Software Developer

Our client has a contracting role available for approx 4-8 weeks work, with other work to follow.

This is an urgent requirement which will involve improving the API and testing it will need to be carried out at the offices in Basingstoke where the robots are located and will require the contractor to be onsite with little hybrid working . Strong preference for a contractor local to Basingstoke

Fleet controller

The fleet of robots is controlled by the FLEET CONTROLLER v1.0. The FLEET CONTROLLER v1.0 comprises of :

1. The CONTRACT INPUT GUI written in Flask is used to enter contract parameters.
2. The ENGINEERING INPUT GUI written in Flask that is used to enter engineering parameters and also retrieve robot position data from the CONTRACT OUTPUT excel spreadsheet.
3. A SCADA screen (effectively a GUI) written in PHP. The user can control the fleet or individual robots from the SCADA and see the status and errors for the fleet of robots .
4. An API that is written in Java script that communicates between the robots an SQL database and the SCADA.
5. The CONTRACT OUTPUT GUI written in Flask and displays contract metrics on each robot function, errors and uptime.

The robots

Each robot is controlled by software written in structured text on a Beckhoff PLC. The Beckhoff PLC has a TwincatHMI running on it . The TwincatHMI on each robot can be used to manually control each robot and diagnose errors.

The workflow

The operator enters parameters into CONTRACT INPUT GUI and ENGINEERING INPUT GUI . Data from the CONTRACT INPUT GUI , ENGINEERING INPUT GUI and the CONTRACT OUTPUT excel spreadsheet is used to create POSITION EXCEL FILES which contain the position data and sequence for each robots. The POSITION EXCEL FILES are moved to the CONTRACT FOLDER. The API takes the EXCEL POSITION FILES from the CONTRACT FOLDER and saves it to an SQL database. The API then copies this data from the SQL database using JSON strings to the Beckhoff PLC in the ROBOT and stores it in the array on the PLC via WIFI. The robots then performs its tasks based on the data in its PLC array. As the robot performs its task it stores actual data and errors in the PLC array. The API populates the SQL database with the actual data in the PLC array. The API transfers the data in the SQL database back into the original EXCEL POSITION FILES. The CONTRACT OUTPUT GUI reads the data from the EXCEL POSITION FILES and displays contract metrics on each robot function, errors and uptime.

The company have recently recruited a Software Developer but are in need of immediate assistance. They urgently need to improve the reliability of the FLEET CONTROLLER v1.0. to meet an end of Q1 deadline. The contract duration will include the notice period plus a handover to the new Software Developer. If the contractor is successful they will continue to use them for the considerable software backlog.

Priority 1: Improve the reliability of the API within the current MTTF of the rest of the system - JAVA

Priority 2: Fix known errors on the SCADA -PHP

Priority 3: Work with the robot controls team to improve the errors and diagnostics on the SCADA-php

Priority 4 : Improve the end to end work flow from The CONTRACT INPUT GUI , The ENGINEERING INPUT GUI , CONTRACT OUTPUT excel spreadsheet, The CONTRACT OUTPUT GUI - FLASK

Skills

Experience in data transfer JSON, SQL , Excel interface

Improve and Debug JAVA , PHP, FLASK

Improve and Debug Python code

Flask and PHP code is low complexity .

Robot control code is out of scope communications between the robots is done via the EXCEL POSITION FILES

For future work C++ experience for IOT and machinery applications is desirable