Human-machine interfaces will grow faster, more flexible, and more powerful, an IEN industry survey indicates. Andrei Moldoveanu, director of marketing at Nematron, sees an "integration of multiple functionalities" in Nematron's control and information stations, driven by improvements in microprocessor power and software. The Windows environment helps integrate the HMI "in the overall automation scheme," while Web-based ActiveX components "help users create very fast complex graphical systems and link them to plant variables," without scripting in most cases.

According to Moldoveanu, HMI will become "increasingly integrated in the control, SCADA and MES emerging conglomerate. As such it will have to obey several masters. One is the machine operator: he needs simply to understand and use graphics, the ability to change simple configurations without penalty, and quick linkage to the control software. The other is the plant management and engineering. They need sophisticated tools to represent complex relationships at the machine/installation level. As an MES server and a factory floor network node, a Control and Information Station will need to represent also complex factory level realities."

And supply chain management is propelling industry toward E-manufacturing, Moldoveanu adds. "By fostering cooperation between various enterprises it forces a real time assessment of the materials and resources available to be made in order for it to deliver its substantial cost reduction promises. This in turn requires manufacturers to go down to the machine level on a real-time basis.... All these trends are forcing plant management to reconsider automation strategies in favor of a lean architecture capable of delivering information reliably controlling the process," he notes. (Click here to read complete interview.)

New Uses for Existing Technologies

"Manufacturers are using HMI placed on Ethernet to access multiple PLCs simultaneously," observes Jon Giardina, PLC product marketing manager at Omron Electronics. Ethernet also allows "programs to be downloaded to remotely located HMI. ISA and PCI slots are being incorporated into traditional HMI platforms, allowing the power of the HMI to be greatly enhanced using ISA and PCI devices typically only associated with PC workstations."

Lower component costs translate into "larger LCDs with more colors, sharper images and brighter displays," Giardina says. "The HMI is now the workstation for operators and plant engineers. Not only can the HMI perform all of the control functions needed for a process; it can also be used for maintenance and data acquisition. Just like a PC, the HMI can now store data internally for later retrieval. Special screens also allow direct viewing of PLC data memory areas, PLC errors and PLC ladder programming."

Meanwhile, lean manufacturing is infusing HMI. "Customer requirements for the HMI to perform many functions beyond basic control show that fewer pieces of equipment must perform more functions," Giardina points out. These interfaces also "work more easily with a leaner support staff. HMI must act as a gateway to a PLC or PLC network so that PLC programs can be updated from a single connection. HMI will also perform functions typically only accessible from support software, eliminating the need to connect a PC. It must also communicate with more than one PLC simultaneously, reducing the number of workstations required within a plant." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Stefano Zanetti, National Instruments process manufacturing product manager, notes that Ethernet is "being used across the plant floor for monitoring and controlling industrial processes and devices...open standards, such as Bluetooth, will greatly improve data sharing across the manufacturing floor by providing easy-to-use, small, and wireless tools."

Challenges Facing Manufacturers

The major challenge facing manufacturers "is getting real-time data from anywhere at any time with open standards and flexible software tools," states Zanetti. "Software and equipment are being integrated via open standards such as OPC, OLE for Process Control. Certainly wireless technology and high-speed connections via a fiber optics link are revolutionizing the way we get plant floor data by making it faster and easier than ever before. Integration with the business system is also becoming increasingly important. The software is the answer: only open and flexible tools will allow that."

And HMI is going portable. Rockwell Automation's upcoming MobileView operator interface will put the "information and control of a machine wherever it is needed," notes Patty Roberts, commercial programs manager, information platforms business, at Rockwell. "Just as laptop computers have extended the usefulness of desktop computing, mobile HMI will extend the usefulness of fixed-mount operator interfaces."

Roberts tells IEN that "open and embedded HMI platforms are using a common HMI application development environment to speed up development time and implementation for the user. Customers can leverage this common design-time environment between open and embedded solutions and/or between machine-level and supervisory-level solutions, covering the entire operator interface continuum from portable and simple graphic display products through distributed computing environments," says Roberts.

She believes that E-manufacturing "has the potential to radically re-shape the way we do business. Simply put, e-manufacturing will more tightly integrate the shop floor with the top floor, and ultimately with the complete supply chain." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Gems Sensors says that remote data acquisition is emerging as the efficiency and cost containment solution for manufacturers. Gems' MessengerWare software and MessengerNet web-based packages collect data and track performance from multiple remote sites, chart monitored conditions in real-time, and provide on-screen alarm reporting straight to desktop computers. (Click here to read complete interview.)

Industry wants high-end features in an economical package "without the demands of learning a new control system," according to Jeff Kao, vice president of GE Fanuc's CNC and laser business. For example, the company's Series 16i-B CNC includes nanometer interpolation and a 0.033 usec/step interface (click here for more on the Series 16i-B CNC).

