Automation technologies developed in industrial, military, and university laboratories may soon migrate to the plant floor, including R & D in controls, robotics, networks, predictive diagnostics, and web services -- but only if they are user-focused and cost friendly.

Ilya Mirman, vp of marketing at SolidWorks, believes that the "overcapacity and abundance of capital several years ago, created a glut of goods (especially high-tech)." Meanwhile, cost pressures abound: "Low-priced, high-quality products sourced in China have set a new value benchmark for automation and machinery equipment suppliers . . . those that buck the trend to cut infrastructure investments will stay on top of the design technology curve and will remain competitive." Still, Mirman contends that the "environment is fertile for long-term growth and expansion -- we are seeing a crisis of confidence -- NOT capital." (For more, click here.)

With industry demanding integrated platforms to solve both business and manufacturing challenges, "providers of automation technology should be eliminating point solutions in favor of systems that can cover a wide range of applications," observes John Dyck, vp of marketing and business development at EMT. (Photo illustrates use of EMT's VisualPlant software platform to monitor for production defects.) (For more, click here.)

"Helping processors with integration of mechanicals and electrics that are already on the floor or are sourced from a multiplicity of manufacturers" is another major challenge, according to Erwin Sahagun, director of marketing, ABB Inc Drives & Power Products. (For more, click here.)

And industry demands for "smaller, more reliable, more cost-effective motor and machine control products has sparked an intense period of innovation in design and manufacturing processes," notes Geoff Walker, director of U.S. automation and control marketing for Schneider Electric. He continues: "The most important control product innovations are modular components that allow OEMs greater freedom to customize machines and control systems for their customers, smaller footprints that make it easier to automate smaller machines, and built-in information technologies that simplify connectivity for the sharing of plant floor information." (For more, click here.)

AutomationDirect product manager Jim Allison foresees PLCs with shrinking footprints, enhanced ease-of-use, increased integration of HMI, and I/O modules with automated configuration. "The recent increase in PLC capability has been most noticeable in the nano and micro class of controllers," he comments, "with additional features such as analog I/O, auto-tune PID, floating point math, multiple serial ports, Ethernet, Internet connectivity, several choices of device-level networking, remote I/O options, and very powerful specialty modules that were once only offered in large PLCs." Meanwhile, "proprietary technology will be hidden internally," providing low-cost, high-performance functionality. (For more, click here.)

New architectures such as Microsoft .NET promise lower-cost software solutions. "Web deployment will not only decrease the cost of hardware at the user level but will make it possible to have greater flexibility in accessing information remotely through wireless devices and standard web browsers," predicts Charlie R. Allieri, director of marketing at Lilly Software. (For more, click here.)

New Technologies Go Mainstream

"In the world of computer-aided design and manufacturing, I see the biggest innovations to be in the area of bringing to the mainstream engineers and designers some already available technologies," notes Mirman, because of lower costs and ease-of-use. "More people have moved to 3D in the last 5 years than in the previous 25," he states. Similarly, increased ease-of-use has broadened the appeal of infinite element analysis. "The breakthrough here is not in the math engine under the hood, but in the streamlined user interface which puts the power of analysis on every engineer's desktop."

Manufacturers now gain real-time visibility into their plant floor assets. Products such as EMT's VisualPlant provide current data and information "on issues going back, say, one shift, one week or even a few years," notes Dyck.

Another advance: Interoperability between controls across an entire product spectrum. "ABB's IndustrialIT designation for thousands of products ensures that, at a product level, the new drives and motors interoperate with all ABB products and controllers can also be integrated easily with different process automation systems," Sahagun tells IEN.

Further strides in intelligent robotics can be expected, according to Gary Zywiol, vp of product development at FANUC Robotics. "By this, we mean the implementation of force sensing, and 3D vision. There is a growing installed base of successful applications. Automation software is making further use of Internet technologies. Robot users are now able to browse information servers within their facility or on [the web], directly from their robotic teach pendant." (Illustrated, FANUC's I-21i intelligent robot.) (For more, click here.)

Adds David Hancock, vp of marketing at Automation Control Products: "If the trends continue, I wouldn't be surprised to find device independent web servers in most of the industrial equipment made before the end of 2005. Just as no printer manufacturer would consider creating a device that wasn't accessible from a browser, it may come to the point that simplified operator interfaces could rely on being able to get non-proprietary formatted data from most of the equipment in the plant. This would mean that the trend toward simplified display hardware could continue, reducing operational expenses and maintenance." (For more, click here.)

Sensorless flux vector technology, which provides improved control at lower speeds, is "now being used in even the smallest drives," says Walker, including Schneider Electric's ALTIVAR 11 AC nano drive. "We're also seeing a customer trend toward using motor control centers instead of electrical panels. Because today's intelligent motor control centers come from the factory pre-engineered and pre-wired, they significantly reduce startup time and labor costs on the factory floor," Walker observes.

Next Generation Automation

"Next generation automation will be focused on the ability to link automated processes together," predicts Duane Lowenstein, global services engineer at Agilent Technologies. "This will look very much like the plug and play programs we see on our PCs today. Today most places have islands of automation. Although many companies have implemented sophisticated ERP systems and automated the retrieval of data, they have not connected the automation from one process to the next process in the supply chain," Lowenstein notes. (For more, click here.)

