2008 Motor, Drive & Automation Systems ConferenceFebruary 14-15, 2008 Atlanta, Georgia PLCopen North America participated with a booth and made a presentation at the 2008 Motor, Drive & Automation Systems Conference February 14-15, 2008 Atlanta, Georgia. This was made possible by the sponsorship from supporting PLCopen members, Beckhoff Automation, Yaskawa, and 3-S Software.The 2008 Motor, Drive & Automation Systems Conference was held February 14-15, 2008 at The Omni Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Now in its fifth year, this conference is devoted to bringing engineers and designers the latest advancements in motion control and automation technology. The conference featured 37 technical sessions from industry leaders.
Attendees included:
OEM & System Design EngineersSystem Integrators, Value Added Resellers and DealersOEM Design Engineers and Development ManagersControl Managers and DevelopersComponents Developers and ProvidersProduct Managers Engineering and Development Managers
PLCopen Presentations
Bill Lydon, PLCopen North American Director Presentation:
Common Industrial Control Software Language
The concept of an open architecture programming language for controls has been discussed for years and is realized today with the IEC-61131-3 standard. The worldwide standard comes from the International Electrotechnical Committee which was founded in 1906 and is recognized worldwide for standards in the controls and power industry.IEC 61131-3 is an open programming standard being used to implement open industrial systems and is being adopted by users in a wide range of industries.IEC 61131-3 harmonizes the programming interface allowing people with different backgrounds and skills to create elements of a program throughout the software lifecycle: specification, design, implementation, testing, installation and maintenance.
The standard promotes XML exchange of programs between control vendor products to increase reusability and portability of applications.This presentation will explain and illustrate by example the value of using IEC-61131-3 to implement control and automation systems. It will also provide a clear description of IEC-61131-3 programming with examples including control functions.
PLCopen member companies
PLCopen member companies Beckhoff and B&R made presentations on industrial automation topics and noted PLCopen standards in their sessions.
Keynote Address
Automation Unplugged: The Future of Automation, Drives & Controls in a Global Environment Jim Pinto, Futurist / Author / Consultant / Founder and Former President & CEO of Action Instruments presented the keynote address and stressed, “the fundamental purpose of automation, controls, and drives is to improve productivity”. This topic fits very well with our activities since PCLopen is continually working to improve productivity in the industry.This was a good event for PLCopen and many people stopped at the booth to learn more.It is good to talk with people that are using PLCopen and IEC 61131-3 standards in their projects and to meet new people that are just learning about the benefits of these initiatives.