Web-enabled solutions do not "necessarily need to be an entirely new, costly list of products," Angela Schlesinger, Advantech marketing manager for North, Central and South America tells IEN. Companies can combine "existing products and network architecture...with cost-effective customized products to create a new Web-enabled solution." For example, Advantech's Web Operator Interface Terminal connects existing PLCs to the Internet/Intranet.

Schlesinger views flexibility as a growing challenge, noting that "all panel-mounted HMIs work only with one manufacturer's solution. This confines manufacturing companies to limited choices, resulting in a lack of cost-effective solutions and a loss of potential capabilities. When evaluating products that make existing architecture Web-enabled versus entirely new, costly solutions, companies should not be limited in choice." One solution, she says, would be an "open Windows CE-based platform with pre-bundled HMI Software. This means that companies would no longer lose potential capabilities due to the proprietary nature of the automation industry. Companies could pick and choose the best products that meet their needs of customized, complete solutions."

HMI software is powering E-manufacturing "through scalability," Schlesinger contends. "Companies will be able to enlist single software that can be used for minimal functions at the board level, but can also sustain extremely complex functions at the high-end computer level. This software will allow one environment in different operating systems that can be used across multiple computers and adapted from a simple function to integrate into super fast server hardware." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Costs remain a key concern, agrees David Hancock, vice president of marketing for Automation Control Products. ACP's Thin Client system addresses this issue because "all of the applications and software are installed and run from the server... a Thin Client can be replaced by service technicians at 3:00 a.m. without intervention from the IT department."

Hancock explains: "With a Thin Client system, a Plant Manager can deploy inexpensive, rugged, commodity Thin Clients throughout the facility. Whereas the PC was a complex piece of machinery, difficult to set-up, configure and maintain, the Thin Client is a joy to install. To set up a new Thin Client, simply plug it in and turn it on. All of the required applications and data are immediately available to the new client. And as the highest failure item in a traditional distributed PC used in manufacturing is the hard disk, a Thin Client without any disk drives is much less prone to failure. Thin Clients provide a much easier way to distribute secure operator interfaces throughout the plant -- the lack of disk drives makes it very difficult to introduce unauthorized software (games, viruses), hack into the system, or steal data."

This technology is robust. "Local power loss on a PC controlling a line can be a disaster," Hancock continues, "but that same power loss on a Thin Client is only inconvenient. A crashed PC may well require a re-installation of its operating system (and all associated software), but the Thin Client session continues to run on the server during the power failure, and, once power is restored, the Thin Client is back exactly where it would have been if the power had not been interrupted." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Sensors are "becoming ubiquitous," notes Crossbow Technology, and wireless specification Bluetooth has moved into "data acquisition, machine health monitoring, industrial control, and other applications." Crossbow's CrossNet node contains the hardware and software required to hook into a Bluetooth-based system.

"The use of Bluetooth-based wireless technology is going to vastly improve communications between and among specialized nodes in industrial locations where data can now be collected with a minimum of human intervention," says Crossbow. "Wireless sensor technology reduces or eliminates the risk of injury, erroneous interpretation of data, and does not require installation of new wiring or repair of existing wires." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Innovations On the Horizon

Tomorrow promises "equipment without attached human-machine interfaces, where access is available via an Ethernet connection or via a wireless connection bridged to Ethernet," predicts Claude Dinsmoor, general manager of controller product development at Fanuc Robotics North America. The Internet already plays a role: Fanuc Robotics' web server option "lets the robot user build customized pages of information on the robot and its operation."

Dinsmoor says that "Internet technology (Browsers, TCP/IP Ethernet, and wireless PDA connections) have become 'existing technology' for many of our customers, the trends and solutions used in the office are moving to the factory floor because the customer is already comfortable with it, and the price/performance is good enough to use on high availability manufacturing systems."

Dinsmoor lists two major concerns facing industry in the next five to 10 years. One is the "cost competitiveness of off-the-shelf solutions with highly targeted embedded solutions." He believes that "even with the decrease in cost/performance of PCs, PCs cannot compete with the reliability, deployment cost, and long term support costs of single purpose machines such as thin clients and embedded HMI panels that are used for a single task. PCs will continue to dominate in applications where either a rich graphical environment is required (3D Graphics, for example) or where a single HMI will be used for a variety of tasks."

The second challenge is to find "scalable solutions that can be migrated with new hardware as it is introduced," because "an HMI needs to 'live' for the life of the machine it is attached to." Interconnectivity makes this search a high priority. "Since it usually attached to the plant information infrastructure (network, software environment, etc), [HMI] needs to be usable as the standards advance and evolve," Dinsmoor suggests. "In our experience solutions that use open connection technology survive the best over the life of the equipment. This means with today's technology solutions like browser-based interfaces over custom displays, simple interfaces over complex solutions." (Click here to read complete interview.)

SCADA and HMI technology now offer users wireless PDAs, comments Larry Ricci, director of marketing at Applied Data Systems. "The next step, and one where Applied Data is providing technology to industry leaders, will be to belt mount the computer and supply a heads up display and voice recognition to leave hands free."

