Automation and control system provider Opto 22 is readying the release of a new tool that will allow engineers to build and deploy mobile, web-based automation, monitoring, and control interfaces for a variety of device platforms regardless of OS, the company said.
Opto 22 has dubbed Groov, set to be released in April, a “human device interface” (HDI) rather than a human machine interface (HMI) because it “takes the regular HMI in a different direction: toward the tablet, smartphone, and other mobile devices that have become part of our home and professional lives,” the company wrote in an email to Design News.
How an application built using Opto 22’s Groov tool might look on an iPhone. The automation vendor plans to release the tool for building and deploying web-based automation, monitoring, and control interfaces for mobile devices regardless of OS in April. The interfaces are meant to be complementary to human machine interfaces (HMIs) from Opto 22’s SNAP PAC control system. (Source: Opto 22)
The idea behind the tool is to build mobile interfaces that -- like smartphone interfaces -- are more intuitive to how a person works, thinks, and uses a mobile device. Rather than looking clunky as some industrial machines can, the applications built using Groov are meant to be more contemporary, providing easily accessible system information on nearly any mobile device. The company stressed, however, that it does not intend the tool to replace HMIs but rather augment them on mobile platforms. The tool also is designed to work with Opto 22’s SNAP PAC control system.
As described by the company in a whitepaper about Groov provided to Design News, the tool is relatively easy to use. It uses a web browser in which engineers can simply drag and drop a gadget, such as a gauge or button, onto the screen and choose a data tag for information from Opto 22’s SNAP PAC control system. The tool is based on open standard interfaces so the interfaces will run on any devices that use a web browser, the company said.
Groov is comprised of a number of components, including Groov Box, an industrially hardened appliance that interfaces with Opto 22 control systems and runs the
Groov web application, storing the data from Groov interfaces. Groov Box uses separate network interfaces for the control system and the computer network.
Other components of the tool include the following: Groov Build, a web application’s mode for creating a Groov project (the interface); Groov View, a web application’s mode for running a groov project in any modern web browser; and Groov View for iOS, an iPhone and iPad version of the browser mode.
Once Groov is available, the suggested price for the product will be $1995, the company said.
Thanks for providing more information on this for our readers. It always helps to hear directly from the expert's mouth about the product and to fill in the information gaps. I thought I had added the info about the system support but I write a lot of blog posts so I can't remember! But good that you informed our readers about it.
I'm the Opto 22 media contact who provided Elizabeth with the early information on groov, and I think I can address the questions here. (And for the record, I have no idea how I got the username "OptoISO.")
Jack and TJ: groov -- specifically the groov web application -- runs in a web browser on a mobile or other device, so the key requirement is not the device OS, but instead it's whether the device's web browser is current enough to handle the caching, graphics scaling, and other recent web technologies the groov web application uses.
Jack: I think that information about automation system support didn't make it past DN's editorial trimming process. For its initial release in April, groov communicates with Opto 22 SNAP PAC systems and OptoEMU energy monitoring products. Support for OPC-UA is planned to be added later this year, which expands the number of devices for which you can create and run an operator interface. If the automation system or device has an OPC-UA server, groov can talk to it.
Additional information on groov is available here: http://groov.com
TJ, Having worked for an OEM in the mobile machinery industry for a number of years, this would have been a VERY useful system if it were capable of getting the info from whatever automation system that was bein used. However, I think it almost needs to be dual-OS (Android and iOS). Whatever one you pick, your customers will have standarized on the other one.
If I remember correctly, the development environment was more than $600 less expensive, possibly as much as $800 less.
However, theirs is limited to the iOS only. Given a choice, I'd rather have a solution that works on Android because the hardware is much less expensive.
Opto-22 is out front with this, but I think their pricing is going to inhibit adoption of it. There are other packages (albeit from much less well-known companies) for far less.
Yes, Nancy, this technology has come a long way. And I think it will go even further as technologies like EtherCAT are adopted more across industrial networks and everything becomes more interconnected. The mobile device is a powerful tool, and to have access to information in the field using devices people carry every day is I imagine quite handy. Thanks for the industry perspective on this.
It's my understanding, apresher, that the tool is meant more to build an interface for a contemporary mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet, that connects to an automation system and provides relevant system diagnostic and other information on that device. So it's not quite as specific as what you are describing. But I can double check and make sure I am explaining it correctly.
Elizabeth, Is one target for this technology machinery builders who would develop an app for their specific machines? Definitely interesting technology and I like the HDI acronym. Thanks.
I really like the mobile monitoring aspect of this tool. In the old days I wrote a program that monitored a 160 channels and when one of them went out of range, it paged the engineer with the number of the channel that was out of range - and we thought that was great. The engineer would know from the channel number whether or not it was something that he had to address immediately and go to the plant, or if it was something that could wait until morning. Being able to read the actual data in real time from any location like you were standing in front of it in an easy and intuitive format is very cool - We've come a long way, baby!
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