by Gary Mintchell | Apr 8, 2016 | Automation, Internet of Things, Interoperability, Networking, Operations Management
I have been discussing the importance of industrial protocols to successful use of the Industrial Internet of Things. Among three news releases from the OPC Foundation is news about collaborative work between the Object Management Group (OMG) and OPC Foundation to let DDS and OPC UA play nicely in the same sandbox. This is key because the Industrial Internet Consortium has adopted DDS as a standard, while much of the industrial automation community uses OPC.
Other news includes the announcement of support for publish/subscribe for OPC UA and an OPC UA open source initiative.
Industrial Protocol Collaboration
Specifically, the OPC Foundation and OMG have developed a technical positioning and FAQ document for usage of both the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) and the OMG Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard. The positioning document explains that the OPC UA and DDS standards are largely complementary and compatible. Both are important to the future of the IIoT. The document is a joint recommendation; it helps companies quickly implement an IIoT strategy.
OPC UA and DDS Explained
OPC UA is an industrial communication architecture for platform independent, high performance, secure, reliable, and semantic interoperability between sensors, field devices, controllers, and applications at the shop-floor level in real-time as well as between the shop floor and the enterprise IT cloud. OPC UA allows SoA based easy “plug and produce” scenarios. The information about the system, its configuration, topology, and data context (the meta data) are exposed in the collective “address space” of the individual OPC UA servers.
This data can be accessed by authorized OPC UA clients that can see what is available, and choose what to access. OPC UA truly supports timeless durability as new networking technology is developed it can be plugged into OPC UA seamlessly. Client/Server, Pub/Sub and cloud protocols are integrated into OPC UA.
DDS provides location transparent, interoperable, secure, platform independent, real-time data sharing across any kind of network. DDS lets applications define and share user data with controlled “Quality of Service” (QoS) such as performance, scalability, reliability, durability and security. DDS hides network topology and connectivity details from the application, providing a simple yet powerful data-sharing abstraction that scales from local area networks to fog and cloud computing. It can support even large fan out and sub-millisecond latency. DDS defines a “common data-centric information model” so that applications can run “plug & play” with very little or no deployment configuration. System configuration details are deemphasized to ease redundancy and interoperability.
Today, there is little overlap between OPC UA and DDS in applications. Even when used in the same market (e.g. energy) the use cases are quite different. Today OPC UA provides client-server interaction between components such as devices or applications. DDS is a data-centric “bus” for integration and peer-to-peer data distribution. Because the focal applications and approaches for DDS and OPC UA are different, most applications clearly fit better with one or the other.
The OPC Foundation and OMG are working together on integration and have developed two ways for the technologies to work together. First, an “OPC UA/DDS gateway” will permit independent implementations to work together. Second, “OPC UA DDS Profile” will enable integrated use cases. Initial work to define both approaches is underway at the two standards organizations.
Customers must choose a standard path now to implement a successful IIoT strategy. By working together, the OPC UA and DDS communities will provide a non-proprietary path to interoperability, regardless of the customer’s choice of starting technology.
Open Source OPC UA
The open source repository of OPC UA is now available on the open source GitHub web site. Open source is a very important strategy to eliminate roadblocks to adoption of the technology. By open sourcing the OPC UA technology the OPC Foundation is now enabling easy access to the technology by academia and research organizations, as well as many suppliers and end-users that would like to assess the OPC UA technology as part of early adopter and feasibility analysis.
Open sourcing isn’t just the wave of the future. Open source strategy is now. The OPC Foundation is proud to make the OPC technology available to everyone via the open source repositories.
There are a number of OPC open-source initiatives already available from suppliers, research institutes and academia for OPC UA. The open source repository from the OPC Foundation is intended to supplement these other open-source initiatives, providing additional value. The OPC Foundation has committed resources to moderate/maintain and extend the technology to keep pace with technology changes in the industry as well as the extensions to the OPC UA architecture and corresponding companion specification.
