The Open Process Automation Forum has been building a standard of standards to promote open and interoperable technology for process automation. PLCOpen has been at the forefront of international standards promulgation as the organization behind IEC 61131. This latter organization has instituted a Working Group to create IEC61131 process automation standard and certifications for application engineers to efficiently deploy PLC, DCS, and open platform controls in process industry applications.
I’ve been following and promoting open and interoperability for decades. This should be a useful step forward.
Bill Lydon sent this explanation of the background and current status of programming standards.
The cost of programming process automation and control continues to grow and is a significant part of project costs. Each supplier having unique function blocks that do not follow a single worldwide standard increases training, application development costs, and project profit risk. PLCopen standardization and modular methodology lowers training time, project development costs, and lowers project cost overruns risk.
This further expands the base of PLCopen standards that enable No-Code/Low-Code industrial automation programming across vendor platforms including industrial computers. This will include incorporation of the function blocks defined in the O-PAS standard into a new PLCopen standard.
The new PLCopen Process Functions standards and certification make it easier for application engineers to deploy PLC, DCS, and open platform controls in process applications.
Working Group Goal
The PLCopen Process Industry Working Group goal is accelerating the convergence of discrete and process control & automation into harmonized PLC, DCS and open platform system architectures to achieve industrial business digitalization.
Today there are a diverse number of ways to program applications for process control and automation. The goal is to develop PLCopen function block standards for process control functions. Function Blocks are encapsulations of variables, parameters and their processing algorithms. Similar standardization has been done with PLCopen standards developed for motion control, safety, fluid power, XML Program Interchange, and OPC UA.
He notes process control applications being done using PLCs. I actually sold a PLC to a chemical plant engineer, who used it to control one of his processes. That was in 1995. So, while unusual, not unheard of.
Today many process control applications are being done using PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) since the capabilities of these devices is far beyond original 1970s relay replacement applications. The emerging use of industrial edge computers with IEC 611 31 runtime software engines is another segment that benefits from the results of the PLCopen Process Industry Working Group.
PLCopen Background
PLCopen has been successful defining IEC 61131 functions and certifications used widely throughout industry worldwide increasing engineering efficiency, quality and empowering a wider number of people in motion control, fluid power, safety, and other functions. The standards define common inputs outputs and behaviors with vendor certifying conformance to accomplish the functions or additional features.
- Logic – The PLCopen basis is provided by the world wide standard IEC 61131, and especially Part 3 – Programming Languages.
- Motion Control – Creating reusable, hardware independent Motion Control applications via IEC 61131-3 and PLCopen Function Blocks including Fluid Power.
- Safety -PLCopen Safety integrates safety functionality into the IEC 61131-3 development environments. Meets IEC 61508 & related standards.
- Communication – PLCopen and OPC Foundation combine their technologies to a platform and manufacturer-independent information and communication architecture.
- XML Exchange – PLCopen added independent XML schemes to IEC 61131-3
Movements including Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, The Open Process Automation Forum, and Smart Manufacturing are creating a drive for more standards. IEC 61131-3 along with PLCopen extensions and certifications are well established in discrete and hybrid applications and with the addition of OPC Function blocks is already part of the newer Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things offerings.
As part of our ongoing efforts to drive standardization and interoperability in industrial automation PLCopen will start a new workgroup exploring the incorporation of the function blocks we have developed for the O-PAS standard into a new PLCopen standard.
The O-PAS (Open Process Automation Standard) is an open, interoperable, and vendor-neutral standard developed by the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) to enable flexible and modular process automation systems. It is designed to replace traditional, proprietary DCS’ with a standards-based, plug-and-play architecture, allowing components from different vendors to work seamlessly together. O-PAS is based on existing industry standards, such as (among others) IEC 61131 & IEC 61499.
Part 6.4 of the O-PAS defines a set of standard function blocks to ensure interoperability, consistency, and comparability across different process automation systems. These FBs provide a reference model with standardized inputs, outputs, and behaviors. By establishing a uniform function block framework, part 6.4 supports modular automation, making it easier to adopt open, vendor-independent control solutions. PLCopen helped creating several pre-defined function blocks for part 6.4 of the O-PAS standard.
In order to standardizing these function blocks within PLCopen we are starting a new workgroup to create a new PLCopen standard for the process automation.
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