If your company is operating in the discrete and hybrid markets, then SCADA/HMI software is no doubt a significant part of your technology environment. But how does SCADA fit into the new world of digital transformation, IIoT and edge technologies? Here is some background.
SCADA (supervisory, control and data acquisition) is a supervisory system that makes it possible to observe how the states of controlled processes evolve. A SCADA system provides all the features needed to visualize information relating to the actual status of various processes, to manage historical data and exceptional states that go beyond the evolution of normal controlled processes. Over the last 30 years, SCADA software has grown in popularity in the market to subsequently become defined as SCADA/HMI, since it provides all the functionalities that are typical of simple visualization and user interface systems commonly known as human machine interface or simply HMI.
System design engineers prefer to use standard architectures by far, leaving the task of controlling process I/O to the PLC and the task of supervisory and process control to a standard PC that functions independently but is nevertheless connected to the PLC. This helps explain the exponential growth of the use of PLCs and SCADA/HMI software.
Despite its popularity, however, for the major part SCADA/HMI is still based on technology of twenty years ago when Microsoft introduced Windows XP, the COM and DCOM technology, the GDI graphics technology and Winform. This is despite the fact that Microsoft software technology has evolved remarkably. At the same time, it’s not easy to redesign a SCADA/HMI platform, considering its complexity and the use it is designed for, involving visualizing data, managing alarms and recording, and controlling Progeaanalyzing data. In the new Movicon.NExT SCADA platform, however, Emerson, through its recently acquired Progea, has done just that.
So, what does a next generation SCADA platform look like?
At the basis of everything is the framework, which Emerson has designed on .NET technology with a plug-in model, that is, open to customization and the integration of new functional modules, which every expert customer could create. The framework also uses the OPC UA information model, making the infrastructure compliant with data modeling according to the IEC 62541 standard. This guarantees the support of complex data, such as data models that can be defined in PLC systems (IEC 61131 and PLC Open) and managed, even in complex structures, transparently in the platform. In addition to this, any third-party application compliant with the OPC UA standard can exchange data directly with the modules of the platform.
The platform server forms the foundation of applications. Robust and scalable, the server manages communication with field protocols, performs gateway and IoT functions, manages alarms and all the sophisticated data recording parts, with recording models that make it independent of the database format used, both local, network and cloud.
The client application of the platform is the real flagship. The latest generation of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphics technology has been fully employed. Movicon.NExT provides exceptional graphic quality with a library of industrial objects and symbols redesigned to better support the graphic quality of WPF. Powerful animations, effects, transitions, colors, shades and much more allow you to make a generational leap in graphics.
This is just a brief overview of the dramatic changes in SCADA functionality that the new generation Movicon.NExT incorporates. In addition, the redesign has accommodated scalability to the emerging devices and systems of emerging technologies like augmented reality. This is not your grandfather’s SCADA.
How can the new SCADA help advance your operations? Contact us today.