From the ISA Meeting: Momentum continues for Java technology- based controls in industrial automation and manufacturing production control
Table of Contents
Enterprise applications integration and manufacturing execution systems
Java CPUs and real-time Java controllers
Java architecture classes for control systems
Web-based control in a DCS system
Wireless remote data entry using PDAs
Meta-control systems
Through working demonstrations at its booth on the ISA Expo 2000 show floor, Sun Microsystems Inc. and its partners sought to prove that the momentum for embedded Java technology continues in the process control industry.
Java is a popular programming language for thin client applications, programs that are delivered over the Internet while they remain resident on a server at another location. Java applications have become a popular way of delivering faceplates and process displays from remote locations.
"By connecting devices and machines to control intranets and providing for remote wireless data entry, Java technology merges the physical layers of commerce into the cyberworld of e-business," says Robert Atherton, worldwide manager of Process Control Market Development for Sun. "Web-based control provides a fast, expansive, consistent view of the production process."
Sun strategic partners demonstrating in the booth (No. 2727) include:
- aJile Systems
- Auspice
- Commotion Technology
- Cyberonix
- Epic Data
- Ergotech Systems
- Foxboro
- Genrad
- IBSS
- Mitsubishi Electric Automation
- Symbol Technologies
Technology demonstration areas include: enterprise applications integration and manufacturing execution systems; Java CPUs and real-time Java controllers; Java architecture classes for control systems; web-based control in a DCS system; wireless remote data entry using PDAs; and meta-control systems.
Enterprise applications integration and manufacturing execution systems
Manufacturing execution systems (MES) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems continue to provide a necessary manufacturing control layer between shop-floor control and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. In addition, it is now recognized that enterprise applications integration (EAI) plays a big role in successful implementations of MES.
Three vendors in the Sun booth offer software applications in this space: Epic Data, IBSS, and Genrad. Genrad's SFDM is used by Sun for manufacturing control, and a full Java version (SFDM 5.0) will be offered this year. Epic Data provides a SCADA system and middleware for integration to mobile data entry devices. IBSS offers the Synapse Manufacturing system, an end-to-end solution designed specifically for tracking, including unique job shop environments such as the printing industry.
Java CPUs and real-time Java controllers
For the first time at an ISA show, Sun will have a Java-based CPU vendor, aJile Systems, in the booth. aJile, a spin-off of Rockwell Collins, will demonstrate a real-time Java robot, which utilizes a prototype of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ), running on the aJile aJ-PC104 Java single-board computer with built-in real-time Java runtime. It allows hard real-time applications to be written in the Java programming language and provides binary portability for real-time applications.
The use of the Java CPU for automation controllers creates an elegant, efficient solution for the integration of installed devices and machines. The resulting Java controller board provides a complete Java automation solution with real time performance.
Java architecture classes for control systems
A key to Java technology's universal deployment is an architecture that includes Java technology-enabled classes. These classes cover a wide range of functions and capabilities, providing for rapid development of control systems. Ergotech Systems offers a JavaBean architecture for use with instruments and programmable logic controllers (PLC). Ergotech's software has been licensed by Schneider Electric for use with its Java-based PLCs.
Commotion Technology, another vendor demonstrating in the Sun booth, provides classes for robotic controls and other devices for discrete manufacturing.
Web-based control in a DCS system
Foxboro will show its flagship Intelligent Automation series distributed control system (DCS). This system is noteworthy for its use of Web-based control and is designed to meet the total measurement, control and real-time information requirements of today's process plants. Some eight Java-based applications connect to subsystems such as maintenance, statistical process control, and advanced control.
Wireless remote data entry using PDAs
Wireless remote data entry using personal digital assistants is adding considerable flexibility and power to control systems for both the discrete and process industries. The Sun booth features two industrial applications of PDAs.
First, Cyberonix and Sun will show how a standard Palm PDA can be used as a remote operator interface to a Java technology-based control system. The demonstration includes a portable factory simulator in the form of a traffic light. A full Java technology-based control system runs on the Sun workstation. The PDA can access either the control system or the factory simulator directly from distances over one kilometer.
In a second demonstration of mobile enterprise applications, Symbol Technologies and Epic Data have combined efforts to offer a Java technology-based environment for remote data entry into a SCADA system. Symbol has converted a Palm PDA into an industrially hardened device that includes bar-code scanning and wireless access. It uses Epic Data's eXpresso Java technology and XML-based wireless application development environment and programming interface.
Meta-control systems
TLX from Auspice provides a Java-technology compatible architecture for the extension of control systems. TLX combines middleware with high-level control and data filtering. Standard applications such as DCS, MES, or PLCs can link subordinate control systems to a TLX environment that adds increased control functionality and tighter integration. An example of a TLX application would be to automate emergency shutdown of a process plant in the face of a hurricane. The Synapse Manufacturing environment from IBSS can also provide large-scale extensions of control system functionality.
Edited by Jim Lardear
Managing Editor, PlantAutomation.com