Automationzcom The value IloT brings to industrial and manufacturing enterprisesNese Pelee ey If you have sat for any presentation related to the Industrial Internet of Things (lloT), you have probably heard the phrase ‘IloT will be a game changer’ so much that it's bordering on cliché. Like us, you might have even asked yourself, “Well, that’s nice in theory, but where's the real, tangible value?’ That's why the team at Automation.com, your trusted source for automation news, formation and innovation, hi Sie ato aoe eee] ‘examples of how some organizations are already leveraging the advanced technologies and finding Pree eae (Our intent is to help you determine how the Industrial Internet of Things can bring real value to your organization. Whether your interest is process control, manufacturing, energy conservation, or just to see the latest in lloT innovation, this eBook has a trove of information for you to peruse in a convenient digital format, so your organization can remain on the cutting edge of its industry. This ebook includes: cisions on IloT-based National Instruments’ guide for manufacturers on how to make informe Honeywell's analysis of lloT as a tool for plant and asset management detailed value-based analysis of Endress+Hauser's in-depth look a Process industry al effice »strum B4+B SmartWorx’ case study using an IloT gateway to improve energy efficiency for an Irish university If your organization is heavily fo reducin simply trying to improve De esr Peace ae Sete ee coe Le ee Lee Cae ee ae ee eee keeping you and your organization in the know and on the cutting jecom Pace 2CONTENTS Impact of the Industrial Internet of Things on Manufacturing Page 4 A Real-World Approach to the IIOT For Process Reliability Page 9 How Flowmeters Perform Self-Verification Page 16 Making Modbus Data Available on the Internet of Things Page 21 SCADA Systems vs IloT Solutions Page 24 2017: State of The lloT Page 29 NATIONAL Endress+Hauser (2) INSTRUMENTS: dress+ Hause BB SMARTWORX Powores ’Y WON zen OPTO 22Impact of the Industrial Internet of Things on Manufacturing By Chris Davis, National Instruments Abstract US. tured the lobal importance of the oT to manufacturing when she said that “advanced manufacturing is the engine driving the future of both (U.S. and German} economies” at Hannover Messe 20 onsidera cretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker c In this article, we'll review some coner 8 to keep in mind when integrating an modern tech giants AT&T, Cisco, General Electric, Intel, and IBM, and now expanded to over 200 members — has put forth a complete reference architecture as a resource [for] the adoption of the Industrial Internet around the world.’ Figure 1 presents a high-level illustration of this three-tiered architecture, where ‘embedded measurement and control devices are being pushed further towards the Edge Tier, where the manufacturing equipment lives today. lloT-based solution in a manuf uring & uot quality to improve safety, uptime, and px lude building ‘These considerations inc ona secure open platform with flexible conn sensor to system, data: entric networking, 2 to tie it all together Nell further discuss how Airbus’ research and unified softw: development of some of these consider cyber-physical smart tools used to build safer aircraft more efficiently than ever Article Industrie 4.0, Made in China 2025, Smart Nation ‘Singapore—these are all government-backed initiatives to drive economic growth and innovation in their respective countries. Each puts its own lens on the concept, but collectively they support the resounding belief that the digitization of today's factories will mean improvements to quality, yield, safety, and down time in the coming decades for industrial manufacturing. USS. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker effectively captured the importance of the Industrial Internet of Things (lloT) to this sector at Hannover Messe 2016, when she asserted that advanced manufacturing is the engine driving the future of [U.S. and German] ‘economies. In support of these endeavors, the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)—an organization founded by Figure 1, Three-Tier loT ference Arcstectre From the IC With this, the real issues surrounding such interconnectedness in manufacturing facilities are increasingly apparent: The need for agile, open platforms that don’t sacrifice security ‘The need for flexible connectivity to real-world sensors and signals as well as existing machinery and IT infrastructure ‘The need for network infrastructure with the ability to prioritize and synchronize mission-critical data 4, The need for reliable hardware platforms that can withstand harsh manufacturing environments while still being able to be efficiently integrate with software In the following sections we'll address these issues with some concrete recommendations to consider when conceptualizing an IloT manufacturing solution. We'll also discuss their respective impact in three areas of smart manufacturing: asset performance, ‘Automationiscom Advar ing Autom PAGE 4 on eBook‘smart control, and augmented operator. As a proof point, we'll share a case study discussing how Airbus, a leader in commercial airliner manufacturing, sought to add intelligence to their build process with augmented ‘operator systems and smart tooling intended to drive safety and efficiency in a complex manufacturing process. Openness and Security ‘access control without having to develop them from ‘scratch or purchase additional networking equipment. ‘The openness of the SELinux kernel, drivers, and applications means they can be carefully inspected as, needed to ensure security. Further still, the expanding Linux community provides a broader base of support and developers who are familiar with the technology, meaning lower development cost and time to market. Itis difficult to overstate the importance of security ‘when integrating connected systems into an existing network given the continued rise in hacktivist activity targeting corporations. Pushing embedded devices closer to the point of measurement and control allows for more timely reaction to critical events, effective data reduction, and secure distribution of information. It also, however, adds complexity to the challenge of securing the more disparate network to cnos aces Pend — " ’ ane a ea y y Y ae x ; % — " " aT 5 5 == , ‘ ws x Y KPa pe > bes protect assets and intellectual property. Without a single, definitive international standard for lloT security, embedded systems designers may be underdeveloping cybersecurity because of cost, inexperience, or project prioritizations. The standards that do exist, like CIP-007-5 from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and IEC 62443 from the International Electrotechnical Commission, provide only partial coverage for a system of embedded devices because of variations in intended field of use, level of ‘government oversight, and geographic region. A more ‘complete coverage of baseline security requirements can be attained by considering multiple standards and filing in gaps where necessary. The table in Table 1 shows a more complete coverage of important cybersecurity features that can be achieved by ‘overlapping requirements. ‘Once defined, actually addressing this wide array of cybersecurity features without a detrimentally long development effort means considering commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software platforms that provide solutions to some of these challenges. Using hardware platforms that support open software like Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) with real- time extensions creates a compelling, and secure, measurement and automation platform. SELinux offers a rich ecosystem of intellectual property and tools to provide security features like firewalls, authentication, virtual private networks, auditing, and mandatory Table 1. Coverage of Socurty Rocuirments for Embedded oT Dovices Punning SELinux Flexible Connectivity From Sensor to System Beyond security, the abilty to integrate embedded lloT devices in established manufacturing environments, often referred to as Brownfield development, is paramount to the success and economic viability of a connected, intelligent system of systems. Integrating intelligent embedded devices to tun dumb machinery into smart machinery can be considered from two perspectives: device to the sensor and device to the system, ‘The manufacturing application will dictate a variety of physical phenomena need to be monitored. Through ‘sensors, these phenomena generate signals that could, include acceleration/vibration, temperature, position, strain, and so on. An ideal lloT embedded device should be able to adapt to the measurement needs of the thing being monitored or controlled. Further still, measurement requirements can change as project needs evolve over time to create smarter machinery and better informed technicians. Adopting an IloT platform that is flexible and can be customized at any time means a significant increase in long-term value added, with limited additional investment, Advancing A\ utomation eBook PAGE 5Machinery Mectingy ‘Sman Machinary 2. ntegtion of Embed ‘Smart Machinery Interoperability with existing automation devices as ‘well as new components in distributed, cloud-based architectures is paramount. This can only be achieved through the use of communication protocols that, can seamlessly and securely serve the human-to- machine, machine-to-machine, and machine-to-human scenarios. OPC UA is a secure, platform-independent industrial communication protocol for sensors and. devices operating at the control level as well as for connectivity with the enterprise IT cloud. OPC is a well- known technology in this sector, but its evolution into ‘a Unified Architecture (UA) has increased