A recent trend in industrial plant control is the integration of information and control assets. This allows a more efficient use of resources and equipment. To realize this, there must be an integration platform that brings it all together.
With the extension of Ethernet and TCP/IP to various plant control devices, it's becoming easier to effect this integration. Systems that provide a high level, object-oriented system view can bridge the gap and bust up the usual silos of information.
Companies such as ABB are providing tools to realize this vision. ABB’s Extended Automation System 800xA Release 5.1 includes powerful object-oriented tools to model and integrate the whole life cycle of plant and product. Using a concept called Aspect Object, entities in the plant are modeled, and all the information is kept in one place. This can include real-time data, design data, safety, quality, and control information. That this framework resides on an industry standard Microsoft Windows platform makes it easy to implement and operate.
This is an interesting application of the idea of product life cycle management (PLM), and the integration of business and industrial control applications. Many years ago, I was working with large utility customers. At that time, systems that melded ERP systems with geographic mapping (GIS) and design applications were just being used to provide a real-time Available-to-Promise (ATP) functionality. The engineer could, in real time, sit down at a workstation while talking to a customer about a new service, and in minutes, come up with an ATP date.
A system like ABB’s extends this capability quite a bit further, and includes operational plant equipment, as well as the products themselves. Functions including plant design engineering, maintenance, operations, and business functions each have their own unique view of the information required.
While this is not specifically a PLM solution, it operates as an integration tool for PLM solutions and other systems. This is an important quality that any system should have, since implementing a single large application in this environment would be prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
Interesting to read that that this framework resides on a Microsoft Windows platform. Thirteen years ago, I wrote a story for EE Times in which I mentioned the Windows platform potentially being used in industrial control. After the article appeared, I received a very angry e-mail from an engineer who worked for a major auto company. He told me that I was wrong to write about this as a possible trend, and added that he personally "will never go over to the dark side." How times change.
Chuck, I am suprised as well. What I am finding is that many companies involved in industrial control like Windows becuase it is well known and there is little training involved with using it. I have found this in both large and small manufacturers. This is also behind the move to using a powerful centralized processor rather than distributed processors. The centralized processor system typically uses x86 architecture chips and Windows. The main driver there is familiararity of programming.
Those are many of the same reasons the military turned to open standard SW like Windows. That still boggles me (for what should be obvious reasons), but it's what COTS is all about.
Naperlou, I think that these kinds of applications will continue to emerge. As you mentioned, with Ethernet and TCP/IP becoming a unifying force for devices on the network, there is an opportunity to develop all kinds of application programs that pull this information into useful formats for monitoring, management and control. Thanks.
Makes sense, Al. When I attended Rockwell's Automation Fair in Chicago in 2011, more than half the products on display were designed for Ethernet/IP or some other flavor of Ethernet.
Al, that is the essence of Big Data. The ability to pull together massive amounts of data to formats that can be processed to find some useful attributes is made much easier when there are standards and platforms that work well together.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
2 
