Beyond Ladder: How AutoBlocks and Unitronics UniStream Redefine Modular Automation
Industry - Miscellaneous
AutoBlocks leverages the UniStream built-in web server to create AutoCode—a 26-command machine language for rapid OEM deployment.
Summary
This case study presents a configuration-driven automation architecture developed by AutoBlocks using Unitronics UniStream PLC + HMI controllers and the UniLogic development environment. The platform replaces traditional PLC programming with AutoCode, a structured execution layer that abstracts devices into configurable objects and executes machine logic deterministically via table-driven definitions. UniStream provides integrated control, motion, and web-server capabilities, enabling browser-based HMIs and real-time diagnostics without additional hardware. UniLogic enables unified development of logic, data structures, and interfaces within a single environment. Deployed across robotic and multi-axis systems, the architecture reduces engineering effort, improves standardization, and accelerates machine deployment.
About AutoBlocks
AutoBlocks brings over five decades of automation and tooling expertise to the Aerospace, Defense, Medical, and Electronics industries. AutoBlocks was born from a simple insight: custom machine building is too slow, too complex, and too dependent on specialized programming. The answer is a pre-engineered, standardized modular platform that dramatically reduces development time, engineering risk, and lead times.
AutoBlocks is a modular machine automation platform built on Unitronics UniStream PLCs. At its core is AutoCode—a structured machine programming environment that is not simply a clever PLC program, but a complete machine operating system.
Running natively on UniStream, AutoCode provides a unified architecture for logic, motion, safety, robotics, vision, and operator guidance. Engineers can now configure sophisticated production machines via a table-driven interface without writing a single line of PLC code.
The Challenge: Escaping the "Start from Scratch" Mindset
Custom machine building traditionally means starting from scratch for every project: writing PLC logic, configuring motion controllers, integrating safety systems, programming robots, and building operator interfaces—often across multiple vendor platforms with no shared architecture.
For AutoBlocks’ founder Jared Sandman, the goal was to eliminate this fragmentation entirely: by creating a single machine platform where any production machine—from a desktop process station to a multi-axis robotic cell—can be configured and deployed without writing a single line of PLC code.
The Solution: Shifting from Coding to Configuration via UniStream
AutoBlocks is built on Unitronics UniStream controllers, which provide the hardware foundation for the entire platform. The UniStream’s integrated web-server architecture is what makes AutoCode possible—delivering the processing power to run AutoCode’s real-time execution engine, the communications stack to manage distributed devices across the machine, and the built-in web server that enables browser-based operator interfaces, dashboards, and remote diagnostics without additional hardware.
AutoCode: A Machine Operating System
AutoCode is a structured, table-driven machine programming language running natively on the UniStream PLC. It transforms the controller from a device-level PLC into a complete machine operating system. What makes it fundamentally different:
- Device-level abstraction: Every connected device—motors, actuators, robots, vision systems, sensors, pneumatics—is treated as a modular object with defined methods and properties, configured through structured tables rather than ladder logic or function blocks.
- 26-command machine language: A standardized command set covering motion sequences, process control, safety interlocks, quality checks, conditional logic, and inter-device coordination—a deterministic, real-time execution engine running directly on the UniStream PLC.
- Web-server enabled: Leveraging the UniStream’s built-in web server, AutoCode delivers sophisticated operator interfaces, real-time production dashboards, remote diagnostics, and machine configuration tools—all accessible through any standard browser on any device.
- Offline and field-serviceable: Programs can be created and edited in standard spreadsheet format, uploaded directly to the controller, or modified at the machine—no proprietary development environment or internet connection required.
Multi-device coordination: AutoCode natively manages complex interactions between robots, gantry systems, conveyors, vision systems, and process equipment through its built-in device abstraction layer.
The AutoBlocks Hardware Platform
AutoCode is paired with a family of standardized hardware modules:
- Control Block™: The universal machine controller, built around the Unitronics UniStream. Manages logic, motion, and operator interface for any machine type. Includes an industry-leading embedded safety controller for sophisticated, standards-compliant safety functions—eliminating the need for a separate safety PLC or external safety relay system.
- Smart Motors & Actuators: Absolute-encoder motors with a single-cable connection carrying both power and communication over runs up to 20 meters. Each axis carries local intelligence for distributed processing and is plug-and-play with the Control Block through AutoCode.
- Remote I/O: Auto-mapped, Ethernet-based expansion modules for distributed sensor and actuator connectivity.
- Web-Client HMI & Teach Pendant: AutoBlocks provides standalone web-client HMI touchscreens and an industrial teach pendant with physical buttons. The operator interface is served by the UniStream’s built-in web server and runs as a pure web client—accessible from any AutoBlocks display, the UniStream’s built-in HMI panel, or any browser-equipped device on the machine network.
Together, these modules and AutoCode establish a universal controller layer where the same platform architecture runs everything from a desktop process station to a 25-foot robotic production system.
Integrated 6-Axis Robot Controller
The AutoBlocks motion system is a fully integrated 6-axis robot controller managed entirely through AutoCode. The system supports up to 6 primary axes—each configurable as linear or rotary—plus 4 additional auxiliary axes, giving machine builders the flexibility to address everything from simple single-axis positioning to complex multi-axis gantry and robotic systems.
