by Gary Mintchell | Jul 7, 2022 | News, Organizations, Standards
A new interface standard for the acquisition of energy consumption data in industrial manufacturing is being developed by ODVA, OPC Foundation, PI, and VDMA based on OPC UA as announced at Hannover 2022.
A key objective of the future mechanical and plant engineering sectors is to achieve climate-neutral production. This is backed up by the European Union’s “European Green Deal”, which aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, and to implement many other use cases, energy consumption data in production is an important prerequisite.
ODVA, OPC Foundation, PI, and VDMA founded the “Power Consumption Management” group in May 2022. In this group, the OPC UA interface standard for energy consumption data is being developed. Karsten Schneider, Chairman of PI, is looking forward to cooperation with the ODVA, the OPC Foundation, and VDMA: “The acquisition and analysis of energy consumption in machines and plants is an immensely important topic for the future.”
“The four organizations are working at full speed to harmonize and standardize energy consumption information on the shop floor,” says Andreas Faath, head of VDMA Machine Information Interoperability Department. “With this, a crucial building block, supporting the goal of global climate-neutral production in all sectors of the machinery and plant engineering industry, is under development.”
“Rapid transition to environmentally-sustainable energy use is the greatest challenge of our time and, as such, I am glad that we are proceeding together: PI and ODVA contributing their in-depth know-how on energy interfaces at the field level, with the internationally recognized OPC UA data modelling standard defining semantics and secure data transport, serving as the foundation of the Global Production Language developed by the VDMA”, says Stefan Hoppe, President OPC Foundation.
“ODVA is pleased to be an active contributor to this key initiative to optimize energy usage and thereby reduce the detrimental impact on the environment from waste,” said Dr. Al Beydoun, President and Executive Director of ODVA. “This Power Consumption Management collaboration will help ensure end users have a highly standardized and interoperable means to reach their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals.”
The results of the working group will be published as a new OPC UA specification. Future releases of the OPC UA for Machinery specification will leverage these results, ensuring that energy information from all machines and components on the shop floor can be provided in a standardized way as part of the Global Production Language.
“The activity is based, in particular, on the existing standards of the participating organizations; but also on other standards from the OPC Foundation, the VDMA, and external research,” says Heiko Herden, VDMA and elected chairperson of the new joint working group. “In combination with other OPC UA for Machinery use cases, such as status monitoring or job management, the calculation of the product and production-specific carbon footprint will be possible.”
Within the VDMA, over 600 member companies develop the Global Production Language. OPC UA Companion Specifications, for numerous sectors of the mechanical and plant engineering industry, are being created by an additional 40 working groups. The basic specification, “OPC UA for Machinery,” is a special case. Here, important building blocks are defined across all domains. Other specifications can be based on these building blocks.
by Gary Mintchell | Jul 7, 2022 | Automation, News, Organizations, Standards, Technology
This news is one of three emanating from Hannover last May concerning the OPC Foundation (and others). Everything within manufacturing is mobile these days. That makes it important to know where things are.
There have been some starts at this. Some associations have already dedicated themselves to the aspects of “location and positioning” in the past. Some OPC UA Companion Specifications already contain data descriptions in this regard. Coming from the aspect of identification, the association AIM-D e.V. published an OPC UA Companion Specification AutoID. The location standard omlox from PROFIBUS&PROFINET International (PI) allows seamless and technology-independent provision of location data in production and logistics.
Here is the news:
The three associations have now joined forces to form a joint working group to develop a new OPC UA Companion Specification “Global Positioning”. The goal of the Companion Specification is to define geometric positions in space on a local and global level to ensure a seamless transition between production, intralogistics and logistics. It completes existing Companion Specifications with the aspect of positioning and allows location data from omlox systems to be easily further processed within the OPC world and refined with additional data.
“Interoperability is not only necessary between manufacturers, but also between standards,” says Dr. Matthias Jöst – Committee Leader for omlox – within PI. “In particular in the exchange between different communities, many synergies and new potentials arise.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jun 13, 2022 | Automation, Networking, Standards
Several sources for networking keep me informed about progress and applications of 5G cellular, especially the ability to construct private cellular networks just for your plant. Then came an inquiry for an interview and news around a new IoT standard using noncellular 5G. The teaser, “with the promise to transform the way enterprises can scale, monitor, and track their businesses.” How could I resist?
