Ignition intro - Rethinking SCADA for modern manufacturing

An informative 3 minute video of the Ignition concept from Inductive Automation, rethinking SCADA for modern manufacturing.

Web based SCADA - a perspective from the Netherlands

Web based SCADA article by Eduard van Loenen of Yokogawa’s Global SCADA Center in The Netherlands. Kudos to Dan for pointing it out. He brings many great points to the table of the advantages to the trend of web based SCADA systems. 

From a security perspective, I disagree that IT technologies are "more susceptable to cyber attacks" than "rigid proprietary software". The cyber attacks will come since systems are being networked and remotely accessbile, which is a productivity enhancing user requirement in modern manufacturing. Proprietary software tends to be less secure than modern IT technologies, especially as the Internet makes exploits more widely available.

Good article, though!

OPC Interoperability Conference, UA and Java

In the spirit of catching up with my backlogged blogging (recent personal Japan trip from January), I'll post about a few topics that I missed.

I had a chance to visit old friends at Inductive Automation. They gave me a demonstration of the working Java OPC UA stack that they unveiled back in the beginning of March, at the North American OPC Interoperability conference. The "test program" was a slick AJAX web page that browsed, read, and wrote tags to an AB SLC with no noticable delay.

The Java UA stack is significant for a number of reasons. First, the UA spec is notional. I'd guess that the OPC Foundation hoped, but didn't really expect, to see it implemented independently - at least not right off. (*a Java stack on their C/C++ implementation is planned with a pure jave stack in the dreamy future) - (*correction again - Randy Armstrong points out in a comment that a Java stack is currently available). This leads to the second point about Java being platform and Operating System independent - everything supports the Java Virtual Machine these days. The point is that we have millions of users across continents and lots of reasons to seek Windows alternatives. I'd bet that there's a dissociated army of programmers in the industrial space who are doing their own thing, but would jump on a standards based bandwagon. That's really what our industry needs for: efficiency, simplicity, and cost savings. The idea being that everything "speaks OPC UA" so historically dissimilar hardware, appliances, and applications can talk with ease - securely.

Which brings me to something I heard about at the conference. Reportedly, the UA guys were asked to go home the first day so that all the legacy apps could be set up. This makes me laugh and wince simultaniously! It's not uncommon for a room full of experts to spend an afternoon getting two nodes to talk to each other - it's all about Windows DCOM security, which is equally painful as it is full of gaping vulnerabilities. At the point where you're communicating with a friend, a third party can't see either.

New standards are a funny thing - everyone knows they're coming, everyone knows they'll benefit from them, but you're not ready to commit until the next guy has. Kudos to Inductive Automation for getting the ball rolling. Kudos to Kepware and Iconics for the same. Siemens has comitted to an entire product line! Wonderware's been talking the talk, as has Rockwell (both in 2006). Here's to them coding away in their secret labs! Don't believe me - here's a video of how great and mature OPC UA really is, complements of Eric Murphy of Matrikon! It's a riot - I promise :)!

Java VM on way for the iPhone

Su-weet! You know what this means!? FactoryPMI on an iPhone or iTouch. What a cool idea! Unfortunately, they're currently only developing the ME (Micro Edition), which may only contain a subset of the necessary JVM.

It's good to see this level of commitment from Sun. Java is moving forward without support from Apple in this arena. It reinforces the applicability that Java is powerful on the cutting edge in the client/UI arena, not just with Servers/web applications!

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/07/sun-iphone-java_1.html

update - Walt Boyes is talking about an SPC application for the IPhone on his blog.

Java and the future of SCADA systems

Web based, web launched, AJAX, Java, OPC UA - these terms are commonly thrown around along with HMI, SCADA, and even DCS these days. What's the big deal? More importantly, what's the point and what does it mean for you? The common thread is ubiquity. Yes, I'll say it again, ubiquity. I don't know why there's not a more common word with the same meaning - to be, or appear to be, everywhere at once. It's the perfect word to describe the Internet. So when somebody says, "Web based", think, "That means I can access it anywhere". That means it's firewall and VPN friendly. Nobody said anything about web browsers, static HTML, http, or the likes! Web applications, particularly Java and Macromedia Flash, run and feel just like local applications. They support multimedia, run constantly, and can initiate and receive updates without "refreshing". They're locally running programs with the huge benefit of not requiring a traditional "installation" process!



