One of the reasons - apart from pigheadedness - for the continuing existence of traditional fieldbuses is the lack of determinism in ethernet networking. Even industrial variants rarely show the reliability required by extremely timing-critical systems. There are ways to overcome this, e.g. by tweaking networking protocols and fine-tuning software. A wholly deterministic and specialized operating system could do the trick as well.
Reading the ICS-CERT security alerts on a daily basis can make you despair, even though most of the vulnerabilities and attacks in and on industrial systems aren't actually world-shattering. However, a few of them do stand out - for example when the target is in use extremely often or the vulnerability is fairly easy to exploit.
In order to optimize manufacturing processes and improve the tasks of the production workers, a new strategic partnership of Daimler and Kuka focuses on human-robot cooperation. The technical background is the introduction of lightweight robots, originally designed for use in outer space, to an industrial environment.
The requirements for Programmable Logic Controllers are increasing continuously, and today's PLCs don't have much in common with their predecessors of a few years ago. The higher complexity brings potential risks that have to be fought off with even more new functions. With the newest member of the S7 family, Siemens tries to bring it all together.
While there seem to be industrial automation applications where the »Windows« operating system is considered useful, there are downsides to implementing desktop operating systems in critical applications. Apart from safety and security considerations, the very Windows-specific question of 32 or 64 Bit is coming up now in those applications as well.
We'e all seen a few of those oscillations between full in-house engineering and outsourcing everything. Every few years, management consultants talk owners or CEOs into outsourcing - some times later, when the business went downhill, those consultants' colleagues »save« the companies by convincing the boss of hiring engineering staff again. Then the cycle starts again. A few considerations may help avoiding the most common mistakes.
When wireless transmission first had bee introduced to industrial automation, scepticism prevailed. Would RF signals safely go through the electromagnetic pollution on the plant floor? Would anybody be able to access company data with a simple scanning device? An new analysis from Frost&Sullivan describes the current state of WiFi in automation.
It's a phenomenon: While most fieldbuses have more or less vanished, Profibus is not only still around but seems to have become stronger over the past decade with its range of application continually increasing. Thus, the demand for information continues to be high. A 'slide set' is supposed to convey detailed know-how.
In every system with pluggable connections, connecting and disconnecting are weak spots. While a wrong power connection usually shows up soon with some system failure or other, defective data connections are more difficult to diagnose. In case you've been wondering why there are still new types of connectors being developed and existing ones improved: it definitely makes sense.
Machines with moving parts or even moving machines require specially constructed bus connections, often complex and expensive control cabinets and terminal boxes. Getting rid of those makes it neccessary to employ extremely rugged I/O modules.
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