Network Systems Building the right game in industrial automation Justin Farrell from Siemens and Phil Newnes from APS Industrial discuss the recent trends in industrial automation technology and what it takes to move manufacturing businesses forward.
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ECENT trends in automation technology have the potential to be gamechangers in the industrial sector, pushing forward productivity and efficiency and making processes more flexible and adaptable in realtime – all under the broad umbrella of “Industry 4.0”. Many decades ago, automation systems were built as standalone packages for specific applications, designed to function with proprietary software, and they had little to no ability to communicate with other systems. However, over the last 20-30 years, these traditional barriers have been gradually breaking down. Industrial networks, for example, have allowed highly disparate systems to be connected together, although this can be in a limited fashion. According to Justin Farrell, general manager of factory automation at Siemens Australia, a major change in the automation space is the increasing “openness” of more recent technologies and systems. “While over the last 20 years, communication barriers have been broken down and some data transfer between machines of different vendors has already been happening, it has until fairly recently been somewhat limited to simple commands, such as ‘stop/go’ and emergency safety functions or has required significant effort to build bespoke overarching systems that can be difficult to maintain,” explained Farrell. “Quite recently, however, new communication platforms and techniques are coming out that are really open. It means that, for example, a German-built machine and an American-built machine could be brought together with
22 MAY 2020 Manufacturers’ Monthly
an Australian built machine in Australia and communicate with each other using an open, vendoragnostic communications platform.” This is enabling detailed, highspeed communication. Effective communication in an industrial plant is, after all, now not just about being able to send information, but it is also about having close to real-time communication so that operational characteristics can be synchronised. Transparent and relatively easy to maintain these types of systems can evolve with an organisation’s requirements, they have the flexibility and scalability to ensure initial investment is not lost as things change.
The increased use of edge computing Putting data in the cloud or sending things to the cloud means companies can have easier decentralised sharing of data and global sharing of information. However, while there is much talk today around socalled “big data”, it is necessary for companies to be able to transmit data that is useful and valuable where and when it is needed. This is where “edge” computing comes in. Edge computing enables data storage and analysis closer to the devices and even on machines where it being gathered, lessening the potential for communication and connectivity problems and
With AI, robots are able to look at the parts and pick it up no matter what the orientation is – it is not limited by programmability, and that is a step beyond machine learning. “These are the changes that are happening right now,” said Farrell. “We now have much more open standards and the ability for different machines to effectively communicate together in a way that allows the operational characteristics of each individual plant to be optimised.” Cloud-based systems are now coming to the fore. Siemens’ MindSphere is among them. “Three years ago, MindSphere was at beginning stage, and over that three-year journey we have seen it go from what it could do to what it can do – the real-world applications of what industrial cloud is able to achieve for industry,” said Farrell.
reducing the need to process data in centralised cloud locations. Farrell explained edge computing by drawing on the analogy of smartphones. While smartphones are built with the primary purpose of being mobile phones, they also have the ability to access a sever and download apps that change the function of the device while retaining the original function at the same time. Over time, the phone’s connectivity makes it more useful as people develop new ideas about what it could be used for. Siemens is translating this idea into the industrial world with edge computing, releasing devices such as a human-machine interface (HMI),
which in the past meant an operator console, a visualisation of data about the machine. Now the company is building edge functionality into HMIs so that what companies buy today can be upgraded to something different or new or more advanced in the future as new functions are developed. It will become a standard to build edge into all new automation products. “Also, edge devices are able to work and make decisions with machine control systems, but they don’t necessarily have to be connected to a cloud or the internet to have proper functionality,” said Farrell. “This is because they have a local computing functionality as well as an ability to take information that has been analysed up to a cloud or a local server that is on the premises.” The value that can be gained from Industrial cloud systems is often dependent on the speed of the cloud and where it is located. Farrell explained that edge devices allow the user to control what data is being sent in an effective way and, also, connect to any number of clouds. This also enables for updates to systems and machinery to be carried out remotely in a safe and secure way. “A machine builder based in Australia who sends a machine to India, for example, may not have service engineers based in the latter. With edge devices, you could have that secure ability to connect and upgrade and update your machine functions from Australia without having to have anybody on the ground in India. And that is a real advantage,” Farrell explained. “Wholesale programming changes are usually difficult to do remotely without having a confident person onsite because if there is an error it could cause an unwanted result. With edge devices, you could have an manmonthly.com.au