So where does SCADA come in? An important aspect of a modern SCADA system is to be able to get detailed realtime and historical process information. For most production managers, this is the most important data for their day to day work. It's like checking stock quotes - a 30 second glance should give you an accurate summary and a warm fuzzy feeling that you know what's going on. If something demands action you want to know. How much sense does it make to go to your stock broker every time you want a quick update? Should you fly out to Wall Street? No, it's valuable for you to be able to easily pull this up from your office desk, or home. What does this have to do with SCADA? Same principal applies. Who wants to go to the control room or plant floor every half hour? Ideally, you should get a portal or summary page that provides a high level summary with reports. The idea is that you have access to the same underlying data, but formatted as useful information to you.

What actually happens in an organization that provides "frictionless" data access to their core process is that everyone comes up with separate requirements. QA wants summaries, management gets reports, maintenance looks at long term statistics, etc. All that it really takes is a system that can be run anywhere and easily expanded - "easily" referring to without additional licensing pain.

Web based SCADA - what's the big idea?

My control system isn't on the Internet! Why should I care about web based HMI or SCADA systems? I've been discussing these points for 5 years now, which is at least 10 years behind the corporate world. My ultimate goal is to educate end users on the pros and cons of a technology that may be very relevant to them.

"You'll sail upwind by a fire under your deck - I don't have time for such nonsense", my recollection of a quote from a Civilization video game. The point is that the application of new technologies isn't always immediately obvious. It helps to take a step back to consider what you're trying to accomplish.

Let's break down your SCADA system. Visibility into your process is probably the single most important aspect, which may come in the form of numbers, pretty graphics, etc. You need to be able to see the realtime and historical status of your operation. Next comes control. The ability to adjust setpoints, start and stop things, etc. After that it probably branches into: data input, reporting, alarming, interfacing with other systems, specialized applications, etc.

Sound like things a stand alone computer software package can do? Yes, that's an ideal version of the HMI that you're used to. Sound like something an HTML web page can do? Absolutely not! The first thing to realize is that "web based" is referring to a technology set that's prevalent on the Internet.

Now think of all the cool animated web sites you've been to. Java, Flash, ActiveX, DHTML and AJAX, and other technologies enable rich multimedia content. The big advantage is that the framework exists to run such applications with only a web browser. Instead of dragging CDs along to each HMI seat to install the software, then necessarily configuring: projects, data connections, PLC connections, server connections, etc, a new "web based" client need only the URL and permissions to access the system.

The next advantage has to do with routing and existing infastructure. How easy is it to connect a new computer on the other side of the plant to your legacy (non-ethernet) PLC network? It can get pretty tough! You probably already have an IP network throughout your plant to ride. What about realtime connections to your other locations? Again, our existing transport infastructure simplifies things with a "web based" approach. Does this mean that it has to be on the Internet? No, but it can. Or you can establish secure tunnels over a public network (Internet).

OK - so a "web based" approach brings nearly the same capabilities to the table, and can be easily launched from anywhere without the "traditional" lengthy installation and configuration process. What about safety, responsiveness, stability, and security?

It's true that the Industrial arena has considerations that don't exist elsewhere. This is why it's important to deal with people and companies that specialize in your trade. However, dealing with proven standards and technologies on the scale of decades of development and millions of users makes more sense than blindly trusting the "big" industrial software companies homebrewed nightmares. They are small as software companies go, and began with single terminal requirements that were much simpler. It's in their best interst to stretch their legacy junk in favor of backward compatibility, but even they are slowly turning to standards based approaches.

Remember that the Internet didn't grow out of the necessity to email grandma - it was the evolution of a hardened system designed for C2 (command and control), specifically launching missiles. Keep in mind that standard encryption based security schemes keep your investments safe from hackers. Web based SCADA provides a very capable, centrally managable, scalable and secure, IT supportable system. Wow!