by Gary Mintchell | Apr 20, 2010 | Automation, Motion Control, Operations Management, Technology
Update
We were finally able to gather a number of Rockwell Automation specialists and me together to take a deeper dive into the new Kinetix 6500 servo motion drive with EtherNet/IP CIP Motion embedded. I felt there was much more to this news than I saw in the press release that I reported here. Not a usual situation for editors and press releases, to be sure.
First, the Kinetix 6500 is shipping.
Next, a little more detail to the architecture. Previous generations of Rockwell servo drives used Sercos II for communication. This is a separate network from Ethernet, therefore data sharing and other things were more awkward. This drive simply plugs into the EtherNet/IP network (actually, an Ethernet network, but the devices that communicate must talk CIP). So the architecture would be a controller, such as ControlLogix, with an Ethernet card. The drive joins the network along with other I/O devices and/or other drives, such as the PowerFLex 755 series variable frequency drive. Because all these drives are on the same network now, they share a common configuration and programming set from the Logix 5000 programming software.
The network uses standard Ethernet Quality of Service technology to give priority to the timed protocol over other network traffic. Network architecture can be daisy chain, star, ring or hybrid. The new DLR switch on a ring uses technology from ODVA, which according to Brian Oulton, director of the Networks business for Rockwell, “Is the fastest switch over on a redundant ring topology I’ve seen.” On a redundant Ethernet ring when one line breaks, it switches over in 3 msec.
As far as other devices on this network, if the user has done the standard upgrades to ver. 18 or later of software and firmware, then they’ll work.
Some other cool features that come with this new Ethernet technology includes time stamping of events and alarms. Information provided to the user of great help in troubleshooting problems and understanding machine operations include sequence of events and a fault history log that are all time stamped. You can check out extended features on the Rockwell Web site for details on these and the extensive safety features that are available.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 20, 2010 | Automation, Technology
I was a little surprised that my OPC Xi post didn’t generate at least a few more comments or emails. Kind of like I thought that this issue really hasn’t hit the user community, yet. But it’s getting there. I was just corresponding with OPC President Tom Burke about building momentum for OPC UA and wondered about the status of products. Users won’t care much until they can actually use the technology, after all.
Well, here came a note from Liam Power of Embedded Labs in Ireland. It has released an OPC UA embedded server module dubbed fasaLink. It’s designed to minimize development cost and time to market for OEMs adding OPC UA server functionality. It enables high performance remote access to any data values the host system wishes to expose and can be integrated into an existing product with minimal redesign.
The small footprint module adds an OPC-UA Server to any product via an integrated RJ-45 Ethernet interface and ARM microcontroller. Based upon an optimized protocol stack developed by Embedded Labs, host processor connectivity is via a choice of SPI, I2C and UART interfaces. An ANSI C serial communication library is provided, minimizing the need for host software development. The rich OPC-UA information model enables interaction with the server from generic OPC-UA client software applications. Production quantities will be available in Q4, 2010.
Shane Robinson of Embedded Labs said, “OPC-UA is the future for standardised, multi-platform device connectivity. The fasaLINK OPC-UA Server Module will be the fastest, easiest and lowest cost way to ‘OPC-UA enable’ your existing product line.”
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 16, 2010 | Automation, Motion Control, Operations Management
This press release from Rockwell Automation came late yesterday while I was on my third or fourth phone conference/Webcast. I’m trying to get additional information. This release, to me, is like the smell of the barbeque outside a Texas restaurant, yet I can’t wait to get inside. (Or should I say the smell of brats and beer outside a Milwaukee restaurant?) I’ve been anticipating this announcement for at least a year, and I want to know a lot more about it. Rockwell Automation announced yesterday a high-performance, modular, servo drive “leveraging” embedded EtherNet/IP for integrated motion control–the CIP motion protocol from ODVA.
According to the release, “The EtherNet/IP drive support available with the Allen-Bradley Kinetix 6500 servo drive helps eliminate the need for a dedicated motion network and allows high-performance drives, I/O, smart actuators and any other EtherNet/IP-connected device to be supported on a common network. When used with the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix programmable automation controller (PAC), the Kinetix 6500 drive helps to provide increased machine design flexibility, improved system performance and reduced system cost.”
Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) Motion technology combines the requirements of deterministic, real-time, closed-loop motion control, offering full compliance with Ethernet standards, including IEEE 802.3 and TCP/IP along with CIP Sync, the IEEE-1588 compliant precision clock synchronization which allows multiple axes of motion to be coordinated.