Publish Subscribe
The OPC Foundation addition of publish/subscribe communication functionality to OPC UA provides the necessary infrastructure to achieve seamless interoperability for IIoT, IoT, and industrie 4.0 applications and devices. OPC has been based on a client/server architecture, and is now enhancing the architecture with the inclusion of publish/subscribe to provide a solid infrastructure that allows information integration from embedded devices to the cloud.
The OPC Foundation is working currently with 42 international (and many more to be added) suppliers that are developing products and solutions for the IIoT and needed to provide publish/subscribe to the technology portfolio to facilitate high-performance high reliable device application connectivity for this important market. Support for publish/subscribe as well as the client/server architecture provides a complete solution for any device or application. Existing applications already using OPC UA client/server communications can add the publish/subscribe features with minimal effort.
A demonstration of the OPC UA publish/subscribe functionality will be held at Hanover Fair the week of April 25 in the OPC Foundation Booth hall 9 – A11. This demonstration will consist of multiple vendors showing OPC UA enhanced with publish/subscribe, truly demonstrating how easy it is to have connectivity and information integration in IoT devices and applications. The demonstration will show both semantic and syntactic data interoperability.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 14, 2016 | Automation, Operator Interface
“Siri, what’s the weather in Bangor?”
“Alexa, buy some toilet paper.”
“Zelda, check the status of the control loop at P28.”
Operator interface is many years removed from its last significant upgrade. Yes, the Abnormal Situation Management Consortium (led by Honeywell) and Human-Centered Design used by Emerson Process Management and the work of the Center for Operator Performance have all worked on developing more readable and intuitive screens.
But, there is something more revolutionary on the horizon.
A big chunk of time last week on the Gillmor Gang, a technology-oriented video conversation, discussed conversational interfaces. Apple’s Siri has become quite popular. Amazon Echo (Alexa) has gained a large following.
Voice activation for operator interface
Many challenges lie ahead for conversation (or voice) interfaces. Obviously many smart people are working on the technology. This may be a great place for the next industrial automation startup. This or bots. But let’s just concentrate on voice right now.
Especially look at how the technologies of various devices are coming together.
I use the Apple ecosystem, but you could do this in Android.
Right now my MacBook Air, iPad, and iPhone are all interconnected. I shoot a photo on my iPhone and it appears in my Photos app on the other two. If I had an Apple Watch, then I could communicate through my iPhone verbally. It’s all intriguing.
I can hear all the objections, right now. OK, Luddites <grin>, I remember a customer in the early 90s who told me there would never be a wire (other than I/O) connected to a PLC in his plant. So much for predictions. We’re all wired, now.
What have you heard or seen? How close are we? I’ve done a little angel investing, but I don’t have enough money to fund this. But for a great idea…who knows?
Hey Google, take a video.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 3, 2016 | News
ABB has had a rugged financial period, but its latest financial results indicate a righting of the ship. I’m not a financial analyst; I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express; but, I’m interested in corporate strategies and performance especially among industrial technology suppliers.
What follows is mostly from the company press release. However read CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer’s remarks. There are two significant comments. One–recovery in the Power Systems business. ABB moved some talented individuals from the process automation business over to Power Systems. It wasn’t an overnight success, but the team has made an impact. Two–“productivity improvements”, which is usually a euphemism for fewer people doing more work.
Anyway, I noticed a little bounce in ABB’s stock price in the last week. Looks promising.
Full-year 2015 Summary:
- Next Level strategy delivering positive results
- Orders and revenues stable, order backlog up 5%
- Operational EBITA margin up 60 bps to 11.8%
- Operational earnings per share +5% (constant currency)
- Cash return on invested capital up 70 bps to 13.4%; free cash flow +16%
- Power Systems ‘step change delivers strong financial turnaround in 2015
- 7th consecutive dividend increase to CHF 0.74 per share proposed
- 4 new Board members proposed for election at the next annual general meeting
Q4 Summary:
- Orders (-2%) reflect challenging market conditions; base orders -6%
- Operational EBITA margin up 60 bps to 11.7%
- Power Systems reached target margin corridor; strategic portfolio review of Power Grids on track
- Accelerated productivity and cost out measures in white collar, supply chain and operational excellence
- Net income of $204mn including a total $496mn restructuring and related expenses
- Cash flow from operating activities +18%
Full-year and Q4 financials impacted by currency translation due to strong appreciation of US dollar
“We took decisive actions to improve our customer focus and realized profitable growth in target segments to mitigate the impact of significant market headwinds. At the same time, we simplified the organization, drove productivity improvement and accelerated our cost reductions,” said CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “As a result, we increased margin and free cash flow. The successful turnaround in Power Systems demonstrates our execution capabilities and our focus on sustainable value creation. With our strong financial position and a leaner, more market oriented organization we are well placed to manage through the global uncertainties which we will continue to face in 2016.”