its adoption for distributed applications. In addition to its integrated security aspects, the OPC UA protocols also expose a collective address space that facilitates sharing key information such as system configuration, topology, and metadata. Clients can securely connect to OPC UA servers to access data through client/server, pub/sub or cloud architectures. Similarly, the DDS protocol provides secure, real-time data sharing across any kind of network. DDS has a data-centric information model that gives users the ability to define custom data while preserving QoS ‘expectations for the fog and cloud scenarios. Whereas. system configuration details are deemphasized to ease redundancy and interoperability, DDS can still maintain ‘sub millisecond latencies. DDS mainly differs from OPC UA in the way itis used as the backbone for bus. integrations and peer-to-peer data distribution. For ‘OPC UA, the main use case is client-server interaction between devices and applications. Together, OPC UA and DDS provide a cohesive solution to the integration challenge when supported by the automation device being integrated Time-Sensitive, Data-Centric Networking Inherent to the IloT is the capture and transfer of data from things to the network and to other things. The next step, however, is ensuring that the right data is being provided over this network at the right time. Selecting a platform that can incorporate Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), for example, can substantially improve the safety and reliability of smart machinery. ‘The Time-Sensitive Networking Task Group, a part of IEEE 802.1, is developing a set of standards called TSN ‘as a means to ensure packets of data being delivered ‘over a network can be prioritized and synchronized across the entirety of the network. In a manufacturing ‘environment, where heavy machinery and humans work hand in hand, the ability to deterministically send a message from machine-to- machine, machine-to-user, ‘or machine-to-administrator can quite literally be the difference between life and death Imagine a scenario in which a minor failure has occurred at an early stage of a manufacturing process with the potential to snowball into a much more catastrophic failure several stages later. Without TSN, the shutdown ‘command that is critical to preventing a significant failure event may happen to be released just after the daily update to all networked systems. Stuck in the network pipeline, perhaps this message is received 00 late or missed entirely. Adopting an IloT platform that can support TSN would mean you can ensure that. critical messages and data packets are given priority network access over the standard network traffic without needing to employ a custom, complicated, or proprietary solution to solve the same problem, Reliable Hardware and Unified Software To integrate an lloT solution that is time-aware, flexible, and secure takes time. This presents both an ‘opportunity and a challenge for an engineer developing the solution because time to market is critical to gaining an edge over competition and providing return on investment. Achieving this requires developing systems, not discrete components, comprise both hardware and, software, and doing so in parallel Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 6Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) have historically been the go-to choice for off-the-shelf and relatively easy- to-integrate automation hardware but they are not without their limitations. PLCs are inherently rigid in nature, lacking flexibility to fully customize the I/O without added cost, and further still unable to adapt to the changing needs of the application over time, Additionally, PLCs can have limitations in ruggedness, which is a table stake of any hardware intended for deployment in a manufacturing environment. Furthermore, integrating hardware like PLCs within an existing system can require a variety of software tools to manage automation, /O, data transfer, and so on. Understanding and integrating each piece of such a disjointed toolchain and being successful in doing so can be prohibitively difficult, time-consuming, and hard to maintain long term. A unified development environment that provides a shared experience for programming /O, hardware-level control algorithms, and processor-level data management and analysis can streamline development and cut time between design, prototype, and deployment substantially. ‘One way to achieve this in hardware is through the adoption of heterogeneous computing architectures. These incorporate processing elements for contro! and data aggregation operations to add intelligence for timely reaction to critical events, effective data reduction, and secure distribution of information. Heterogeneous computing platforms offer a balance of processing power and flexibility, and are inherently more adept at accommodating the differing needs of individual applications. Pairing general-purpose processors with FPGAs and software creates a heterogeneous computing solution that is both highly capable and highly customizable. This also opens a door for complexity where software tools are now required to develop for multiple types of target. As discussed above, selecting a hardware platform that shares a singular unified development environment and supports an open software ecosystem like SELinux alleviates this burden. Further stil, combining this singular toolchain with a level of software abstraction to reduce the learning curve for low-level activities like FPGA programming opens the door for rapid development. IDE Layer ed Development E + Unified Development Environment + IP and Frameworks 1 RTOS 05 Layer + Open Source, Real-Time OS + Supporting Community 7 a Hardware Layer —_ rn -— aoe + Off-the-shelf Heterogeneous Computing Architecture eo + Dissimilar, massive parallel processing elements Figure 3. Uniied Development Evironment Span Pooassor, FPGA, and VO The Airbus Factory of the Future Pioneers in commercial aitliner technology like Airbus are embracing the concept of the lloT head-on. They are ‘envisioning the integration of smart machinery in their existing manufacturing process as a means of increasing productivity, improving worker safety, all while streamlining their ability to adhere to strict quality standards. ‘Automationiscom Advancing Autor on eBook PAGE 7Today's aircraft assembly environment is just as complex as you might imagine. When customer safety is paramount, and cost to repair after failure is exceedingly high, it becomes critically important that the assembly procedure be followed to the letter while copious records of assembly are maintained. As an example, a particular subassembly of an aircraft has roughly 400,000 points that need to be tightened down, which requires over 1,100 basic tightening tools. Airbus engineers can reduce the burden on operators by outsourcing tasks like assembly step verification, tool selection, and recordkeeping, The resulting solution was a set of Figura 4, Typical Assembly Envtormant or Arbus Factery ofthe Future ‘smart tools, a tablet, and augmented reality eyewear that created a connected system to increase operator productivity and accuracy. To achieve this result, they used a heterogeneous computing platform from National Instruments and a unified development environment from prototype to deployment. FPGA abstraction in the development environment helped the engineers focus their time on developing image processing algorithms instead of the intricacies of FPGA programming and resource management. When a satisfactory prototype was achieved, they were able to move their code from development hardware to deployment hardware without making any changes and while maintaining the diversity of /O required for the application. The same environment was then used to automate the collection and aggregation of operator process details to maintain the necessary historical archives while providing immediate user feedback via the tablet, all without burdening the operator. Joi jing the Future of Connected Manufacturing The adoption of connected manufacturing, smart machinery, and augmented operator technologies as part of the IloT is imminent. Embracing these advances effectively for manufacturing means decreased time to market, increased yield, and decreased downtime. While this may be easier said than done, making informed decisions on an automation platform for addressing the most critical IloT requirements will go a long way in ensuring success. Doing so means joining visionary companies like Airbus in becoming a part of the fourth industrial revolution as it continues to evolve. For more information on National Instruments, please visit: www.ni.com on eBook PAGE 8 Advancing AutorA Real-World Approach to the IIOT For Process Reliability New solutions enable on line continuous monitoring of equipment and process health By Honeywell In the process industries, plants must oper fesired capacity, but also at optimal efficiency. This means befor cur, and then systematically addressin part of a continuous Improvement pre mal conditions and malfunctions aren't i unt growing numberof ind cities are exploring 1 Jlustral Internet of Things (IoT) to optimize enterprise to address critical operating demands. They performance. The lloT enables plant operator need effective tools to transform process data into real-time information regarding process performance, equipment health, eneray consumption, and emissions monitoring. Plant operators, process and equipment engineers, land managers require continuous monitoring and techniques, including Bia Data gyrveillance, notifications, and collaboration with analytics, to enable sma plant operations. r experts so that appropriate proactive actions can articular, he T can support continuoy be taken. This will minimize