INDUSTRY 4.0/IIOT SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY
Warren Harvard, product marketing manager - Electric Automation at Festo, explores how seamless connectivity is enhancing industrial automation
he 4th Industrial Revolution is redefining manufacturing business models, partnerships, customer interfaces, value chains and even the classic automation control pyramid. One area that is developing rapidly, enabling Industry 4.0 and offering users improved automation efficiency, is connectivity – the networked and cooperative interaction and communication within a system.
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Industry 4.0 enables networked, flexible production with modular structures and hierarchies utilising intelligent products with embedded smart functions – known as cyber-physical systems. As a result, the classic machine architecture with its central control system is increasingly moving towards more versatile distributed automation subsystems. These are decentralised and closely interlinked, communicating directly with each other and exchanging data. This decentralised approach is bringing greater flexibility in production processes and leading to greater variation in machine concepts, which is particularly suited to global production. The increasingly networked components require a high level of compatibility and integration across all system participants. An unobstructed data exchange facilitates a smooth process, but it depends on all components being aligned to the application, whilst at the same time perfectly matching one another. The effective networking and communications between components and the production systems ultimately depends on their connectivity. Essentially, connectivity is the ability to connect and link up individual participants i.e. the interfaces between devices.
Connectivity describes the ability of a component or a subsystem to be integrated within a higher-level structure, as well as the optimal
coordination
of components or participants with one another in the system. When translated to industrial applications, this means that individual components work together and are connected with one another in the system.
Connectivity in automation technology must be regarded as a whole, from the workpiece all the way up to the cloud. With seamless connectivity, the mechanical, electrical and the intelligent interfaces all need to be taken into account, for all components.
The objective of seamless connectivity is to make different interfaces as simple and easy to handle as possible, so that using them is more reliable and faster. Although it doesn’t reduce the complexity of a machine, using it becomes easier and conceptualisation, operation, design and commissioning become faster. Machine builders and end users can then concentrate more effectively on their tasks. The benefits of seamless connectivity for industrial automation are shown in the box below.
The automation control hierarchy typically used in machines and production systems is based on the classic automation pyramid (shown in figure 1) whereby individual products and automation components are
THE ADVANTAGES FOR INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
Seamless connectivity makes engineering processes faster and simpler, creating reliability from the outset and reducing the time and effort required. At the same time, automation concepts become more flexible and more efficient.
1. Seamlessly coordinated mechanical and electrical connectivity permits flexible adaptation to the requirements of the application and provides an ideal platform for a more modular, standardised approach.
2. Intelligent connectivity enables flexible and modular control concepts for example, the direct connection of a servo drive to a variety of different manufacturers’ controllers. 3. A uniform software platform guarantees seamless and reliable data transfer throughout the entire development and production process, from conceptualisation to design, and from programming to commissioning.
assigned to individual levels (actuator, field and control).
On every level, for each component group, the machine builder has to take into account the various interfaces, connecting them with one another to attain seamless communication. For example, the design of the mechanical system for the automation of motion must match the configuration of the servo drive system. This
electromechanical drive system then needs to be integrated optimally into the control environment. Software tools for design, configuration and commissioning play a key role here.
No single communication standard can be applied across all levels. In most cases stand-alone solutions are to handle subtasks, but these do not allow a seamless approach. This causes many challenges for machinery integrators across the different areas of automation: for example, where linear mechanical systems and servo drive technology have to be combined quickly and easily with different control concepts. At the same time, it has created many opportunities to increase efficiency and offers huge potential for improving the development process for machines and systems as well as for the products and subsystems themselves.
For mechanical and control systems, an almost overwhelming number of products, components and solutions are available from thousands of manufacturers – all with their own interfaces, hardware solutions, programming languages, software systems, communication protocols, etc. This means that machine builders constantly have to spend time researching, combining and integrating them into their machines. A typical question is: how can a mechanical axis, a servo motor and a servo drive be easily combined so that they complement
22 DECEMBER 2020/JANUARY 2021 | PROCESS & CONTROL
Figure 1: Classic automation pyramid with its different hierarchy levels
40th Anniversary 40yrasrevinnAht0 4
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