AutoCode provides a table-based programming model with G-code equivalent commands for motion programming, along with integrated jog and teach functions, axis configuration, work offsets, and recipe-driven motion profiles—giving integrators and machine builders a clean, scalable motion system they can configure and deploy without specialized motion control expertise.
Data Tracking & Traceability
Because AutoCode controls the machine directly, production data is captured at the source—automatically and in real time. The platform provides built-in data tracking and traceability capabilities designed to support MES-level production data capture and the documentation demands of regulated industries such as aerospace and medical device manufacturing.
AutoCode captures cycle data, process parameters, operator actions, and pass/fail results as a natural part of program execution. The platform supports part-level traceability—linking individual units to process conditions, recipes, and machine state—as well as quality gate enforcement and operator tracking. Because AutoCode is the machine’s execution engine, this data originates within the control system itself. There is no need for separate data collection hardware or middleware—the UniStream’s processing and storage capabilities handle data capture, logging, and delivery to external systems natively.
How It Works: From Concept to Running Machine
UniStream controllers in every AutoBlocks machine are pre-configured through AutoCode to handshake with connected equipment, managing start/finish sequences, safety protocols, and pneumatic operations automatically.
The AutoBlocks platform allows engineers and integrators to design and deploy a machine by:
- Selecting the machine architecture: gantry, robotic cell, rotary station, linear transfer, or desktop process system.
- Adding robot integration blocks—pre-configured through AutoCode for plug-and-play operation with no communications programming.
- Customizing with AutoBlocks Application Kits for robotic soldering, screw driving, induction heating, vision inspection, material handling, and more.
- Adding accessories: light curtains, vision systems, safety interlocks, and additional sensors.
- Configuring the entire machine through AutoCode’s table-driven interface—process parameters, motion profiles, quality checks, and operator workflows—without writing code.
The Benefits
Automatic, Transparent Communications
AutoCode manages all communications between platform modules, kits, and accessories via Modbus TCP, digital I/O, and analog communications. Engineers never configure protocols—AutoCode handles device discovery and data exchange natively.
Universal Machine Architecture
The same Control Block, AutoCode environment, and operator interface can power a desktop brazing station, a twin-table robotic soldering cell, a 25-foot gantry system, or a high-speed PCB router. This standardization dramatically reduces engineering time and makes every machine easier to support and maintain.
Plug-and-Play Robotics and Process Equipment
Robots, motors, actuators, sensors, pneumatics, vision systems, and process equipment integrate into any AutoBlocks machine through pre-configured AutoCode device profiles that manage handshaking, coordination, and safety interlocking automatically.
No Programming Required
Machine builders and integrators configure machines through parameter selection rather than code writing. AutoCode manages motion profiles, station sequences, part tracking, recipe management, and operator workflows—all configurable through the web-client HMI or standard spreadsheet upload.
Sophisticated Operator Interface
AutoCode provides operators with an intuitive, browser-based interface for machine operation: program selection, speed and acceleration control, process parameters, recipe management, alarm handling, production monitoring, and diagnostics—accessible from any display on the network, without requiring training on PLC software.
Secure, Scalable Development
The AutoBlocks team built the entire AutoCode platform using Unitronics’ free UniLogic programming software, leveraging the UniStream’s web-server capabilities for browser-accessible interfaces and data services. The architecture safeguards AutoBlocks’ intellectual property while allowing customers to configure new functions and extend machine capabilities through AutoCode’s structured API.
Proven Across Machine Types
The AutoBlocks platform has been deployed across a diverse range of production machines, all on the same UniStream + AutoCode architecture:
- Robotic Hot Solder Dip Systems: Multi-axis robotics, thermal process control, and production traceability for aerospace-grade soldering.
- Gantry Pick-and-Place Systems: Precision multi-axis motion with machine vision for electronics assembly and material handling.
- PCB Routers: High-speed spindle motion, robotic handling, and vision-guided routing in single or twin-table configurations.
- Induction Brazing & Curing Systems: Controlled energy delivery with integrated motion, pneumatic actuation, and process recipe management.
- Semi-Automated Desktop Stations: Operator-guided systems combining manual loading with automated process control.
- OEM Equipment Integration: AutoBlocks controllers embedded directly into third-party industrial products.
Conclusion
AutoCode transforms the Unitronics UniStream PLC into a universal machine platform—a structured, deterministic environment where machines are configured rather than coded, where every device speaks a common language, and where the gap between machine control and production data disappears entirely. AutoCode’s 26-command machine language, device abstraction architecture, and web-enabled operator interface make the AutoBlocks platform a new standard for modular machine automation.
With Unitronics controllers at the foundation, AutoBlocks gives engineers the ability to handle virtually any production process: dispensing, screw driving, press fit, induction heating, soldering, ultrasonic welding, leak testing, inspection, assembly, heat staking, laser marking, laser welding, laser cutting, machining, and more—all on a single, unified platform.
“AutoCode isn’t a workaround for PLC programming—it’s the next step. By leveraging the full capability of the Unitronics UniStream PLC built-in web-server, we’ve built a machine operating system that lets our customers design and deploy sophisticated automation without writing a line of code.”
— Jared Sandman, President & Director of Engineering, AutoBlocks
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