IEN: What are the major concerns facing providers of automation technology and related products and services in the next few years? How can they be addressed?
Kulkarni: Automation and flexibility in a process plant is always facilitated by an in-house expert who knows the components of the system well enough to make changes on his/her own. But, as modern plants grow in size and complexity, there need to be many such experts in a plant. It is definitely not feasible to have multiple experts for a single system; however it is possible that the system is so easy to understand that anyone familiar with it can make changes. There are four main ingredients for success in this scenario:
- The system and the programming environment behind it must be easy to understand and use;
- The system must be modular and scalable;
- Engineers should be able to buy off-the-shelf components from a different vendor and add to the system without any issues;
- There should be seamless data connectivity between the different components.
This sector can answer the industry demand for increased automation and flexibility by catering to the above requirements. I believe the key to increased automation and flexibility is software. A plant engineer's dream is to have a single software platform that would be used to create the HMI, do the analysis, monitor the process, write optimized control loops, deploy programs on a real-time operating system, and interface with all the hardware components of the system. Development of software platforms such as LabVIEW is a boon for engineers who want increased automation and flexibility.
IEN: What innovations are in store in automation systems, equipment & components, and software?
Kulkarni: Cost effective, easy to use, high precision control systems would be the products to watch out for next generation applications like MEMS and nanotechnology. Nanonis recently developed a new control system for a scanning probe microscope (SPM) that uses LabVIEW-FPGA to react extremely quickly when the probe is about to strike an obstruction. They saved about $20,000 on developing the system using off-the-shelf components.
IEN: Will wireless become more prevalent?
Kulkarni: Wireless plays an important role in any control application where installation of cable is costly or impossible. Typical applications include remote monitoring and control for moving platforms, wastewater management, factory automation, to name a few. Challenges like noise, line of sight needed are slowly being overcome by different wireless standards. In addition to radio modems, recent technologies like 802.11 and Bluetooth are being perceived as a reliable form of communication. Implementing wireless technology also needs to be easy. Students at Virginia Tech developed a remote controlled excavator in using FieldPoint and wireless technology in just 5 months.
IEN: How about the Internet?
Kulkarni: With supply chain optimization becoming increasingly important, it is necessary that plant data is fed back to top management in real time such that timely decisions are made. What's better than seeing your data in a web browser from anywhere in the world? Embedded web servers are becoming a necessary feature for any control system. LabVIEW remote panels have been a major success and are used all over the industry to monitor and control a process remotely, using just a web browser. The fact that the web server is integrated with the development environment for control gives the engineer the ability to host a web interface to his application with just a couple of clicks.
I would add that not just Internet-based control but control through web services based on .NET or mobile technology such as WAP as also gaining ground. LabVIEW 7 Express includes seamless connectivity to .NET web services. Pee Suat Hoon at Singapore Polytechnic implemented a control application using WAP technology that enabled him to control a process through his cell phone.
IEN: Where are other R & D hot spots?
Kulkarni: Smaller form factor, hardware and software based on open standards, plug and play hardware, integrated software environment that does it all, reconfigurable hardware.
