EPN Industrial Automation Blog

Tested safety

The partnership between Wind River and Isagraf, announced on SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2011, is taking form. The former RTOS company receives know-how on validated SIL 3 solutions while Isagraf's safety software is being integrated in common products.

Industrial MCUs

What's a  microcontroller for industrial applications supposed to do? One of the main demands today is to increase energy efficiency while at the same time support as many communications standards as neccessary. Due to the multicore nature of modern microcontrollers, programming has become increasingly difficult so anything that reduces software complexity is highly desirable.

Process control with a Historian

Even industrial automation systems follow the general trend towards more functionality. A new version of a common process control platform has the potential to make some additional systems unnecessary.

Packaging and robots

While the Scandinavian industrial markets in themselves are more or less negligible, they nevertheless are very interesting as they are considered stepping stones for the North-East European markets. This might be the driving motive behind the acquisiotion of the Finnish company Trimaster Oy by German packaging specialist Multivac.

SCADA vulnerability

A week ago, security researcher Rubén Santamarta publicly announced details of multiple vulnerabilities affecting the Schneider Electric Quantum PLC Ethernet Module, and coordinated his findings with ICS-CERT. The Quantum Ethernet Module is prone to an authentication-bypass vulnerability.

Automation abroad

In many environments where automation would be very beneficial, e.g. for worker’s health, conditions are thoroughly adverse for machinery and sensitive embedded computers. Moreover, systems must be usable with protective gloves.

Automation platforms

Today, control units for industrial automation need to be modular in order to keep cost and integration effort at a reasonable level. Since many of those applications require components (i.e software and hardware) from different vendors, certification and licensing issues arise. Bundles or system platforms may ease those pains.

The continuation of Stuxnet by other means

Every IT specialist worth his salt wouldn’t connect a critical SCADA system to the Internet without the strictest of precautions. It seems that people like that don’t work for critical US infrastructure facilities.

SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2011: IO-Link conformance

A manufacturer’s declaration is asked by the IO-Link Consortium for all IO-Link Masters and Devices in order to get IO-Link conformity. Therefore, test equipment is neccessary which allows checking all relevant parameters. A major part is EMC conformity.

Machine under forced scrutiny

In industrial systems, machines need to be monitored constantly in order to ensure material stability, system security and personnel safety. The Field Device Technology standard (FDT) takes care of vendor-independent parameterization.