Beckhoff predicts that it will “open up a whole new world of chatbot possibilities for control engineering”.
The TwinCAT Chat Client makes it possible to use Large Language Models (LLMs) – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT – to help develop TwinCat projects for increased productivity in control programming. It also opens up optimisation potential for direct support.
TwinCat product manager Sven Goldstein explains: “While we have been playing around with ChatGPT in recent months, we found out that it has a very nice additional skill – it can also develop source code”. He gives the example of asking ChatGPT to generate the PLC source code for a quicksort algorithm. This can then be dragged-and-dropped to the PLC.
Goldstein: a very nice additional skill
LLMs, based on neural networks, are trained using large quantities of text. They can be used for a variety of tasks – including as the basis for chatbots or language translation tools.
Beckhoff’s TwinCat Chat connects to the host cloud of an LLM – such as Microsoft Azure, in the case of ChatGPT. It provides a user interface, and communicates with the PLC development environment via an automation interface. This is available via a chat window in Visual Studio, optimising the LLM functions for TwinCat 3 users. It is supplemented by “extensive” TwinCat-specific content.
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