degradation, poor improver dress previously unsolved probloms t performance and secondary damage to equipment lity, safety, and reliability. By taking to reduce costs, as well as increase throughput and wes profits, Article Introduction In a highly competitive global marketplace, industrial organizations seek “digital intelligence” to manage and operate hundreds or thousands of assets from a single site or across an ‘Automationiscom Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 9In an effort to ensure uptime, ‘companies have historically sent field technicians out to perform routine diagnostic inspections and preventive maintenance according to fixed schedules, This is a costly, labor intensive process with little assurance that failure won't occur between inspections. To improve efficiency, companies have implemented Advanced Process Control (APC), defined operating boundaries with their alarm system, created Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and called upon local experts to help solve operating problems. The effectiveness of these measures has been difficult to sustain as they rely on dedicated and knowledgeable on-site personnel In addition, industrial firms are looking for ways to make sense of vast quantities of data that can have a significant impact on their performance. For instance, reporting and interpreting of alarms and alerts is central to safe operations. Itis also important to act upon abnormal situations quickly and effectively ‘To support the variety of monitoring and decision support applications necessary within a manufacturing facility, data needs to be turned into information and. delivered with context so it can be understood and Used in a myriad of ways by various people. Today's Operational Objectives For manufacturers and other operating companies, asset failure and almost imperceptible reductions in process and ‘equipment efficiency are constant threats to the ‘operating plan and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). As a result, they are shiting their spending to increased equipment maintenance, and thus losing potential revenue. Factors such as availabilty of skled workers and increasingly complex production processes are impacting the abilty to predict and detect deteriorating asset health and process performance. ‘To maximize their overall performance, modern plants are looking for ways to transform their operating and maintenance philosophy from “break-fix” to keeping operations running as efficiently and steadily as possible while decreasing unplanned downtime. Key operational objectives include: + Deploy online, continuous monitoring and ‘exception-based alerts for process performance, ‘equipment, and controls + Capitalize on increased data availability across the enterprise + Implement tools for process and reliability engineers enabling visual data exploration to decrease reliance on complex machine learning algorithms to solve problems + Establish collaboration with both internal and ‘external Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) Integrated operational and maintenance strategies open up new possibilities for companies. Data from sensors monitoring both process and machine conditions are combined to identify any patterns that indicate a possible fault or process limitation. This allows the onset of a stoppage to be recognized early, and corrective measures to be planned and introduced in the most effective way. Combining both process and equipment data leads to truly understanding asset capability, and enables the definition of accurate, consistent operating and integrity envelopes that can be used in APC strategies. Advancing Autor tion eBook PAGE 10The result is greater process stability within control and monitoring systems for situational awareness at all levels of operations, as well as improved decision support systems to ensure assets are operated in an optimal manner. With this approach, unplanned downtime can be avoided, and both staff and resources can be employed more effectively. Leveraging the Industrial Internet There's no doubt the lloT carries major implications for industry, especially at a time when infrastructure is aging and veteran operators and engineers are retiring There is a shortage of experienced workers to take the place of seasoned personnel, resulting in a loss of knowledge. The lloT can be leveraged to institutionalize knowledge capture while requiring fewer internal experts. This can be done with the help of external experts, such as process licensors, who have expertise and visibility beyond the company’s assets. Moreover, the lloT can have a significant impact on competitiveness as ‘manufacturers struggle to pull their weight in the global economic recovery. The lloT allows companies to do more with their current systems and extend their business processes to enhance monitoring and reduce the time to action. For example, a cloud-based control loop and APC. monitoring system can be set up to monitor controls, across the enterprise by an internal or external domain expert. With visibility and knowledge across sites, exp erts can alert and collaborate with site SMEs and recommend actions when control benefit degradations are detected. Each site can benefit from earlier detection and faster resolution of problems afforded by a higher level of expertise focused on control performance. For the enterprise, these capabilities can be deployed using fewer resources than having an expert at each site. In order to make better business decisions, the IloT offers companies the abilty to: + Aggregate data from existing sources + Create additional data sources in a cost-effective way + Gain visibility into new data + Identify patterns + Derive insight through analytics Through this approach, previously unsolved problems, as well as new ones, can be solved with assets communicating and providing real-time usage data to allow plants to do predictive maintenance and process optimization Industry-leading companies are transforming their operations by utilizing proven solutions in the areas of process and event data collection, ‘combined process and asset-centric analytics, and visualization technology to continuously and. automatically collect, organize and analyze data. Indeed, advanced analytics is one of the pillars of the lloT connecting people, processes and assets to optimize business results. It can transform work processes from manual and reactive to automatic and proactive, helping users avoid unplanned downtime, and improve performance and safety, An lloT-enabled plant uses a combination of advanced sensors, automation systems, and cloud technologies integrated with current systems and data analytics to become smarter. This provides the ability to locate data in a cloud environment where it can be accessed and analyzed with analytical tools. For example, an equipment vibration reading would be sent to the plant's Distributed Control System (DCS) as a single value, whereas rich dynamic data stored in the cloud would allow engineers to study the harmonic signature of a bearing or shaft to determine the root cause of a pending asset failure. Currently, in most cases, dynamic data is ony emplyed by specialist in custom applications —limiting its accessibility by other users in the plant. In terms of predictive maintenance and process performance, lloT-based solutions enable industrial enterprises to proactively manage their assets and make more informed decisions through analytics at the edge, Production and maintenance strategies, ‘can be combined for optimal overall performance and executed based on how assets are expected to function tomorrow—not solely according to a specific periodicity or on particular present conditions. Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 11‘Another key driver of the lloT is a reduction in the level of Information Technology (IT) skills and expertise required to support standalone applications so that companies can focus on their core competency of running and ‘managing operations. Making the Most of Plant Data ‘Major automation suppliers have developed innovative technologies that deliver real-time process. and asset-centric analytics, performance calculations, event detection and collaboration for plant management, engineering, maintenance, Center of Excellence (COE) experts, and operations. These solutions are designed for on line continuous monitoring of equipment and process health, enabling industrial facilties to predict and prevent asset failures and poor operational performance. Today's tools for real-time process performance monitoring provide statistical calculations and embedded performance models which, when paired with near real-time surveillance of instruments, processes and equipment, allow users to accurately assess asset performance. They offer a clear window into plant processes— continuously monitoring operating conditions, and enabling decisions and actions to prevent production loss, minimize downtime, and reduce maintenance expenses. ‘The latest developments in the field of plant equipment and process health monitoring leverage secure, managed, and hardened edge-to-cloud platforms, while focusing on data science and analytics, and applying “digital twin” patterns to drive their analytic models. With the help of external experts, these solutions enable industrial firms to extract meaningful insights from their data. This leads to improved decision-making and addresses such issues as safety improvement, asset management and optimization of operations. As a result, process plants are becoming more agile, driving increased revenue and keeping the focus on what matters most—production. By modeling first principle compressor performance and baseline performance, for example, current performance can be continuously compared to detect both sudden changes and long-term