Breakthroughs are near, Ricci indicates: "Soon, the machine will advise the operator (via a message to his wearable computer) that it needs adjustment or setup. MRP and shop floor schedule will be adjusted for the downtime without intervention. When the operator enters the tool crib, his wearable will signal the crib what it needs, and the crib will flash lights to show the man where to get it. Back at the machine, the operator can request by spoken command (in his favorite language), a full motion video of the setup or adjustment he must make." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Synergetic Micro Systems' Perry Sink believes today's HMI is largely a "massive re-application or expanded application of [existing] technologies...even Linux has been around for some time, but it's really taking off in the embedded- and semi-embedded applications. Even though our EC1 chip has a few things that are really new (RISC concepts in a 186 processor, and some CAN buffering wizardry), mostly it's just well-established stuff combined in [a] hopefully useful way."

Sink believes that the "price erosion effects from the consumer electronics world are of great concern to the manufacturers. And while factories are still struggling to get up to speed with networking, networking becomes ever more sophisticated -- things like XML, OPC, .NET and all the other buzzwords -- product managers are faced with needing to be cutting edge on one hand, and successfully addressing the largest segment of a conservative market on the other hand." (Click here to read complete interview.)

Ann Arbor Technologies' Dan Benson suggests that larger manufacturers will find it "difficult to compete without the advantage of proprietary hardware," while smaller and leaner companies "will enter the older proprietary operator interface market with open and versatile products at a lower price." Ann Arbor uses the economies of scale of commercial products to cut operator interface hardware costs.

Looking forward, "older closed interface products will now be open for more usable information," says Benson. "There is a drive to offer the complete hardware/software solution from one source," he notes, "whether on an industrial PC or embedded CE panel."

Steps Toward Lean Manufacturing

Benson observes that the factory floor is the "last environment not to be completely integrated into a company's infrastructure," but he argues that the "demands on companies to meet the complexities of mass customization will drive them to open the factory floor." Greater integration of the floor and its real time information will be critical to development of lean manufacturing.

HMI is getting faster, too. Adlink Technology has been "pushing the speed limit with existing technologies," notes vice president of marketing Steven Neo. Adlink's latest High Speed Link distributed I/O products run at 6MBPS for RS422 serial communications.

Neo predicts "at least a Gigabit in industrial Ethernet a year from now." As for melding software and equipment, the "migration from stand-alone proprietary solutions to PC-Based Control solutions makes the most sense. Since HMI/MMI packages have to be loaded into a computer, why not add the I/O, data acquisition, vision, and other capabilities to the same computer instead of having separate computers serving each function and communicating back to an HMI computer via serial or Ethernet buses."

Industrial passive backplane computers "are now available with large slot counts catering to as many as 48 Axes servo motor control (12 X 4 axes card) simultaneously with I/Os and vision in the same box," Neo adds. "HMIs/MMIs are being pushed towards web-centric data centers with offerings of OPC servers, Thin Client servers and currently XML is being pushed as the key enabler for factory-to-enterprise solutions."

ERP and MES software solutions "span all the way down to control level," and "existing technologies are e-ready." The challenges are "implementation, and the costs with change." Still, E-manufacturing would "enhance the quality process, and it is a data-centric system by nature," according to Neo. (Click here to read complete interview.)

Despite all the innovations, constraints remain. Jack Morantz, OEM market manager at AlterSys cautions: "While people's needs vis-a-vis interfaces are fairly universal, the machine or process needs are not.... In other words, the technology underlying the HMI isn't always suitable for control. A human may tolerate a disruption in HMI performance, but there are many instances of automation control that simply cannot." Industry must "address this duality, and develop/adopt real solutions that don't compromise either part of the whole. This technology will have to match or exceed the reliability and performance of the legacy solutions if it is to move forward -- both in terms of cost and added functionality, while remaining as reliable as the traditional PLC."

Morantz comments on the increasing importance of software in HMI: "More and more, emphasis is shifting from the hardware to the software for retained value. That is not to say that hardware no longer plays a vital role in the solution, but rather that software plays a more important one. We only have to look back on our experiences with office automation some 10-15 years ago (those of us who can) to make the point. Computer users tended to be very hardware-centric, and somewhat distrusting of the software of the day. The proposition of upgrading to a more modern version of either hardware or software was often met with the anxiety associated with the ever-present prospect of losing one's data. Nowadays we are regularly shoved aside by the office IS person while our software is routinely upgraded, without any fear whatsoever of losing data or incompatibility."

Morantz sees a shift toward E-manufacturing, too, although "widespread conversion to the new technology is not something that we expect to take place overnight. The dynamics of the manufacturing industry are such that it reacts cautiously to change, for understandable reasons. What is very encouraging though, is that the rate at which industry is embracing the new technology is curiously similar to the rate at which the industry adopted the introduction of the PLC, some thirty years ago -- just a lot faster. And, the charge is being led, as always, by the automotive industry. If history teaches us anything, we expect open architecture computer-based automation to be the norm within five years." (Click here to read complete interview.)