In an interesting data point slipped in the release, “EtherNet/IP is the world’s leading industrial Ethernet topology, with over 850 product lines from 250 companies and over 2 million nodes sold.” Key word is industrial–see my market share post of last Friday for more news and comments.
Leveraging the performance of the Kinetix 6000 family, the Kinetix 6500 drive also offers advanced safety features, such as safe stop, zero speed monitoring, safe direction monitoring and safe maximum acceleration monitoring. These features help improve operator safety, as well as enhance machine efficiency by allowing access to guarded areas while a machine or process continues to operate, to help reduce downtime.
For applications such as clean-in-place for food producers or roller cleaning on a printing machine, safe-speed technology can help avoid injury to personnel while maximizing machine uptime. Operators and maintenance workers can clean equipment while the machine is still running, helping to speed up the cleaning process and providing greater machine availability. The ability to access the machine to remove foreign objects or jams without an emergency shutdown also reduces scrap, extends machine life, and limits the amount of energy needed to power the machine back to full operating speed.
The Kinetix 6500 servo drives feature a modular structure that helps provide an adaptable platform for future machine enhancements. Using interchangeable control modules, an axis can easily transition to a different network or safety functionality, helping users more easily adapt to new market trends or technologies while reducing upgrade costs by up to 50 percent.
The Kinetix 6500 servo drive is targeted at applications where high performance, efficiency and safety are crucial, such as in the food processing, packaging, printing and web, and other machine types requiring position control.
Watch for updates as soon as I’m able to talk to product managers next week.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 14, 2010 | Automation, Operations Management
Well, the wireless sensor world has its WirelessHart versus ISA100 disagreement. The communication world in manufacturing and automation now has its OPC Xi (Express Interface) and OPC UA (Unified Architecture) discussion. As usual, I walk right into the middle of what had been a “back room” discussion and stir up stuff. Then people think I pick sides. No, there’s another editor in the business whom I’ll let be in the middle of the fray. I’m just trying to report and add context/analysis. I don’t have a dog in this hunt.
I first ran into Xi (before it was OPC Xi) at Emerson Exchange. Indeed Lee Neitzel, an original OPC developer and Emerson engineer, was lead developer of this technology and has talked with me several times. The last time was last month when I visited Emerson Process Management’s headquarters in Austin.
Lee is a “true believer” (read Eric Hoffer’s great little book if you don’t know that term, it’s not a pejorative) and is convinced he and his team have developed a simple, easy-to-use OPC update that takes the supposed complexity out of UA. The way I hear it, he doesn’t think anyone will need anything beyond Xi to develop good OPC interfaces. (That’s a response to an odd comment I made about this being perhaps an interim step from the original OPC to UA.) Please note that not everyone believes it’s “simple and easy to use.” Just as not everyone develops in C# I suppose.
When I first saw this technology displayed, it appeared that there was significant support for it from among stalwart OPC members. Lately, though no one has spoken for the record, I sense somewhat lukewarm support. Just as in the wireless debate, we’ll have to see how this plays out in the market. This is also mostly a developer’s debate. Users just want to see products come with a stable, decently fast way of moving data and information from intelligent devices to applications that’s reasonably transparant. If developers can’t do that with either of these, then job openings should erupt.This argument is still very early. Products with UA have begun to appear. Those with Xi will someday when the code stabilizes, I’m sure.
Because I’ve raised questions (see also this post on UA), Emerson’s Lee Neitzel and OPC’s Tom Burke have jointly authored a paper attempting explain the benefits of Xi. Note that Xi is a Microsoft .Net implementation, while UA is designed for embedded developers (well actually, all developers). Users should not have to worry too much about all this, I think, if products are designed well. You all should be aware that there is not universal agreement with some of the statements in here. But we wouldn’t be engineers if we agreed on everything.
I don’t have a quick place to host this paper, so here’s the whole thing. It’s long, but interesting. Everything below is a direct quote from the paper.
Neitzel / Burke Paper
The OPC XI was started in direct response to the proliferation of .NET interfaces for OPC servers. Lee Neitzel, technical lead for the project says “To be successful, our primary focus had to make it easy for developers, integrators, and end-users. Of course, we also had to address some of the known shortcomings of the existing COM/DCOM interfaces.” Those shortcomings included security, operation through firewalls, and robustness.
The OPC Foundation commitment to interoperability is about providing the best technology, specifications, process and certification to enable suppliers to develop products that demonstrate the vision of secure reliable interoperability and consistently exceed the expectations of the end-users. OPC Xi clearly provides the right solution and appropriate infrastructure to truly enable data and information integration in our Microsoft world from the plant floor to the enterprise.