degradation. These events have successfully been demonstrated to trigger maintenance activity, such as chemical injection to clear fouling or a ‘compressor wash, or to initiate further action if required. Unlike condition monitoring solutions focused solely on equipment’s physical condition, the latest data analytics and asset monitoring solutions use performance degradation as a leading indicator of potential problems. With the IIOT, identification of performance degradation and actions to be taken is continuously improved since both process and equipment data are used, not only for a specific compressor but also for all compressors of similar design and service. Some tools employ pre-defined best practice templates for a wide range of equipment types, including pumps, compressors, exchangers, valves, and turbines. Combined with an interface to process design simulation software, this solution helps users rapidly deploy equipment or process monitoring on any plant asset—liminating the need for complex model development. Itis important to remember that the lloT is not just about capturing sensor data. Information needs to be put into the asset context structure; merely operating on tag-based data will not ensure a repeatable and scalable solution, Processes are instrumented for control rather than reliability or optimization, and as a result, much of the “derived data” important for prediction and decision-making is locked in spreadsheets and other standalone tools. Itis essential to continuously calculate this data and bring it into the lloT environment where continuous runtime analytics can examine historical performance for use in machine learning algorithms. Automationzcom Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 12Furthermore, lloT solutions should not solely rely on a statistical model to detect deviations from normal. Having a fundamental, physics-based model creates a digital twin, with a virtual representation of the process or asset located in the cloud. This allows users to model and compare expected process performance against actual results, and then apply these deviations as early indicators of health degradation. Digital twins exist at the intersection of physical engineering and data science, and their value translates directly to measurable business Customer Value outcomes: reduced asset downtime, lower maintenance costs, improved Pieler ee plant and factory efficiency, reduced cycle times, and increased {I,) vtatone productivity. to10% ‘+ Redo unplanned downtime by Benefits to Industrial Organizations re eee + Mino ratandefcleney loess Rapid adoption of the lloT has created economies of scale for smart sensors, connectivity, analytics, and robust software platforms. This change 30% Inerease Operating is driving the adoption of enterprise-level performance management, eae process monitoring, predictive maintenance programs, and business. transformation with the goal of eliminating unplanned downtime and + Monitor enaray usage to ecieve upto rediing operating costs whe maintaining produit quality and compliance, | 10ers Areal werd approach othe oT enals the tgraton of cunt ee systems and the addition of new data sources and analytics to support required information csnpnerta’coninsas movement pecete eased = performance monitoring and decision support. The specific benefits of this ogre, geometries approach include: goneaiets ee + rae ocose isbly anaes zaion upto e%—Panecan | 4p EG) Sean reduce ups cowntine by fing a parting wen ope responses, as well as minimizing rate and efficiency losses. ee eee ae ae + Increase operating efficiency up to 103%—Industial organizations can | Sstinsantanenschanas manage performance, including yields, energy and raw material usage, aaa to achieve up to 10% reduction in costs. This results from enhanced engineering and production effectiveness with continuous monitoring, . remote collaboration and ready access to required information, as well — as improved decision support. oe “= Minimize ek by eneuringnormaland stableoperatons + Sustain advanced control and preventable degradation with benefits + Eiminae production stops forsfety up to 25% —Control teams can proactively maintain the effectiveness eed of control loops, controllers and models; adjust controls to new ‘operating conditions and process changes; and quickly address critical ate instrument issues. Cas + Increase safety —Production facilities can minimize risks by ensuring Se eer ‘equipment damageandemergencies + Optimize maintenance based one ho rey ad end + Reduce maintenance costs up to 10% —Operations teams can take eerie proactive measures to minimize equipment damage and emergencies ‘while optimizing maintenance based on real asset conditions, thus improving reliability and extending equipment lite. normal and stable operations, and also eliminate production stops for safety system verification. Automationzcom Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 13Conclusion Organizations across the process industries are seeking to improve their return on large asset investments. Effectively managing assets, however, requires a wealth of information and analysis. Industrial facilities need ‘combined production and maintenance strategies to minimize unscheduled shutdowns and optimize product quality while cost-effectively using the operations, maintenance and engineering resources they have on hand. ‘The true value of the IloT can only be fully realized with a holistic view of asset management. Powerful virtual cloud networks will continually collect, aggregate and model data for accurate prediction of degradation and failures, and put contingencies in place to limit their impact on system availability. This approach is becoming fundamental to improving process reliability and driving cost takeout by delivering real-time, intelligent and actionable data to connected systems and the end user. Although it may take time for some companies to become an IloT data-driven organization, this evolution is coming and they should begin preparing for it. About the Authors ent Business Director at Honey quipment health ind instrument health monitoring Bart Winters is the Asset Mana, Process Solutions and leads rent Solutions, which inoludes Uniformance® duct strategy for sentinel for Asset nrings ov jement, mat ng from Brigham Young Francois Leclerc is ar :tions Leader at Honeywell. He has 35 years of global experience in pre industry automation, including consulting, strategic planning, business ;e-engineering, benchmarking, design and implementation of plant information (MES) systems, and c ng and implementing control and optimization for the Mining, Mineral HPI, Chemical ar \gineering from the University of Otta Pulp & Paper industri For more information on Honeywell, please visit www. honeywell.com/ict ‘Automationiscom dvancing Automation eBook PAGE 14Monitor plant performance and equipment health With Uniformance® Asset Sentinel you can monitor equipment health, energy utilization and process performance. Itis a powerful solution which provides real- time advanced asset-centric analytics that helps reduce unplanned capacity loss and maintenance costs with predictive notifications. For more information, please visit Uniformance.com/AssetSentinel Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 15How Flowmeters Perform Self-Verification Here's how modern flowmeters verify their own measurement performance. By Nathan Hedrick, End Process manufacturing and other industrial facilities must often provide documented evidence of flowmeter performance to maintain compliance with various. regulatory agencies, ensure product quality and ‘optimize production. Today's smart instrumentation helps plants accomplish these tasks through built-in verification techniques traceable to known metrology standards. In this article, we'll explain how selt-verfication works. Regulatory Requirements In the water and wastewater industry, typical flowmeter requirements are: + Flowmeters have to be verified at regular intervals. + Verification has to be performed by a qualified third arty and with an accepted inspection method based on quality regulations such as ISO 9001 + Atest report needs to be provided for documented, proof of verification ‘The water recovery industry often uses large pipe sizes, and recalibration of flowmeters used in these applications is very costly. In some cases a certified local reference standard, typically a mobile calibration Tig accredited according to 18017025, is not available, And in many cases, any interruption of Fgure 1: Removing a flowmeter for calibration and veiicaton tern @ large ine causes significant cisrupton and can be cost proibtve. service or supply of water is not acceptable, making it very dificult to remove the flowmeter from service for calibration (Figure 1). These applications are well suited for self-verification because it minimizes the need to take flowmeters out of service. In the pharmaceutical industry, Quality Risk Management has become a mandatory regulatory requirement for drug manufacturers. