Articles and News

By Bill Lydon, Editor The Internet of Things (IoT) definition as promoted by major industrial automation suppliers and computer industry suppliers is “IP to the edge.” IP to the edge means using Internet Protocol over wired or wireless Ethernet to communicate with end devices. This concept may not be common sense engineering and sound design for industrial automation systems.

Wireless Control Foundation: Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry, aims to improve wireless control planning, commissioning and troubleshooting.

By Bill Lydon, Editor Wurldtech launched a new firewall product for industrial control (ICS) and SCADA equipment that is designed protect from corruption and damage caused by cyber-attacks. I recently spoke with Wurldtech’s Peter Lunk and Tom Kenneth about their new Achilles Industrial Next Gen Firewall and their full portfolio of cyber security products and services.

MEDUSA development platform for battery-free wireless sensors and actuators allows developers to design components driven by RF energy harvesting

By Bill Lydon, Editor New technology is enabling remote monitoring capabilities to improve operational effectiveness. This presents users with opportunities and challenges to be evaluated for practical applications. The latest remote monitoring tools allow experts to analyze problems and abnormal situations, and determine ways to improve and optimize operations, without traveling to the site.

Fully interactive, role-based NERC CIP V5 Online Training Courses cover cyber security and access controls in the power industry.

OPNsense combines the best of open source and closed source firewalls.

A new Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming model is presented to analyze the availability optimization of a system with a given structure.

Up to 2014, there was only limited interest in thermoelectric energy harvesting in general and its use in automotive applications in particular. IDTech predicts thermoelectric energy harvesting will be on production hybrid electric on-road vehicles from 2018.

PLC I/O replaced with DCS I/O while keeping existing PLC sequence logic.

The Control Systems Security Corporation Chartered Lab (CSSC-CL) certified a process controller from Azbil—the Harmonas-DEO DOPC IV—to the ISASecure Embedded Device Security Assurance (EDSA) certification.

The bill is designed to strengthen and protect the nation’s economic and national security through public-private partnerships to improve cybersecurity and a greater reliance on cybersecurity standards.

By Chris Favre, Automation Integrated The danger of this rush to smart devices is that some “manufacturers” are taking hobby grade equipment and developing it as a viable commercial solution.

Inadequate training and a culture of complacency among many owners and operators of critical infrastructure are significantly raising the risks of highly damaging cyberattack throughout the world.

By Bill Lydon, Editor I see the technology progress in other industries, and I am coming to the realization that the industrial automation industry is way behind. The automation market lacks the essential elements, thought leadership, and desire to take advantage of IoT (Internet of Things) architectures and technology.

The guide lists 130 providers of nearly 300 Sercos-enabled products and serves as a guide for all mechanical engineers, systems integrators and control unit manufacturers who use the high-performance Sercos automation bus.

By Bill Lydon, Editor The goal of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to massively instrument the world with intelligent sensors and actuators (analog/digital) that communicate over both wired and wireless networks and leverage the Internet Protocol (IP). .

By Kepware Technologies Repete implemented Kepware’s KEPServerEX communications platform to address the diverse protocol environments of its growing international customer base.

Bosch Rexroth uses Anybus modules mainly to connect welding and tightening controllers to the various control systems used in automation technology.

Tripwire is a global provider of advanced threat, security and compliance solutions.