Sea Change of Control Engineering Methodologies and Infrastructure.

Some changes come along that are transformative but are held back with natural roadblocks due to a legacy of expertise built up over decades and careers.

Two recent advancements appear a little stillborn, but may actually be the only tangible way forward.

Digitalization (IIOT/XR/Digital Workflows) is one – the other is a fundamental change to the way control system architecture and software is going to look in a few years.

Lets get a standard reference out of the way – IEC61499 – this reference only to legitimize the post – its been around since 2005 – nearly 20 years – the code references stop here- maybe.

The OEM Control System businesses have been working on this for some time and there is some benefit to that especially in light of slower adoption, 1- OEM’s have had time to develop and optimize the tech, 2- The equipment is relatively low cost.

The low cost of the equipment is also facilitated by the distributed architecture. Powerful computing can be placed at the edge in a DIN rail mounted device – it’s actually mind blowing for us legacy engineers to witness what is possible outside of a shoebox with 500 wires connected.

The fundamental change in a simplified explanation means the control architecture?is moving from cyclic model to an event driven model. The cyclic model is lacking performance when trying to leverage the capabilities of the latest complex industrial systems (i.e. the level of data and insight available at the ‘edge’) along with the benefits of portability, interoperability, reusability compounded by the widening skills gap.

The programming is object driven and language agnostic, allowing a wider pool of expertise to be leveraged to support the advancement of control engineering. This is a key advancement from a Gen X/Baby Boomer sat in a cellar of a process plant connected via RS232 on a laptop old enough to run the ladder logic program – and no the author is not saying this for effect – this still happens.

So with all the evident benefits, why is it not the current industry standard?

Firstly, in new and developing industries (Renewables, H2, ESG centric businesses) these systems are very popular- maybe less legacy engineer baggage?

Let’s talk about that a little – we still have a legacy of Instrument and Control resources (Designers, Control and Instrument Engineers and Discrete Automation Methodologies) that have spent a career in cyclic ‘PLC’ programming and they are less likely to move to a whole new methodology in their career twilights. The Departure Lounge in the process plant likely has a stack of laptops in the corner of the office, some with floppy drives and 9 pin DIN’s.

As with any new industrial tech, there can be some stop gaps or ‘middleware’ to start to embrace the imminent future. Not everyone will get justification for a CAPEX to change a plant DCS system. Maybe a Risk Assessment, ROI and cost benefit analysis leveraging the risk of losing the PLC programmers would help justify a quicker move.

The final words in this piece are borrowed from Mr. John Conway. John is a global thought leader regarding the initiative and his words are as follows:

‘IEC 61499 is an extension of IEC 61131, adding the possibility to model and distribute automation applications independently of the underlying automation hardware, providing the user greater independence in the choice of suppliers. In addition, IEC 61499 adds an event-driven paradigm that facilitates the convergence of OT and IT systems and a software component approach to automation.’

If you wish to learn more, please reach out and Radical Ingenuity will connect you to our network experts to chat through how this change can revolutionize your operations.

If you are not considering this architecture for a standalone new automation project, reach out as quickly as possible.

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