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines ‘Agency (EMA) publish guidelines and requirements for process instrumentation which customers and vendors, are expected to fallow. Guidelines such as “Process Validation: General Principles and Practices” by the FDA and Annex 16 issued by the EMA offer input to help drug manufacturers manage instrumentation, correctly, The chemical industry has requirements for proof testing per IEC 61508 and IEC 61511, while the oil & gas industry must adhere to contractual agreements between buyer and seller, and comply with government agency mandates. For example, a company piling oil from a well under an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management or the property owner may have to prove flowmeters at a determined frequency. c ration versus Verification Modern flowmeters operating based on a Coriolis, electromagnetic, ultrasonic, vortex or thermal measuring principle do not have moving parts subject to wear. But they can have problems requiring recalibration including failure of an internal part or degradation due temperature effects on electronics —or corrosion, Figure 2: Roweters ypicaly have to be removed from the process for calibration in lab. On-board verfcaion can determine wher a fowmeter actualy neds calioration ‘Automationiscom Advancing Auto PAGE 16Clogging or coating buildups in the flowmeter body. Legal requirements are commonly fuiled with wet calibrations, where a flowmeter is removed from the process (Figure 2), taken to a flow lab or calibration rig, and tested by a formal comparison to a standard directly or indirectly related to national standards, Detected deviations between the displayed value and the reference value can be corrected after the calibration by adjusting the calibration factor. A calibration protocol is issued to document the findings, and is put on record for possible audits. The downside of wet calibration is the instrument typically must be removed from the process. After calibration, the instrument is then sent back to the facility to be reinstalled. Damages during transport or handling can sometimes stay undetected, and lead to a situation where a recently calibrated instrument is not performing per specifications An alternative way to fulfill legal requirements is ‘on-board verification of the flowmeter. The flowmeter's transmitter electronics run an on-board diagnostics program, where all relevant components of the instrument are checked to confirm and document the instrument is still in calibration and none of the meter ‘components have drifted outside original tolerances. Verification of a flowmeter equipped with built capabilities can be performed without removing the instrument from the process. It may not even be required to interrupt the process as the verification tests can all be performed in the background. ‘Several flowmeter manufacturers offer self-verification, and all work differently. In this article, we'll use Heartbeat Technology from Endress+Hauseras an example. How Self-Verification Works Modern flowmeters incorporate self-testing developed as an integral part of the device from the beginning, For example, Heartbeat Technology was developed when Endress+Hausersnew generation of Proline flowmeters were first designed. This concept ‘embeds diagnostics in all flowmeter technologies that, operate 24/7. In addition, the entire signal chain from sensortooutput can be checked using the flowmeter’s self-testing, traceable verification. Verification in flowmeters equipped with Heartbeat Technology is based on continuous monitoring of all relevant internal parameters, and mechanical, electromechanical and electronic components. ‘Typically, a failure mode, effects and diagnostic analysis is used during the flowmeter's design phase to identity critical components in the signal chain, starting at the process-wetted parts and followed by the electro-mechanical components, amplifier board, main electronic module and outputs. A proper margin of safety is then assigned to every oritical path or ‘component. These tests include digital signal processing and continuous loop checks with the help of internal reference components. In the case of a Coriolis flowmeter—and other time-based measuring principles like vortex or ultrasonic—there is a frequency reference oscillator used for analyzing the frequency of the measuring tubes. For electromagnetic flowmeters, this is a reference voltage, since the measured value is determined by comparing the voltage on the electrodes to the reference voltage. The primary reference is monitored by a second redundant reference system to guarantee it does not change during the device lifecycle. The two reference signals from the primary and secondary reference are ‘compared against each other. A drift or deviation of the two systems from each other is immediately detected and reported by the device diagnostics. For an internal component to be used as a diagnostic reference, it has to fulfill special requirements such as factory traceability and exceptional long-term stability. For the most critical circuits, independent and redundant components are implemented, greatly reducing the possibilty of undetected drift. Today, itis, possible to design instruments with a self-diagnostics coverage of 94% or higher (in accordance with IEC. 61508), and correspondingly low rates of dangerous undetected failures. Status signal Color Symbol Normal; valid output signal Maintenance required stl valid output signal Out of specification; of the specified range Fuction check; temporary rnon-valid output signal Failure; non-valid ouput signal Faure 3: Diagnostic messages sent by Heartbeat Technology conform to NAMUR recommendation NE 107. Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 17Heartbeat Technology continuously monitors the entire signal chain for deviations within a very tight band. The failure threshold is defined by the specified accuracy of the flowmeter. If the diagnostics detect an error, Heartbeat Technology sends an alarm message that conforms to NAMUR recommendation NE 107 (Figure 3). The alarm is displayed on the flowmeter’s front panel and can be sent as a message over the interface to the automation system. The message also includes troubleshooting tips and remedial instructions. Verification Functions Diagnostics to detect problems are performed continuously, but a verification is done on command from the automation system or at the instrument itself. In most cases, diagnostics continuously perform all of the same checks in the background as the verification, performs on-demand. The verification, then, is simply ‘a snapshot in time. Verification allows documented evidence to be generated from the device and saved for recordkeeping purposes. During flowmeter verification, the current conditions of secondary parameters are ‘compared with their reference values, thereby determining the device status. Heartbeat Technology produces a “pass” or a “fail” statement based on the tests, which is performed by traceable and redundant internal references. The individual tests and results are ‘automatically recorded in the flowmeter, and can be Used to produce a verification report. For Coriolis devices, Heartbeat Technology tests electrodynamic excitation, electrodynamic sensors, temperature sensors, connectors, cables and the measuring tube (Figure 4) Figure 4: Vericaton tests on an Endresss Hauser Promass Carols ‘towmote, Heartbeat Technology verifies the excitation system and the coil current for electromagnetic flowmeters, and ‘checks the electrical and mechanical integrity of the transducer and the temperature sensors (as applicable), This enables systematic failures, caused by factors such as fluid properties or process operating conditions, to be detected. A traceable and redundant reference, contained in the verification system of the device, is used to ensure the reliability of the results. In the case of anEndress+ Hauser Proline electromagnetic flowmeter, this is a voltage reference, which provides a second, independent reference value. Integrated self-monitoring can replace external test ‘equipment only if it is based on factory traceable and redundant references, as with the Proline flowmeters. ‘The reliability and independence of the testing method is ensured by traceable calibration of the references at the factory, and by the constant monitoring of the flowmeter's long-term stability during the lifecycle of the product. Heartbeat Technology fully complies with the requirements for traceable verification according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008, Section 7.6 a, “Control of monitoring ‘and measuring equipment.” Performing regular Heartbeat Verification on a flowmeter can extend calibration cycles by a factor of 10 or higher without jeopardizing the quality or the regulatory compliance. In some cases it may even be possible to replace wet calibrations completely with Heartbeat Verification. ‘The verification procedure for Endress+Hause ''s flowmeters can take anywhere from a few seconds to about ten minutes depending on the flowmeter type. ‘The process can be done locally (Figure 5). Figure 5: For fil veiication, a technician connects a smart device to the flowmeter’ web sore va an optional WLAN connection, > to 15 foot proximity. The same procedure can be perormed via laptop PC ard Ethernet conection, The flowmeter does nat have to be removed for ths proce Alternatively, if the flowmeter has a permanent Ethernet ‘or other digital bus connection to the plant network, the procedure can be performed remotely from a PC. located in the maintenance department or the plant’s control room. Advancing Automat PAGE 18 jon eBookUpon completion of a verification, Heartbeat Technology generates a report that summarizes the results. The report ‘can be shown to an inspector in case of an audit. Condition Monitoring Flowmeter faults during operation that go undetected by diagnostics can result in an unexpected plant shutdown, product loss or a reduction in product quality. This is particularly true in applications where process-related faults during operation are to be expected due to demanding operating conditions such as multiphase media, buildup, corrosion or abrasion, Condition monitoring recognizes if the measuring performance or the integrity of the flowmeter are impaired, The monitoring values described above are transmitted to an external condition monitoring system, such as Endress+Hauser's PC-based FieldCare software. FieldCare can be used to recognize trends in the ‘secondary measured values and to evaluate relationships among individual parameters. Condition