"Manufacturers are investing in Internet solutions that provide an immediate and sustained business impact," notes Craig Hartman, director of Cisco's Manufacturing Internet Business Solutions Group. One goal: "Streamline R & D and product development processes to reduce cost, reduce time-to-market, and increase innovation," through Product Lifecycle Management -- integrating collaboration partners into development and manufacturing process -- and Supply Chain Management. (For more, click here.)

Leveraging analysis throughout the design process may also be around the corner. For example, SolidWorks is introducing COSMOSXpress, a wizard-based mechanical analysis tool, in SolidWorks 2003.

Additionally, those automation systems and peripherals taking advantage of web-based open technologies will bring "faster and easier access to technical support, performance monitoring, and diagnostics tools," says Spencer Cramer, president and CTO of ei3 Corp. "Delivery of automation software via hosting can significantly enhance the speed, economics, reliability, security and data processing capabilities of such applications." (For more, click here.)

Hartman points to the "proliferation of distributed computing with 'application-aware' intelligent routing," along with web services for EAI "using both synchronous and asynchronous messaging." Web services can reduce integration costs, allow manufacturers to link enterprise and plant floor systems, and even "access enterprise applications without integration." Other benefits include "more flexible enterprise portals" and longer life for legacy systems. "Another emerging R & D opportunity is semantic webs, crucial for any data exchange or e-commerce activity," says Hartman.

"Production simulation is very hot," EMT's Dyck adds. "Now that a real-time and historical plant floor data warehouse exists, companies will actually simulate entire production lines and manufacturing processes long before a new line or facility is even built." This crosses over into design, with programs shortening time-to-market. Agilent's Fault Detective Diagnostic Solutions "allow R & D engineers to simulate functional test and diagnostic coverage without building a prototype," says Lowenstein.

Wireless Takes Off

Common standards and declining costs will eventually lead to an expansion of wireless applications on the plant floor, according to some experts. "Helping to fuel wireless growth is the fact that the Ethernet consortium is working to unify standards between wireless and hardwired Ethernet installations," explains Dave Quebbemann, industrial automation marketing manager at Omron Electronics, which offers a Wireless DeviceNet product. "Right now you're seeing lower cost protocol converters that convert traditional protocols to Ethernet," he adds. "Eventually the protocol converter will be a built-in device." (For more, click here.)

Although wireless on the plant floor is "still in its infancy," adds Hartman, cost, revenue, and market share concerns will propel the use of this technology. The speed of implementation depends on "clear understanding of the technologyproven cost/benefit analysis, data security," and standardization. Cramer adds: "Wireless LAN networks provide great freedom for viewing and communicating information, as well as enabling powerful troubleshooting strategies, such as wearable computers."

One major challenge is "just keeping track of the wireless devices themselves," Dyck comments. "We all know how difficult it is to always know where our cell phone or PDA is, and this challenge is exacerbated on a large plant floor." The benefits far outweigh the problems, however, he contends, citing a material call system for inventory management. "Using basic wireless infrastructure, an operator anywhere in the plant can push a material call button that's dangling close by. Somewhere in the plant the forklift operator's headmount message display lets him or her know exactly what sort of material is required and where, enabling them to quickly and efficiently pull the relevant parts from inventory and deliver it." And VisualPlant can alert maintenance staff pagers, wireless marquees, or PDAs "when a particular machine goes down or when it reaches a certain number of faults."

Allieri expects wireless technology to spread, "particularly in executive and operations management, field service, and sales departments. Wireless applications have primarily been isolated to the plant and warehouse execution side of the business."

FANUC Robotics already has installed some wireless where "Palm-type devices have been deployed to maintenance skilled trades to provide debug information via a 'diagnostic resource center' server within the factory," Zywiol tells IEN.

Hancock demurs, to some extent. "Wireless for PDA displays doesn't seem to work -- the screen is simply too small. Wireless for tablet PCs is a good idea, but battery life is still not acceptable and there are tremendous risks of dropping the equipment or having it misplaced. Also the fact that a manufacturing line is not moving around limits the need for an operator interface that is. Like the .NET initiatives, however, Microsoft's interest in the tablet PC market may spur development that can find a use within the factory."

"Security issues can be resolved by implementing the same technologies that banks, financial institutions, and e-commerce vendors use to ensure secure transactions," says Cramer, such as encryption technologies, VPNs, dedicated networks, and firewalls.

Another security approach could be Thin Client technology. Manufacturers migrating to Thin Clients and Terminal Servers "move PCs off of the work floor, taking them out of the hands of operators and forcing all data and applications to be installed on servers located within a secure area," Hancock comments. "The data sent to refresh a Thin Client screen is simply the pixel values that have changed since the next refresh, so no electronic eavesdropper will be able to snatch meaningful information during the transmission."

Increased outsourcing of product design, prototyping, tooling, and manufacturing, along with the prevalence of global teams, makes standards in data exchange crucial. In this environment the "pressure to re-use designs, rather than to redesign from scratch or import 'dumb' geometry that lacks design intent, increases dramatically," Mirman comments.

FANUC Robotics' Zywiol acknowledges that merging legacy and advanced technologies poses tough challenges. "Those that have been most effective have specific migration paths for their controls and software architectures, and use this strength as a competitive advantage," he states. "While PC hardware and software typically gets replaced every 12-24 months, automation components such as robots have several year design lives. We often add robotic automation to existing lines to increase capacity and have the ability to integrate several generations of product together."

Cramer believes than Ethernet, Active X, and other open technologies should ease the integration of legacy parts of the enterprise. "By replacing disparate and proprietary systems with centralized and universally-accessible networks and controls, companies can ensure connectivity throughout the enterprise," he says.