IEN: What are the major concerns facing automation, and how can they be addressed?
Ricci: The major issue is applying new technology within the framework of installed, and relatively archaic, existing PLC systems and networks.
IEN: What innovations are in store in software, systems, intelligent field devices, digital manufacturing, customization, optimization, and other areas?
Ricci: Customization is a new trend. Any end user with a reasonably sized project can contract for purpose-built units to meet his needs. We have a great case study with Ford, which had a project and was faced with a choice: traditional PLC-style devices or custom built, 32bit RISC systems running Windows CE. The second option cost half as much, and was much more effective.
To read a white paper with more information, click here.
IEN: What are the R & D hotspots, and which R & D areas are closest to commercialization?
Ricci: Machine vision is poised for explosive growth. New chips are incorporating camera/CCD interfaces. Powerful processors are capable of image recognition algorithms. Extensive government funding of homeland security and defense applications is improving the technology. All these forces will converge in the next 3-5 years.
IEN: Can obstacles to wireless applications be overcome?
Ricci: Sure!!! Can and are. Sensor nets are emerging (Zigbee). Security on 802.11 is now available via third party (e.g. AirFortress) and soon will be part of the standard products.
IEN: Can 24/7 preventive or predictive monitoring be assured in Ethernet-based systems?
Ricci: Sure! It can and is!! Ethernet is now the de facto industrial network; it outnumbers all others put together. Even for I/O and sensor nets, Ethernet is very popular.
IEN: How much progress has been made in preventing software and hardware debugging issues? Installation challenges?
Ricci: The big news here is the move to object-oriented programming using Microsoft .NET or Java. Only about one year after the introduction of Microsoft .NET for embedded devices, we find perhaps 20% of our OEM user base coding their applications in C#/.NET. This is extraordinarily rapid penetration for a programming environment/language.
These object-oriented programs are much more modular and portable than "hard-coded" C programs. Further, the runtime environment provides extensive online debugging, and manages much of the "housekeeping" for the application. The .NET environment is especially interesting because with not too much work, legacy applications written for older NT or Unix systems can be "wrapped" and integrated into the object programming model.
Finally, Microsoft CE.NET has been shown to be quite effective as an RTOS, behaving deterministically within time frames measured in tens of microseconds. For more, click here to read a white paper with some tests.
IEN: What advances do you see in open standards and data sharing?
Ricci: While in the world of "commercial" programming like ERP and eCommerce, open standards will quickly dominate (have dominated) the landscape, in the industrial, factory floor world, open standards will be "just another protocol" for the foreseeable future. There is just so much 1980s legacy that it will not be replaced easily. The challenge is to integrate and bridge all these protocols.
IEN: How about production management, collaborative manufacturing, plant intelligence and visibility, advanced process control?
Ricci: Close integration of these functions all follows naturally from the use of high level operating systems and object-oriented programming.