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.
CAN is a rapidly evolving bus standard, many changes reflect rising security and safety concerns as well as user-friendly configuration issues. Often it is the case that various subsystems of a larger system comply to different standard levels. This makes using a single deelopment tool rather difficult.
The smartphone operating system Android is very versatile, but you wouldn’t want it causing havoc in safety critical systems. However, if you can’t do without and no safer alternative like Blackberry OS or iOS around, virtualization can keep your system clean.
»Why don’t you write about Stuxnet?« – »Stuxnet is a must in an automation blog!« Well… sometimes even I should take advice from readers. In this case, however, I’m not sure if I really should, at least not at the moment. Why?
Not only avid readers of science fiction literature consider Isaac Asimov's famous three (or four) laws of robotics quite a good idea. So, why on earth does nobody think of them when devoloping robotic systems? Maybe the graphical systems design software LabVIEW Robotics 2009 facilitates coding of these fundamental rules.
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