Short-term outlook
Macroeconomic and geopolitical developments are signaling a mixed picture with continued uncertainty. Some macroeconomic signs in the US remain positive and growth in China is expected to continue, although at a slower pace than in 2015. The market remains impacted by modest growth in Europe and geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world. Oil prices and foreign exchange translation effects are expected to continue to influence the company’s results.
Full-year 2015 Group Results
“We are shifting our center of gravity, fully in line with our Next Level strategy by driving organic growth in targeted segments, strengthening competitiveness and lowering risk,” said CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “We drove technology leadership with the launch of YuMi, the first truly collaborative robot. We strengthened our technology leadership position in the area of the Internet of Things, Services and People, for instance with our innovative Octopus offering for optimized vessel operations. Furthermore, our focus on high growth markets such as food and beverage and Africa is paying off.”
Orders were steady for the year (down 12 percent in US dollars). Large orders (above $15 million) grew 10 percent (down 5 percent in US dollars) and offset a base order decline of 3 percent (14 percent in US dollars). The order backlog at the end of December 2015 amounted to $24.1 billion, an increase of 5 percent (down 3 percent in US dollars) compared with the end of 2014. The book-to-bill ratio remained steady at 1.03x.
Revenues were steady (down 11percent in US dollars) compared with 2014 as revenue growth in Power Systems and Power Products offset the decline in Discrete Automation and Motion and Process Automation. Service revenues grew 6 percent (down 8 in US dollars) and grew 1 percentage point as a percent of total group revenues (adjusted for divestitures; 0.5 percent prior to adjustment).
ABB continued to execute its Next Level strategy in 2015 which resulted in a 60 basis points improvement of the operational EBITA margin to 11.8 percent and free cash flow generation improving 16 percent in constant currency (6 percent in US dollars) to $3 billion. The main drivers for the group’s enhanced profitability were the successful turnaround of Power Systems and continued cost savings and productivity measures.
“The strong execution of our strategy is showing results,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer. “In 2015 we continued to focus on growth opportunities in a disciplined way while mitigating the impact of market headwinds through capacity adjustments, productivity measures and cost reductions. Transforming ABB, we have made good progress towards enhancing our performance culture by implementing our new performance management and compensation model for more than 70,000 people in 2015. The divisional realignment has been completed and the strategic portfolio review of the Power Grids division is to be completed in 2016 as previously announced.”
Net income for the year amounted to $1.9 billion and was impacted by $626 million of restructuring and related expenses for capacity adjustments and white collar productivity measures. Successful measures to improve net working capital contributed to higher cash flow from operating activities (constant currency) and free cash flow conversion and supported an increased cash return on invested capital2 (CROI) of 13.4 percent. Basic earnings per share in the period was $0.87 and operational earnings per share2 on a constant currency basis was $1.35, an increase of 5 percent.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 1, 2016 | Automation, Networking, News, Organizations
Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) becomes a critical component of companies’ Internet of Things technology strategy. In the past year, I’ve written about TSN and (mostly) AVnu Alliance, four times.
Engineering Software and Industrial Networking Trends
ODVA Enhances EtherNet/IP Industrial Networking Specifications
OPC Foundation Real-Time And Technology Partners
AVnu Alliance Launches Support for Industrial Ethernet Market
Today brings another AVnu Alliance and Time Sensitive Networking press release. Two new members have joined. And one isn’t really a “joiner” company.
