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IIoT will change the way industrial organizations generate, collect, and analyze data. Data will be generated faster and in greater volume than ever before, as IIoT data is Big Data for industry. This will require the current plant information infrastructure to evolve. One key part of this new infrastructure will be edge devices or intelligent gateways, which will include the latest generation of controllers, such as DCS’, PLC’s and PACs. Besides providing control, these edge devices will securely collect, aggregate, filter, and relay data, leveraging their close proximity to industrial processes or production assets. They will also be capable of collaborating with powerful analytics tools, detecting anomalies in real time, and raising alarms so that operators can take appropriate actions. But the question is what is the technology that is embedded into these new controllers that is enabling IIoT and pushing these new devices to the edge? And will this be a trend for future controllers from multiple industrial automation suppliers?
To address this market trend, the industrial automation suppliers have or will be releasing an array of new controllers that are IIoT-enabled and can act as edge devices. A recent example, covered in a recent ARC ARCview regarding Honeywell's Digital Transformation, is Honeywell Process Systems launching its new ControlEdge PLC. As its name implies, it is focused on being a controller as well as an edge device that enables connectivity to IIoT. The ControlEdge PLC achieves this by leveraging embedded OPC UA protocol for connectivity and integration to a range of devices, instruments, equipment and software from multiple industrial automation suppliers. OPC UA is a family of technologies intended to exchange information between different industrial control systems on different control layers in a standardized fashion. OPC UA provides technologies to connect field control devices with higher control layers.
Plants seek to maximize their return on assets (ROA) by making sure that their automation investments are scalable, future-proof, adhere to open standards, and can seamlessly integrate to existing assets, avoiding having to “rip and replace” current infrastructure. Industrial automation suppliers can address these issues and help maximize its customer’s ROA by providing new scalable IIoT-enabled edge device controllers that future-proof their platforms to be IIoT solution-ready, embed their platforms with OPC UA open communication standards, and design their platforms to integrate with existing assets for either process or discrete applications ranging from other DCS, PLC or PAC systems to variable speed drives, which is the reality found in most plants.
The emergence of the IIoT represents a digital transformation for manufacturers and processors that shifts the source of competitive advantage away from physical machinery and toward information. Controllers designed to be IIoT-enabled edge devices provide an IIoT-ready open platform that enable its users to better utilize data across their assets to help reduce unplanned downtime and off-spec products by building IIoT ecosystems that leverage data, advanced analytics and domain knowledge.
OPC UA has certainly been gaining traction as a standard for connecting the plant floor to the enterprise, but it appears that IIoT is being threaded in as common denominator. The OPC Foundation pursues interoperability in industrial automation by creating and maintaining open specifications that standardize communication of acquired process data, alarm and event records, historical data, and batch data to multi-vendor enterprise systems and between production devices. The goal for OPC is for it to be a standard for interoperability for moving information vertically from the factory floor through the enterprise of multi-vendor systems as well as providing interoperability between devices on different industrial networks from different suppliers. Controllers, such as the ControlEdge PLC and others that utilize embedded OPC UA will certainly leverage these benefits.
Most factories and plants want to deploy IIoT applications, but are often seeking guidance as where to start. Those controllers who are embedded with OPC UA are better able to leverage plant floor to enterprise communications as well as participate in IIoT applications. OPC UA will finding its way to being embedded into additional devices to make this IIoT-enabling process easier for industrial automation suppliers, end users, OEMs and software developers to begin their IIoT journey. OPC UA will still be used to maintain interoperability of manufacturing and automation assets, providing specifications, technology, processes and certifications to help achieve multi-supplier, multiplatform interoperability for moving data and information from the embedded world to the enterprise cloud.
To address this market trend, the industrial automation suppliers have or will be releasing an array of new controllers that are IIoT-enabled and can act as edge devices. A recent example, covered in a recent ARC ARCview regarding Honeywell's Digital Transformation, is Honeywell Process Systems launching its new ControlEdge PLC. As its name implies, it is focused on being a controller as well as an edge device that enables connectivity to IIoT. The ControlEdge PLC achieves this by leveraging embedded OPC UA protocol for connectivity and integration to a range of devices, instruments, equipment and software from multiple industrial automation suppliers. OPC UA is a family of technologies intended to exchange information between different industrial control systems on different control layers in a standardized fashion. OPC UA provides technologies to connect field control devices with higher control layers.
Plants seek to maximize their return on assets (ROA) by making sure that their automation investments are scalable, future-proof, adhere to open standards, and can seamlessly integrate to existing assets, avoiding having to “rip and replace” current infrastructure. Industrial automation suppliers can address these issues and help maximize its customer’s ROA by providing new scalable IIoT-enabled edge device controllers that future-proof their platforms to be IIoT solution-ready, embed their platforms with OPC UA open communication standards, and design their platforms to integrate with existing assets for either process or discrete applications ranging from other DCS, PLC or PAC systems to variable speed drives, which is the reality found in most plants.
The emergence of the IIoT represents a digital transformation for manufacturers and processors that shifts the source of competitive advantage away from physical machinery and toward information. Controllers designed to be IIoT-enabled edge devices provide an IIoT-ready open platform that enable its users to better utilize data across their assets to help reduce unplanned downtime and off-spec products by building IIoT ecosystems that leverage data, advanced analytics and domain knowledge.
OPC UA has certainly been gaining traction as a standard for connecting the plant floor to the enterprise, but it appears that IIoT is being threaded in as common denominator. The OPC Foundation pursues interoperability in industrial automation by creating and maintaining open specifications that standardize communication of acquired process data, alarm and event records, historical data, and batch data to multi-vendor enterprise systems and between production devices. The goal for OPC is for it to be a standard for interoperability for moving information vertically from the factory floor through the enterprise of multi-vendor systems as well as providing interoperability between devices on different industrial networks from different suppliers. Controllers, such as the ControlEdge PLC and others that utilize embedded OPC UA will certainly leverage these benefits.
Most factories and plants want to deploy IIoT applications, but are often seeking guidance as where to start. Those controllers who are embedded with OPC UA are better able to leverage plant floor to enterprise communications as well as participate in IIoT applications. OPC UA will finding its way to being embedded into additional devices to make this IIoT-enabling process easier for industrial automation suppliers, end users, OEMs and software developers to begin their IIoT journey. OPC UA will still be used to maintain interoperability of manufacturing and automation assets, providing specifications, technology, processes and certifications to help achieve multi-supplier, multiplatform interoperability for moving data and information from the embedded world to the enterprise cloud.