few seconds. Please stay clear of my arms. Using BRX coordinated motion, we were able toÂ
coordinate the motion for the delta robot in a  pick and place application. Of course, in the realÂ
world there would be safety concerns doing this,  however, there are applicationsÂ
that do not have safety concerns  that could be easily integratedÂ
with this same solution. If you would like to learn more about how thisÂ
was completed, please leave comments below.