monitoring reduces the risks of an unexpected failure. Condition monitoring also makes it possible to display temporary, process-specific faults that neither calibration nor verification can detect, since the latter only takes a snapshot of the device status, as opposad to continuous condition monitoring. ‘Summary Built-in flowmeter verification can be initiated locally or remotely from the automation system, even during ‘operation. Because the procedure is simple and non-invasive, the meter can be verified on a regular basis (e.g. daily or quarterly), drastically reducing the risk of degradation in meter performance between wet calibrations. In batch applications, a system check can be initiated from the automation system prior to starting the batch to ensure all flowmeters work properly, greatly reducing the risk for product loss due to instrument failures. About the Author sof He graduated fi than Hedrick has more ;onsulting on pro Rose-Hulman in 2009 w or’s degr Engineering. He began his career with Endress+Hauser 109 as a Technical Support Engineer. In 2014, Nath schnical Support Team Manager for Flo ing the techni w product line. He has ss autorr where t jonsible for mana support team covering the fl the position of Flow Product Marketing Manager sin. 2015. For more information on Endress+Hauser, please visit: wwww.us.endrass.com ‘Automationiscom dvancing Automation eBook PAGE 19Enaresseausey, ne 2380 Endres Pace Greenwood IN 46143 [email protected] £888: ENDRESS A Proline 300/500 Flow measuring technology for the future Proline 300 and Proline 500 offer added value throughout the entire life cycle of your plant. This new flowmeter generation is based on decades of experience in safety-related applications and is entirely developed according to SIL (IEC 61508) With unique features such asthe builtin webserver, WLAN, WirelessHART®, Industrial Bthernet, and Heartbeat Technology™ with comprehensive diagnostic and verification functions, Proline maximizes your plant safety and availabilty. ‘* Multifunctional transmitters are combinable with all tred-and-tested Promass and Promag sensors + Seamless system integration via HART, PROFIBUS PA/DP, FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus, Modbus RS485, EthesNet/IP™ and PROFINET® Wwww.us.endress.com/proline-300-500 Endress+Hauser (2) People for Process Automation ‘Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 20Making Modbus Data Available on the Internet of Things By: Advantech B+B SmartWorx ‘The University of Ireland in Galway (NIUG) takes energy consumption seriously. The ‘school is certified for ISO 50001, the international energy management standard for efficient energy usage. NIUG was also the first university in Ireland to join the ‘Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAl) and the Sustainable Energy ‘Community (SEC) network. ‘As part of its ongoing effort to improve energy efficiency, NIUG approached Optimized Energy Controls about the possibility of gathering data from the school's legacy HVAC control systems and providing it to modern loT applications for functions like running reports, applying analytics and setting alerts, ‘The existing control system was Modbus-based. The Modbus slaves reported only to the Modbus masters and NIUG wanted to make the data portable. But, ike many looking to pull data from closed systems, the practical realities were considerable. The most ‘common solution offered was installing new Modbus masters with the ability to convert Modbus data into MQTT and feeding it to analytics software. But installing new Modbus masters would have been prohibitively expensive, and NIUG didn’t want to risk disrupting the existing network. The direct costs of making this change could have easily offset the benefits of energy savings. In addition to the direct costs, making changes could have led to unexpected problems, downtime and all of the costs associated with maintenance and inconvenience to students and faculty. Efficient Energy Management has been part of corporate Green initiatives for years, but many energy ‘saving options were not practical on legacy systems like Modbus. Sometimes, automation systems can be configured or designed to transmit data in their native languages (like Modbus) to outside systems, but even SCADA SYSTEM then the data is in a cryptic, difficult to understand format. To solve the problem with NIUG, Optimised Energy Controls needed to provide a solution that provided the data in an understandable format to analytics software (Unitron) without disrupting the existing Modbus masters. B+B SmartWorx had been developing a new device for |oT initiatives based on the premise of a non-disruptive overlay network that captured, translated and enriched, data from automation systems and transferred it to analytics platforms. SmartSwarm 351 was the first purpose built loT gateway from the development team. It was designed to eavesdrop on the existing network, translate the data, and transfer it to an enterprise analytics. With the support of Optimised Eneray Controls, NIUG agreed to be the beta site for the product launch. SmartSwarm 351 acts a fully functional gateway via options like Ethernet or cellular, taking care of all of the hardware complexities and potential issues of an unattended communication system that you don't, have time to become an expert on, including: + Session awareness + Connection re-establishment + Connection re-routing Multiple geographies Data optimization ‘Automationiscom ncing Autom on eBook PAGE 21‘SmartSwarm 351 quickly discovers all of the devices on the Modbus network ~ even if there are some that the customer was not aware of. Onoe it captures the SCADA data, it adds the necessary layers to convert this device specific poll-response into the decoupled, event-driven model needed by IT. ‘As you know, raw SCADA data is of litle use within an IT system as it can only be interpreted with detailed knowledge of the source device and its register map. ‘The key to an effective system requires the data to be enriched (translated) in real-time as it is being sent to IT, providing contextualized, self-defining and semantically searchable data understandable by anyone without ‘SCADA knowledge. SmartSwarm351 accomplishes this by providing a default scheme where topics and value ranges are based upon SCADA terminology but crucially allows users to substitute their own topic space definitions and value ranges for each recovered point. Rather than replacing an existing Modbus master, Smartswarm 351 simply listens on the Modbus control bus. It is invisible to the Modbus network, which continues to function exactly as it always has. At no time will data of any kind flow back into the existing system. ‘SmartSwarm 351 converts the Modbus data to the loT-ready MQTT protocol, making it easily consumable for upstream IoT applications. SmartSwarm 351 also filters the data to make network communications more efficient. Modbus slaves will inevitably produce a steam stream of data, but SmartSwarm only passes along data that has value, like a temperature parameter that has exceeded a predefined threshold. Multiple controlling applications can then subscribe to the MATT data, receiving only the data that is relevant to the specific application. During the beta testing, feedback from the engineers on site at NIUG helped B+B engineers to streamline the simple web interface set-up. Now, users can connect SmartSwarm 361 into the operation system's controlling device and then the larger business network. The master operations device won't know it’s there and isn’t affected by it. The user then identifies the data wanted from the real-time working asset, does a one-time upload of the data definitions from the existing system's documentation so real-time data gets translated automatically and defines meaningful data events so analytics gets only the data needed. With Optimised Energy Control's expertise, ‘SmartSwarm 351 filters were used to control the flow of data into Unitron, limiting the possiblity of excessive data ‘overload and resource cost on the IT side. These filters include things lke: + Digital change of state + Ananalog moving outside of an alarm threshold + Having a rate change above a value or having moved by more than a dead band from value last published Filters also exist to generate publish triggers on a time or scheduled basis, or to control what is published. Security Al inbound wide area network connections are protected by SmartSwarm's internal firewall. Outbound connections to SmartWorx Hub (SmartSwarm’s remote configuration tool) and the remote MQTT broker are authenticated and encrypted using TLS, with certificate authentication. It also inherently offers features for frewalling, unit identification and VPN tunneling, End Result ‘The collaboration of Optimised Energy Controls, B+B SmartWorx and NIUG provided a practical, non-disruptive solution for capturing, analyzing and optimizing eneray management from the University's Modbus control systems. ‘Over the last year the University has centralized on using SmartSwarm, and Optimised Eneray Control continues to ‘work with them on maximizing analytics information, The collaborative experience also provided B+B SmartWorx with real-world customer input and refinements to the product's performance. httpi//advantech-bb.com Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 22 For more information on Advantech B+B SmartWorx, please virb Get the Non-disruptive Modbus Gateway That Listens and Learns ‘ e SmarTSwan Joo Sones Competing “Modbus to MATT” gateways need to be deployed SMARTSWARM 22 rloca Mods master but SmanSnatm 251 gels the 357 ob done without affecting your Modbus network in any way. ‘SmartSwarm 351 automatically identifes every Modbus device on your network, unobtrusively “eavesdropping” (on their communications and converting the data for easy consumption by upstream lloT applications. SmartSwarm 351 makes Modbus-to-loT connectviy easy, Visit www.advantech-bb.com/smartswarm for details about ‘SmartSwarm 351's sophisticated functionality and rugged, industia-grade specifications. B SMARTWORX —Tonedty Epeequenearg intelligence at the Network Edge AD\ANTECH 1818 Santor Al recone ‘Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 23SCADA Systems vs IloT Solutions By Anthony Glucina, President of Define Instruments ‘Over the last 12 months | have consulted on many IloT projects for industrial companies across the U.S. These ‘companies have varied from value-added distributors to systems integrators to end users, During discussions | have found it interesting to note reactions to the inclusion of lloT in the . = = application. One of the most common reactions li forms the basis of this article. meine ‘Typically it goes something like this. “oo F- OO After discussing specific needs there would _ ‘come a point in the conversation where | would ruses mention Remote Monitoring and Control of 1 ® f E- @- ‘Assets, to which the typical response was: “But we're already doing this Wt with our SCADA systems, é what's the difference?’ This is an excellent question and the best way to answer is by comparing the two approaches.” For our comparison | have selected a recent application in the Water/Wastewater industry. This system includes the Remote Monitoring and Control of a large water filtering station for irrigation in the Florida region. ‘An RTU has been programmed to monitor and control the filtration system and by measuring the differential pressure across the filters, the RTU automatically performs a backflush of the filters when required. ‘The RTU also monitors the flow rate and total flow of water and wastewater. From the information one can determine the general health of the system. Occasionally, the unit in the field will trip out and stop working. The customer then has to send a technician to the site ~ a drive of around 3 hours, When the technician arrives, quite often the only action required is to reset the system, as most of the time this clears the fault But what the customer really wants to know is why the system tripped in the first place and how necessary ‘was it to dispatch a technician to the site. Ifa technician was not required, could the system be reset remotely? ‘These questions can be only answered by looking at the data on eBook PAGE 24 ‘Automationiscom Advancing Automfrom the sensors before and after the trip event. And so using the traditional approach, a ! SCADA system must be installed . to receive this data. As the system is usually deployed on hardware at the customer's premises, the following must be considered: + What level of reliability is required? + Should it be running on Server Grade Quality devices? + Should a backup power system also be installed? + How much wil this cost in capital and maintenance? + Who will manage this system? ‘Once these questions have been answered, the ‘SCADA application can be built. It will of course require a data historian, the setting up of a mimic and possibly an add-on package to deal with the telemetry aspect of modem etc. During the building of the system, security must also be addressed. The industry standard approach to this is to add a VPN connection between the SCADA PC and the ATU in the field. This requires using a powerful cellular router that has the capability to both perform, the VPN function and to open a port in firewalls and connect to a DNS. ‘Once the VPN is set up, the SCADA can be set to run mode and will begin polling the RTU in the field. Asis clear, deploying this system is not for the faint- hearted. It requires expert help from engineering or IT professionals and could take some time to set up and. test. In the loT approach, the first consideration is the choice of Cloud Platform Provider. This is an important first step as not all Cloud providers are created equal = | would consider this as important as selecting the correct hardware. In this example | have chosen the Xively platform as. it has a powerful Connected Product Management feature (CPM) which allows organization of products in domains and sub domains, the importance of which will become clear later, Atypical lloT system uses a broker in the Cloud. | have chosen to use an MTT broker as it is available in most Cloud systems. Coupled with this is an lloT RTU. The difference between this and the traditional ATU is that itis setup to deliver messages to the Cloud broker using MOTT. It Uses a publish and subscribe model: the lloT RTU will publish information like pressure and fiow rate to the broker and subscribe to a control topic. Control topics are used to perform tasks such as turning on a relay in the RTU. ‘The other major difference is that the IloT RTU itself makes the connection to the broker and it does so in a secure mode using TLS and certificates. This eliminates all the issues related to setting up \VPNs, DNS and firewalls. The only information that has to be provisioned in the lloT RTU is the username and, password associated with the Cloud account. ‘The information is now sitting in the Cloud and in this location it is available to the humans and devices who have permissions to access it. The Cloud platform ‘enables this by providing a rich set of APIs, rules- based engines and standard interfaces to CRMs and ERPs, For this application a dashboard is required to visualize the data. There are 3rd party dashboards available but in this instance a webpage was created to visualize the data using the REST API. This is akin to setting up the mimic in the traditional SCADA system. So at this stage in our comparison, the IloT approach is obviously the simpler of the two to setup for a secure application. And one that avoids the headaches of server-side hardware. You do however have to pay a monthly subscription to the Cloud provider (around $1 per month for this application). Let's now examine a post-installation scenario. After a few months of using the system the customer ‘comes back and says: “The system is great! So great in fact that | want to roll it out to monitor the 400+ filtration systems | have throughout the country. ‘And | have some changes...” Advancing Automat PAGE 25 jon eBook‘The customer explains his clients would like to: + see how much water they have been using + see how much wastewater was lost + manually turn the system on and off by logging in to a website He further explains how he personally would like to: + know when the pump has completed 1000 working hours (to schedule maintenance) + be alerted via his CRM at the 800 working hours mark Lastly, he leaves this juicy tidbit: “Iwas recently speaking to a pump manufacturer and he asked if we could share with him some of the pump data 's0 he could use it to improve his product. | don't see any reason why not...” ‘The IloT solution provider can confidently accommodate these requests. He knows that his Cloud partner already provides CRM alerts as a feature, he also knows the Connected Product Management system is another feature already in place to provide different permissions to different users. All the IloT solution provider has to do + make 2 new dashboards + create accounts for the new users + provision these credentials into the lloT RTUS But where does the engineer come in? In fact, an engineer isn't required at all in the commissioning of the sites as, an electrician can wire up the units in the field. After wiring, the electrician isn’t required to do much more, just turn them on, run through an automated test setup and ensure any issues are sent as alerts directly to their cellphone (the last part requires a little more work — but just alittle), Employing the lloT approach, the customer's requests are a cinch to implement and it's smiles all round. Not so for the SCADA provider. Unfortunately, faced with these requests from the customer, they are plagued by a sense of panic and overwhelm, ‘So many questions, ones like: + Will the server be up to the job? + Will it require an upgrade? + If'so, how much will that cost? + With 400+ VPNs concurrently talking to the field devices, can the SCADA system handle it? + How wil all the permissions be managed to allow 400+ users to get information on the site? ‘Suffice to say that the IloT system wins hands down when faced with a scaling issue like this. Not only that, the capital and development costs for IloT are far smaller. As are the costs of expert professional help from engineers and IT specialists. But this application could just be the start of this customer's IloT journey. For example, the information obtained from the systems over time could be useful for improving the design as well as determining the real maintenance and running costs associated with such a system. ‘Armed with this knowledge, a new business model could be evolved. Offering a maintenance agreement based on the water pumped, for example. Or partnering with a finance company to offer a pay-as-you-go service so clients are only billed for the actual water pumped. PAGE 26 on eBook ‘AutomationiscomIn conclusion, the benefits of implementing an lloT solution over a traditional SCADA system go beyond the immediate wins of cost, timeline and required expertise. It is also highly scalable and adaptable to customer needs in the future. Anything that gives such a level of security, peace of mind and readiness for what might be over the horizon is an undeniable asset to your business and to everyone else's. * Ihave assumed that both approaches require a highly secure solution. manufacturer. He Engineering About the Author Anthony Glucina is an lloT Define Instruments, an in ngineering For more information on Define Instruments, please visit www.defineinstruments.com ‘Automationiscom eB: PAGE 27Complete Industrial