Everyone is talking about edge computing, edge control, analytics at the edge and other modern technologies not usually associated with the staid and secure world of industrial automation. Today’s controls designers may be hesitant to apply new edge controllers to equipment and systems usually automated with their tried-and-true PLCs or PACs. They may be concerned about the skillset required to make an edge control solution work reliably. They may feel unsure of the benefits gained from trying a new architecture. In a compelling article in InTech, Emerson’s Darrell Halterman talks about how not every developer or project is ready to commit to wholesale edge automation. By architecting a control solution properly, end users can implement classic functionality today, while future-proofing their designs to take advantage of the edge moving forward.
Darrell says, reservations disappear if the deterministic portion of the edge controller runs the same kernel as PLCs and PACs from the vendor and uses the same integrated development environment toolchain and toolchest of library functions. An edge controller can be used as a PLC or PAC today, even to the extent of using the same logic libraries developed for PLC/PAC members of the same product family. There is great power in using familiar methods tied to new capabilities to obtain new results.
If the edge compute portion of the edge controllers uses an open standard OS like Linux, users are free, in the future, to add almost any type of application needed. The immediate benefits are more compelling if the edge controller is available with a curated set of open source and commercial applications suiting the most common industrial computing needs.
Darrell goes into detail about how edge technologies make this possible – in fact, easy to accomplish. Future-proof your systems. Check out the article here.