To make it easy for developers, OPC Xi was designed to be simple and to be implementable directly from the specification. To make OPC Xi development even easier, a high-fidelity reference implementation is available for both client and server developers along with online training sessions that guide them through this code.
In addition, OPC Xi integrates access to OPC Data Access, OPC Alarms & Events, and OPC Historical Data servers into a single interface. This interface is designed around a straight-forward model that allows clients to discover objects and events/alarms supported by the server, assign them to data and event/alarm lists, and set the access privilege of each list to be read, write, and/or subscribe.
The OPC Xi security model uses Windows security for user authentication, .NET security for communications, and an Xi-specific security mechanism for controlling the read, write, and subscribe privileges just mentioned. The Xi-specific mechanism allows access to be controlled based on a number of factors including the name of the client application, the machine on which it runs and its network location, and the protocol it uses to connect.
Enabling these privileges can be done via standard .NET configuration files, allowing end-users to configure the security policy that best meets their needs. For example, this allows the security administrator at a site to disable the ability to write (i.e. change the state of the system) for all users outside the firewall.
OPC Xi has four specific features in addition to the security mechanism just described that have been designed to make Xi easy to use. First, Xi makes it possible for clients to automatically discover servers. No longer do end-users or integrators have to configure each client with the identity of each server. Second, Xi makes it possible for clients to discover the protocols and communications options supported by a server, allowing clients to automatically connect to servers. Third, OPC Xi uses a restricted set of communication ports to make it easier for administrators to allow access through firewalls. And fourth, Xi has recovery mechanisms built in to allow client connections to quickly detect and recover from communications failures.
.NET decouples the application programming interface (e.g. read, write, browse) from communications, making it possible to configure servers to use the most appropriate protocols (e.g. TCP, HTTP) at deployment time. Because Xi is designed for the client to automatically discover the protocols a server uses, servers can employ new protocols as they become available without having to change code in either the client or the server.
This is especially important in the area of communications security. As deficiencies in existing mechanisms are discovered and/or as existing mechanisms become obsolete, updates and/or replacements can be used by the server without impact. This feature of .NET gives Xi a longer lifecycle than COM/DCOM-based interfaces in which the application programming interface was integrated with the communications.
The OPC Xi interface and Reference Implementation code was released on March 16, 2010. The OPC Xi Specification and the base Reference Implementation software for servers are available to the general public. This server-side Reference Implementation provides basic handling of the .NET interface and management of the client context (connection).
OPC Members also can download Reference Implementation code for clients, which includes a Generic Client application. Also included in the OPC Member download is a Reference Implementation wrapper that works with OPC DA, OPC A&E, and OPC HDA servers. This Reference Code has a number of extensibility points that allow it to be adapted specifically to vendors’ OPC Classic (COM/DCOM) servers.
The OPC Foundation is planning a Webinar Demonstration on June 29 in which Xi interoperability over the Internet will be demonstrated. This demo will include Xi accessible OPC DA, A&E, and HDA servers and Xi clients that demonstrate Xi integration with 3-D graphics, handheld devices, and Microsoft Silverlight-based Web applications.
Preparations for this demo will begin with a series of webinars, open to any OPC members that describe in detail how to use the client Reference Implementation code and how to adapt the Reference Implementation wrappers to server specifics. Details on the webinars will be posted on the OPC Foundation web site at http://www.opcfoundation.org.
This is a very exciting opportunity for both OPC members and nonmembers to take advantage of a significant technology advance for the.NET environment that provides an easy way for suppliers to integrate OPC classic applications into the .NET world.
The OPC Foundation is always looking for the right technological opportunities to allow suppliers to build best-of-breed products that demonstrate and provide a solid infrastructure for multi-vendor secure reliable interoperability. OPC Xi is a significant advancement to allow OPC applications to be developed for the.NET environment.
The OPC Foundation is truly an international organization that prides itself in measuring success by the level of adoption of technology. The many OPC regional organizations constant commitment to evangelizing and spreading the word of OPC wrote that the world is more than a philosophical idea.
A complete list of products that are available based on the OPC Foundation technology is available on the OPC Foundation website. OPC is destined to be the USB of industrial automation and beyond. The OPC Foundation portfolio provides a solid foundation and infrastructure to allow data and information to be exchanged from the embedded devices all the way through the enterprise for a variety of domains including industrial, building automation, security and the up-and-coming smart grid.
For more information about all of the activities associated with the OPC Foundation we encourage you to regularly subscribe to the various OPC Foundation list servers, and to regularly check out the www.opcfoundation.org website.