Two New Time Sensitive Networking Members
“Rockwell Automation and Kollmorgen, both leaders in industrial automation, bring valuable expertise to AVnu Alliance activities incorporating new standards such as Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) into a common networking foundation.”
Rockwell Automation isn’t really a “joiner company”. It’s alliances are usually smaller with only a few competitors. This one is interesting.
“We continue to evolve our industrial control and information solutions to help customers drive real-time productivity and innovation as they strive towards building a Connected Enterprise.” said Joe Kann, vice president, Global Business Development, Rockwell Automation. “By participating in the AVnu Alliance, we plan to share our industry knowledge and work together with other members towards further enhancing standard IP-based Ethernet for manufacturing.”
Kollmorgen manufactures high performance motion control solutions.
“Kollmorgen’s business as a provider of innovative high-speed motion solutions is driven by ever-evolving customer needs for high-performance, multi-device fieldbus options,” said Steve Crass, VP North America Industrial Automation and Aerospace & Defense at Kollmorgen. “Joining AVnu Alliance is a logical next step for our business and AVnu provides us with a forum that will support open systems architectures for many years to come.”
According to the Association, “The addition of these companies exemplifies the importance of the continued evolution of standard Ethernet through TSN. The experience with control networking that these companies possess will complement the existing efforts within the AVnu Alliance to define a common foundation for the Industrial Internet. This next step for standard Ethernet will enable complete convergence of standard IT traffic and the control system and will enable IoT for the industrial, automation and manufacturing sectors.”
“Rockwell Automation and Kollmorgen have both shown leadership in their respective fields over the years. The AVnu Alliance looks forward to their contributions and forward-thinking philosophies when it comes to automation and how it can improve a variety of industrial processes,” said Gary Stuebing, AVnu Alliance President. “They both bring a range of products and technologies that will complement and bolster our efforts with TSN in the industrial space.”
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 7, 2016 | Automation, Technology
Raspberry PI is an intriguing small, inexpensive computing platform. I’ve seen a number of really cool projects on various tech blogs and video podcasts. I figure there must be a number of engineers figuring out how to implement these devices to reduce cost and complexity.
Use of Linux in industrial automation has never reached any sort of critical mass. I started following it somewhere around 1999 and even started to write about Linux in automation for a Linux magazine about that time. But Microsoft Windows won (remember the 1999 ARC Forum in Orlando when the Sun guys promoting Java as an OS packed up and headed out?), and Linux has been sort of peripheral.
I keep expecting something to happen. We have moved to the cloud in a big way for many applications including HMI/SCADA. Maybe we’ll see more in the near future.
HMI for IoT and Raspberry PI and Linux
Betting on that is Tatsoft. It has released its FactoryStudio Industrial IoT (IIoT) HMI for Raspberry PI and Linux.
FactoryStudio delivers real-time information with a set of fully-integrated modules in a unified and intuitive engineering user interface. With FactoryStudio, projects can scale from local embedded devices and mobile applications up to very large, distributed, high performance fault-tolerant systems. It provides an Application Development Platform to allow easy creation of solutions for the device level itself, with Graphical real-time displays, communication protocols to PLC’s, data logging, alarm engine, local SQL storage and C#/VB.NET scripting. Those embedded applications can easily communicate with remote FactoryStudio applications on the cloud, or on premises, accessing and consolidating distributed information.
The FactoryStudio platform can also work as the presentation layer and data gateway to historian systems, such as OSIsoft PI, Prediktor APIS, and ERP systems such as SAP, or directly connect with the SQL enterprise databases.
“The development tools are the same whether you are deploying projects to Microsoft Windows computers running .NET Framework, Linux operating system with the Mono Framework and Raspberry PI devices. For Raspberry PI, we also included easy access to onboard I/O in addition to all other HMI features.” explains Marcos (Marc) Taccolini, Tatsoft LLC CTO.
This release complements the FactoryStudio multi-platform solutions that already have runtimes for Windows Compact Framework and iOS devices. According Dave Hellyer, Sr VP Marketing, “Tatsoft believes that we can use the intersection of people, data and intelligent machines to have a far-reaching impact on the productivity, efficiency and operations of industries around the world.”
