Practical application of PLCs – a smart mocktail bar

Let us undertake the journey of understanding the fundamentals of PLCs in the context of smart manufacturing by considering a specialized assembly line for preparing mocktails. The mocktail filling station consists of a menu display, a QR code generator, five stations of varied juices (iced tea, lemonade, grapefruit, pineapple, and watermelon), and a conveyor belt connecting them. Each station has a QR code scanner and an infrared-based line detector. The filling stations each consist of a pump, a solenoid valve, and a flow sensor. All the sensors, actuators, and the robotic arm are connected to a master PLC.

From the user’s perspective, a thirsty Bob enters the mocktail bar. He is welcomed with a display of multiple mouthwatering options such as pine lemonade, fruity mocktail, grapefruit iced tea, water(melon)-lemonade, lemon tea, pinemelon tea, and so on. This is depicted in the sample user experience diagram.

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