Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
For manufacturers, the transition from isolated assets to connected assets is underway. This represents a significant step in the digital transformation of industry. A multitude of solutions that are emerging in the market bring the capability to mine Big Data using a scalable cloud infrastructure. Moreover, these capabilities in some cases are deployed as services that are purchased on a subscription basis rather than allocating a large capital expenditure. At the 2016 IMTS show Rockwell Automation provide ARC an opportunity to get a closer look at the maturation of their Remote Monitoring Services that have been deployed in a variety of manufacturing plants over the last several years. Remote Monitoring Services are being offered on a subscription basis that allows manufacturers to leverage the benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) without having to build the infrastructure or allocate a large capital expense. While Remote Monitoring Services are applicable to a broad range of devices, the primary target initially was the Medium Voltage drives. For Rockwell Automation this has been a journey that has resulted in a tremendous amount of knowledge of individual product performance and product application by mining of big data in the cloud.
Key Factors
The primary elements of the Remote Monitoring Service are the Field Gateway Software, FactoryTalk Cloud, Power BI and Azure Machine Learning tools. Field Gateway is a software application that is both Operating System and platform independent, thereby providing manufacturers a broad range of options when incorporating this solution. The extensibility of the Field Gateway Software essentially makes it the epicenter for localized data storage and data collection from virtually any networkable device on the factory floor. The gateway is built to allow drivers to be built to support numerous other industrial protocols such as ModBus, ProfiNet, etc. So why not just use a general purpose PLC to act as a data concentrator? The critical issues that the Field Gateway addresses which are not available in standard industrial automation platforms, include data encryption, device access security, and data compression. This triad of features make the Field Gateway a viable, robust solution for deployment in a wide range applications that rely upon a variety of communication environments whether it is a remote cellular connection, hardwired/wireless Ethernet, or other industrial network. The Field Gateway also solves the data collection problem for remote assets located in environments where loss of connection may be the norm which is a stress test for any gateway device in this category. Furthermore, the device is configurable such that the target industrial device data can be collected on a periodic time based intervals, event driven, and exceptions. The data is stored in a flat data structure in the device, but in the Cloud, object models and data models are configured.
Value of the Data
Deployments of the Field Gateway have been ongoing for about 3-4 years, primarily in Medium Voltage drive applications in fans, pumps and compressors. Over this period, time series data is being stored in the FactoryTalk Point Cloud where Rockwell Automation data scientists are applying machine learning and analytical tools to identify relationships between various operational parameters that simply aren't known yet. According to Rockwell Automation, it takes years of data in order to start mining the information. Faults and alarms either due to power quality, environmental, application, or component failures are simply not that frequent. However, there is a large data set to look back into when faults or alarms do occur. Over 80 different drive parameters (currents, voltages, and faults) are collected every couple of seconds providing a rich data set to analyze in the Cloud.
Relatively few of the discoveries are related to product design flaws, however the interesting discoveries generally fall under the application or infrastructure related issues. The data is providing Rockwell Automation with 20-20 vision into how customers are actually using drives in their plants. Through these insights they are able to close the loop by consulting with customers on alternative ways to operate the drive in their environment. The manufacturers' maintenance departments are generally the greatest beneficiaries in these discussions as they gain insight into how and when to maintain the drives to reduce the number of faults or component failures. Over time Rockwell Automation intends to use the data to make product design improvements and provide better application guidance.
Initially AC drives were the primary target application, however over the last three years many more application cases have been deployed with OEM machinery builders. The problem becomes a little more complex with OEMs as the value chain becomes more layered. When connecting to OEM machinery, the OEM is clearly the expert in analyzing the data sets. The Field Gateway and the FactoryTalk Point Cloud provide a proven infrastructure for OEMs so that machine builders can provide services themselves. This solution built on this same platform has been running for over 3 years OEM equipment to provide remote monitoring solutions in industries such as power generation and upstream oil & gas. In these applications, OEM customers are the primary beneficiary of the data being collected. In some of these applications Rockwell Automation is working with OEM partners to build analytic models that will help predict failures and prevent downtime in these assets in the future. The technology and business models are evolving, but Rockwell Automation's continued investment in this sector is increasing confidence in the customer base to deploy service based solutions using IIoT topologies.
Key Factors
The primary elements of the Remote Monitoring Service are the Field Gateway Software, FactoryTalk Cloud, Power BI and Azure Machine Learning tools. Field Gateway is a software application that is both Operating System and platform independent, thereby providing manufacturers a broad range of options when incorporating this solution. The extensibility of the Field Gateway Software essentially makes it the epicenter for localized data storage and data collection from virtually any networkable device on the factory floor. The gateway is built to allow drivers to be built to support numerous other industrial protocols such as ModBus, ProfiNet, etc. So why not just use a general purpose PLC to act as a data concentrator? The critical issues that the Field Gateway addresses which are not available in standard industrial automation platforms, include data encryption, device access security, and data compression. This triad of features make the Field Gateway a viable, robust solution for deployment in a wide range applications that rely upon a variety of communication environments whether it is a remote cellular connection, hardwired/wireless Ethernet, or other industrial network. The Field Gateway also solves the data collection problem for remote assets located in environments where loss of connection may be the norm which is a stress test for any gateway device in this category. Furthermore, the device is configurable such that the target industrial device data can be collected on a periodic time based intervals, event driven, and exceptions. The data is stored in a flat data structure in the device, but in the Cloud, object models and data models are configured.
Value of the Data
Deployments of the Field Gateway have been ongoing for about 3-4 years, primarily in Medium Voltage drive applications in fans, pumps and compressors. Over this period, time series data is being stored in the FactoryTalk Point Cloud where Rockwell Automation data scientists are applying machine learning and analytical tools to identify relationships between various operational parameters that simply aren't known yet. According to Rockwell Automation, it takes years of data in order to start mining the information. Faults and alarms either due to power quality, environmental, application, or component failures are simply not that frequent. However, there is a large data set to look back into when faults or alarms do occur. Over 80 different drive parameters (currents, voltages, and faults) are collected every couple of seconds providing a rich data set to analyze in the Cloud.
Relatively few of the discoveries are related to product design flaws, however the interesting discoveries generally fall under the application or infrastructure related issues. The data is providing Rockwell Automation with 20-20 vision into how customers are actually using drives in their plants. Through these insights they are able to close the loop by consulting with customers on alternative ways to operate the drive in their environment. The manufacturers' maintenance departments are generally the greatest beneficiaries in these discussions as they gain insight into how and when to maintain the drives to reduce the number of faults or component failures. Over time Rockwell Automation intends to use the data to make product design improvements and provide better application guidance.
Initially AC drives were the primary target application, however over the last three years many more application cases have been deployed with OEM machinery builders. The problem becomes a little more complex with OEMs as the value chain becomes more layered. When connecting to OEM machinery, the OEM is clearly the expert in analyzing the data sets. The Field Gateway and the FactoryTalk Point Cloud provide a proven infrastructure for OEMs so that machine builders can provide services themselves. This solution built on this same platform has been running for over 3 years OEM equipment to provide remote monitoring solutions in industries such as power generation and upstream oil & gas. In these applications, OEM customers are the primary beneficiary of the data being collected. In some of these applications Rockwell Automation is working with OEM partners to build analytic models that will help predict failures and prevent downtime in these assets in the future. The technology and business models are evolving, but Rockwell Automation's continued investment in this sector is increasing confidence in the customer base to deploy service based solutions using IIoT topologies.