Wednesday, February 25, 2009

ODVA Today was technical session day at ODVA - the organization to promote CIP (common industrial protocol) networks. I like tech talk, so my eyes aren't glazed, yet. I had to pick from among many sessions, so what you get is what I saw. My first session, which I reported earlier today, was the Technical Review Board. My takeaway is (lacking major announcements) the organization and development of the specifications is thriving. There is a lot of work by volunteer engineers working on many fronts to further development of the family of CIP standards and applications. By the way, networks covered by the standards are DeviceNet, ControlNet, EtherNet/IP and CompoNet. I have heard that there are about 100 attendees here, and the table set up for tonight's dinner reflects that number. I don't know what was expected, but this is probably not a bad turnout. This is primarily a supplier event, but evenso, this is a reflection of the economy. There is guarded optimism that manufacturing will continue to invest in the downturn looking for improved productivity when things improve. At least there is one segment of the economy working to get us going again. If there is a theme--and it would be just a little one--it would be introducing technologies pretty well established in the process industries to the factory automation suppliers. I sat in the FDT presenation, but didn't learn anything I haven't already reported. The point is that FDT Group is trying to broaden its market before the cooperation with EDDL finalizes. The other technology is wireless. ODVA does not have an official position on wireless, but there is a task force charged with evaluating the technology, its readiness for factory automation and its market potential for members. Much of the technology I've reported for several years--sensor level mesh, WiFi for mobile operators, and the like. The point was to get members thinking about what standards and specifications would be needed to adopt wireless and what market opportunies exist for members who do bring products out. One of the more ironic presentations was on determinism. As you may know from reading this blog over the years, there has been an ongoing "debate" between Rockwell Automation (a CIP co-founder) and Profinet. RA calls its package "standard, unmodified Ethernet" (a phrase noticably lacking thus far) in a pointed reference to Profinet IRT, which implements determinism in silicon. Well, the determinism presentation, which was very good, got into gory detail about benefits of implementing determinism in silicon. Very interesting. I only know that the effort to implement IEEE1588 in commercial Ethernet infrastructure has taken a long time as CIP Sync and CIP Motion. Oh by the way, Profinet can be implemented without the IRT chip as "standard, unmodified Ethernet" (Carl will correct me if I'm wrong, return here for comments in a day or two). Overall, a pretty good and positive day on a chilly Orlando. 6:01:16 PM    comment []

ODVA I did sit through the ODVA Technical Review Board session this morning before the IPS press conference. The best thing to say is that the board and the many special interest groups (SIGs) have been very busy for the past year. Conformance testing is obviously a key topic. Updating specs on everything from physical media to safety are on the agenda. I have sessions the rest of today, then tomorrow morning will be the official annual meeting. 11:03:38 AM    comment []

Virtual Immersion About nine years ago, I was the only editor at a user conference and spent the time hanging out with Dick Morley and his wife. We visited one of those big game places - like a Dave & Buster's. Dick said, "Look at these game interfaces. It's the future of HMI." I am listening at this very minute to an Invensys Process Systems press conference introducing an Immersive Virtual Reality Process technology dubbed a "next-generation human-machine interface (HMI) solution that will revolutionize the way engineers and operator trainees see and interact with the plant and the processes they control." What they seem to be doing is taking the Dynsim simulation technology and enhancing it with technology gleaned from gaming for immersive 3D simulation of a plant. The user dons a stereoscopic headset to enter a "totally immersive environment." This is not available, yet. There is one prototype in development with a client. The hope is that it can be released by the end of the year. 10:49:17 AM    comment []