From the press release, ABI Research, in conjunction with Wirepas, has just announced a new 5G IOT Standard. The first mesh, non cellular technology of its kind, these new standards hold the promise of democratizing the deployment of massive IOT networks across industrial segments like manufacturing, warehousing, energy, and commercial buildings.
I talked with Teppo Hemiä who has been the CEO of Wirepas since the beginning of 2014. Before joining Wirepas, Teppo held positions at Nokia, STMicroelectronics and ST-Ericsson. Wirepas is a Finland-based company that develops networking software that is embedded in radio chips. He was a main contributor to this new DECT-2020 NR Standard and the only manufactures of the mesh connectivity solution. The European standardization organization ETSI released its first set of DECT-2020 standards in June 2020 and updated them including addition of a fifth section published in December 2021.
Wirepas’ mesh connectivity solutions have made this new standard possible.
He told me that there is effectively no limit to the scale of this new network. They have networked a million smart electrical meters in Oslo, Norway with no network planning, no vase station. For every 300 nodes there was a cellular node to connect to the Internet. This network utilizes the 1.9 GHz spectrum that is free everywhere. It is the old standard for wireless phone headsets. It is not a high bandwidth network but perfect for IoT applications such as condition monitoring in factories.
Another key is democratizing access. You don’t have to go through a supplier’s cloud. Any enterprise can set up and manage its own network. He says this is a tenth of the cost of cellular solutions. Companies are enabled to operate without middlemen or subscription fees.
This is from the preamble of the standard, These new standards hold the promise of democratizing the deployment of massive Internet of Technology networks across industrial segments like manufacturing, warehousing, energy, and commercial buildings. DECT-2020 NR has been designed and optimized for low-cost, low-power, and decentralized operation, providing opportunities for new applications across multiple industries.
by Gary Mintchell | May 17, 2022 | Data Management, News, Organizations, Standards
The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) continues to reinvent itself as new technologies and applications appear. I could say the same about Mark Fondl, whom I first met as he explained how Ethernet was going to be the only sensible control network some 24 years ago. About the time I first met OMAC. This initiative comes because of all the data-intensive technologies we’ve added in manufacturing over the past few years. We have cloud, analytics, digital transformation, data-driven, and the entire panoply of use cases and tech.
OMAC’s latest initiative, led by ei3’s Mark Fondl, aims to establish a framework and guidelines to protect precious proprietary information while enabling secure data sharing for efficiently solving problems, mining insights, and capturing the highest value from data-supported capabilities.
The workgroup will elaborate on the following topics to help organizations boost employee collaboration and productivity and support continuous innovation through practical data-sharing approaches.
- Categorizing types of data and methods of segmentation
- Identifying the sources of data
- Clustering data usage – from control and optimization to service and support
- Understanding data ownership and constraints – especially concerning the use of insights arising from the data
- Architecting data hierarchy for distribution
- Reviewing security regulations concerning the transfer and storage
Participating organizations include leading manufacturing companies such as Cargill, Pepsico, and Corning; well-known OEMs including Mettler-Toledo, Milacron, Barry-Wehmiller, and Nordson; system integrators like Rovisys and Martin CSI, and groundbreaking technology companies like the ei3 Corporation, Siemens, General Electric, Rockwell, Cisco, Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. amongst others.
The workgroup will meet virtually, with the kick-off meeting being planned for May 18, 2022. (Sorry, I’m a bit late to the party due to the allergy attack.) A face-to-face workshop will take place in December 2022 to allow active members to review the developed content and enable an easy and free flow of suggestions in advancing this topic.
If you would like to participate and contribute your knowledge, skill, and experience, please complete the Expression of Interest Form, and the workgroup administrator will reach out to you.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 5, 2022 | Operations Management, Security, Standards
Getting a spot at the table before a US Congressional Committee where you’re not getting raked over the coals for nefarious practices probably sounds like a great thing. Perhaps a chance to influence legislation. Although getting a bill through Congress over the past 40 years more or less has been a trip harder than a trek across Antarctica.
