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Simplified and system-wide
This enlightened and secure new world requires a very different way of looking at networks, explained Ryan Cahalane, director of software product management, control & visualization business, at Rockwell Automation. The ability to interface with information must be simplified, as users’ queries can take almost any form and originate from any interface, but they all require wisdom that leads to better-optimized operations. Similarly, that wisdom needs to be ubiquitous, whether it’s in a localized device, in the cloud or in any node on the network.
“One of the biggest challenges of big data is data movement and normalization. More intelligence and context at the source of the data means you don’t have to move or spend effort translating that data, and can perform smarter analytics in real time and within 'edge' devices,” said Cahalane, whose group also has broken down product silos to deliver system level value leveraging an integrated yet open platform to optimize investments.
As plants’ adoption of new system technologies is largely based on the retirement of non-working assets, how does Rockwell Automation advance implementation without waiting for system failures of existing networks to occur?
"This is an area that’s overlooked when it comes to IoT,” explained Cahalane. “The IoT opportunity is generally cast like a greenfield message, but the real opportunity is with mixed, and even brownfield, applications. With The Connected Enterprise, it gives us a chance to look at our portfolio as a system, and look at the user from a simplification standpoint. When you look at a plant, the last thing you want to do is touch a working system. If I have a new line going in, that’s easier.
“But The Connected Enterprise gives the opportunity to overlay intelligence in your existing assets,” Cahalane said. “I can revisit things that used to be hard, and acquire and share data. The real opportunity is in hybrid applications where I have new and I have existing. If I’m doing a new line or system, the device will come with rich and well integrated data, but there is also a great deal of data locked away in existing assets.
With system thinking, the change is that we look at which diagnostics we put into, say, that PowerFlex drive, and we are already thinking about how that data will be used across the platform. How can we streamline that configuration? How can we make our user experience consistent across products to reduce learning curves? How can we automatically compare performance or expose diagnostics in the HMI?
The approach is system-level thinking with simplification, explained Cahalane. “We are doing a much better job of sharing the concepts of information as part of our integrated controls infrastructure,” he said. “Each device, each software package—we’re thinking about it from a system standpoint, rather than from a product standpoint. My next-generation HMI will serve up information and allow you to interact with data and other people.
“Historically, data management has been through a top-down, standards-driven, centralized data-management system or repository," Cahalane said. "The Internet is diametrically opposed to that. The semantic Web is much more organic and new. The concepts are fundamentally driving what we’re doing with our platform development. A smarter asset comes pre-tagged. I want to ‘historize’ information and make it available as I create the control system.”
Mobility plays a role in the system’s information sharing, as mobile devices become nodes on the network. “Every device becomes a node in The Connected Enterprise,” said Cahalane. “With Studio 5000, you can now design the control layer and the visualization layer in one environment. You can build the interaction with your drives and with your Logix controller. You can drag and drop, and it builds the system for you. The integrated design environment is a huge deal. Components within our system work together even more fluidly, have a consistent user experience, and integrate more seamlessly into our customers environments. As we look at things from a system standpoint, we’re unlocking new value that might have been underappreciated or underutilized, and solving our customers needs in fresh and more modern ways.”