That obstacle did not deter Tenable CEO Amit Yoran from giving characteristically blunt assessments of the state of cybersecurity before the House Committee on Homeland Security about the need to protect OT and critical infrastructure against Russian cyber threats and how it should happen.
Take a look at some of his talking points:
- IT and OT sides of infrastructure move at different paces. OT needs to be more deliberate to avoid outages or other service disruptions.
- Mandating air-gapping of IT and OT systems is dangerous from both a business and operational standpoint.
- We need legislation that requires reporting of incidents and reporting of ransomware payments to CISA.
- It should be illegal for private industry and private citizens to hack back.
And a few quotes from his testimony today:
Unless we make a stand, unless we show our resolve, unless we demonstrate our commitment to a more secure future, there will be a hearing like this one, decades from now, wondering why responsible action wasn’t taken.
LAPSUS$ has shown that with only $25,000, a group of teenagers could get into organizations with mature cybersecurity practices. Consider Russia — with much deeper pockets, focus, and mission, targeting critical infrastructure. That should be a sobering, if not terrifying, call to action.
Government policy should not allow for “learned helplessness” by government agencies or private industry. There is too much at stake for individuals and organizations to remain negligent, not taking even the basic steps to improve their cyber posture and manage cyber risk proactively.
CISA has already recommended best practices that organizations can implement to prepare themselves from a cyber perspective through its Shields Up Initiative. These recommendations align strongly with the best practice recommendations of numerous security advocacy groups, industry associations, working groups and regulatory bodies. Organizations that fail to implement these basic steps should be held accountable.
The SEC’s Proposed Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance and Disclosure and the recently passed Cyber Incident Reporting legislation for timely and transparent notification of cyber breaches are the two actions that would most dramatically improve our cybersecurity preparedness as a nation. Requiring greater transparency of cyber risk practices and oversight forces companies to treat cybersecurity risk as business risk, and will lead to stronger cybersecurity governance and accountability among corporate leaders and boards. This results in more effective cybersecurity. Period.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 18, 2022 | Automation, Networking, Standards, Technology
Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) news kept reporters and analysts busy a few years ago. Then the news stream slowed to a trickle. TSN is still an important networking technology for a number of use cases—especially in the audio/visual realm. That is the area of the Avnu Alliance. This month, its working group released a white paper exploring expected capabilities and network design.
“Time sensitive networking feature sets and profiles are still evolving,” says Dave Cavalcanti, chair of Avnu’s Wireless TSN (WTSN) working group and principal engineer at Intel. “No network or device, wired or wireless, implements every single TSN feature. With this white paper, the WTSN Working Group is aiming to offer a first look at the application requirements and expected wireless networking capabilities to meet those needs. It is intended to facilitate both discussion and alignment in the industry in this early phase of technology development, trials and testing.”
Created with input from TSN market leaders including Intel, L-Acoustics, Cisco, and Keysight, the new paper identifies the capabilities that wireless TSN-capable networks must implement, including features to enable time synchronization, bounded latency, reliability, security and efficiency. It also offers estimated KPIs for these capabilities by vertical market, including industrial automation, professional audio and video, and AR/VR (Augmented and Virtual Reality).
“It was critical for us to understand how the needs and network configurations will differ across markets,” says Genio Kronauer, executive director of electronics and network technologies at L-Acoustics and one of the paper’s contributing authors. “Live sound and industrial automation talk about their networking needs differently, so it was fascinating to see the synergies across markets. Through collaboration and certification, WTSN is going to be able to serve a wide range of industries.”
For network managers, the white paper also provides models for various WTSN configurations including Wi-Fi, 5G, and hybrid networks across wired and wireless TSN segments.
“This white paper is an important next step towards an ecosystem,” says Greg Schlechter, president of the Avnu Alliance and technology manager at Intel. “It begins to form a roadmap for the industry, including makers of devices and network components, to meet the market expectations for time sensitive networking applications that require wired and wireless mediums.”
The white paper, Wireless TSN: Market Expectations, Capabilities & Certification, is now available for download via the Avnu website.