Enclosure Solution Under One Part Number The CPI Product Designer helps you select the size, features and accessories you need for your UMUC m tate etic Peer ers nerve | Cae ey Cee om ment Oe eee SET a oy een eed my eee ees Marg Find Out More, or 7D Design A Product Now Dea your technology Seren ec Perce een ern Poesy DOTA2017: State of The IloT Key Trends and Predictions for the Industrial Internet of Things By Opto22 ‘The next industrial revolution, the Industrial Internet of Things, is happening now. Here is a summary of the key lloT trends from 2016, with predictions and recommendations for 2017. State of the IloT ‘Across the world, the industrial, manufacturing, and automation industries are in the midst of a massive shift in technology and culture. Terms like predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, and augmented and virtual reality are no longer buzzwords. They're ideas, technologies, and concepts that are being adopted and applied to these industries every day. From the intelligent building that automatically optimizes its HVAC and lighting systems for occupancy and reduced energy usage, to the heavy machinery that predicts internal part failure and schedules its own maintenance call, the Industrial Internet of Things (lloT) is here. And itis only picking up momentum as time passes. ‘Through 2015 and 2016, the number of lo market- growth predictions only increased. And the size of the market seemed to increase with each prediction. In 2015, research firm Accenture claimed that the lloT could increase GDP in 20 economies by a total of $10.6 trillion by the year 2030. Their research was based on 2015 lloT investment trends. Accenture further stated that with more investment, the potential growth is even, greater. Industry giants like General Electric® are making significant investments in lloT technology; GE expects. total industry investment in the lloT to top 60 trillion dollars over the next 15 years. ‘Adoption Accelerates, but Challenges Remain In March 2016, a Gartner® survey reported that 43% of organizations were already using or planned to implement lloT applications during the year. Early adopters of the lloT have identified competitive advantages and new business models to increase revenue, cut costs, and improve customer service ‘and support. But loT adoption challenges remain. A continuing trend in the lloT is the need for two different organizational groups within the enterprise to begin working together. For the potential benefits of lloT applications to be realized, the information technology (T) and operations technology (OT) teams need to begin leveraging and applying each other's technology and skillsets. This continues to be a challenge on both the technical and cultural fronts. OT and IT teams exhibit significant cultural differences within their organizational units. IT lives in a world of constant change and never-ending upgrade cycles, seeking the newest, fastest computing hardware and software to gain some competitive advantage the enterprise can use to its benefit. IT is, tasked with protecting the enterprise's digital presence and assets, which are under constant attack from both internal and external cyber security threats. Their technology comes from a world of open specifications and well-documented and widely adopted protocols. ‘The IT team operates in the realm of information sharing, securing, and preservation. ‘Automationiscom Advancing Autor on eBook PAGE 29‘The OT team functions in the realm of physical value creation within the enterprise. This team handles the installation, maintenance, and occasional upgrade of equipment designed to produce goods that the enterprise sells. Their capital equipment upgrade cycle is 10, 20, sometimes even 30 years or more. The ‘equipment itself is expensive and often proprietary, having been designed for a specific application or task. Often this equipment was not designed to interface with systems outside of the application the equipment was designed for. This makes bridging the gap between the physical world of industrial devices and systems and the digital world of the Internet a significant hurdle. ‘The ongoing challenge lies in connecting these two very different types of technology very different disciplines. But the primary objective remains: to obtain a holistic historical, real time, and predictive view of enterprise-wide operations, in order to identify ‘opportunities to develop competitive and comparative advantages. Recommendation: Bringing these two teams together is a challenging task. Each team uses a different set of technology and tools, and their cultures and missions are drastically diferent from one another. With the current loT adoption rate and its projected growth only Information Technology (IT) Cloud Applications Actionable information Data Instructions Cog snap pac V0 Inputs. Joutputs aca contd Operations Technology (OT) increasing, organizations that intend to remain competitive—or to surpass their competition—must research, design, and roll out an lloT strategy. (One recommendation to help streamline this process. is to have a single individual within the organization ‘own the overall development of an IloT strategy, with supporting efforts coming from all organizational units, ‘The individual responsible for leading this effort should not come from a strictly OT or IT background. Instead, this person should be well versed in both the OT and IT realms and be able to understand the overall business objectives and long-term value in connecting OT assets and IT assets together. is also imperative that this individual be well versed in information security, to ensure that the organization's assets and systems on both the OT and IT sides of loT applications are protected against cyber security threats. ‘This individual might have a job title of DevOps lead, Data Engineer, lloT Architect, Emerging Technologist, or lloT Manager. A potential organizational architecture is to have both the OT and the IT team roll up under one single lloT department. ‘An IlOT strategy is half baked if it comes from only one of these two organizational units, because both are required for a successful IloT strategy development and rollout. The key to successful management of OT and IT teams for oT is that both the teams have an equal seat at the engineering, design, production, and support tables. ‘The adoption of open IloT standards, specifications, and architectures will also help streamline teamwork between OT and IT. Standards, Specifications, and Architectures During 2015 and 2016, two organizations dominated the lloT headlines: + Plattform Industrie 4.0, rooted in the concepts of efficient manufacturing and the smart factory Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), which takes a more cross-domain approach to the lloT. Both groups developed reference architectures to help streamline standardization and adoption of lloT ‘Automationiscom Advancing Auto PAGE 30technology. While similar in some respects, they also differ on many points Industrial Internet Consortium and the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture Founding and contributing members of the Industrial Internet Consortium (lIC) include Bosch, EMC2, General Electric, Huawei, Intel, IBM, SAP, Schneider Electric, and over 150 other companies. The lIC is primarily focused on developing a standard reference architecture to address the overall enterprise that could be adopted globally as opposed to regionally. ‘The IIC is Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IRA) was first published in 2015 and is a standards- based architectural template and methodology that IloT system architects can use to design their own systems, based on a common framework and concepts. ‘The IIRA is designed to address the intelligence and connectivity now being built into the sensors, actuators, and other low-level devices deployed in a variety of applications, including smart manufacturing, the smart grid, the connected hospital, smart transportation, and many others. The objective of the IRA is to develop an architecture that securely addresses connectivity and ‘communication from sensor to cloud, interoperates between vendors, and works across all industries. ‘Akkey component of the IIRA is connectivity. The IRA is connectivity portion includes a core data bus with gateways to other standards. The central data bus with gateways connects smart machines together into large- scale intelligent systems. This data-centric connectivity architecture relies on quality-of-service attributes like data delivery, timeliness, ordering, durability, lifespan, fault tolerance, and most importantly, security. ‘The Industrial Internet Consortium aims to advance the adoption of the Industrial Internet on a global scale with ‘a cross-industry approach. Plattform Industrie 4.0, on the other hand, is shaping a digital structural shift of industry specific to Germany. Platform Industrie 4.0 Industrie 4.0 began as a German government project to promote computerized manufacturing, As a result, the primary focus of Industrie 4.0 is to optimize production in an effort to develop what the organization has deemed the smart factory. For a factory to be considered smart, it must be designed and operated around four key pillars: + Interoperability — Machines, devices, sensors, and people connect and communicate with one another. Information transparency— The systems create a virtual copy of the physical world through sensor data in order to contextualize information + Technical assistance— The systems support humans in making decisions and solving problems and assist humans with tasks that are too difficult or unsafe, + Decentralized decision-making— Cyber-physical systems make simple decisions on their own and become as autonomous as possible. Using these four pillars of design and operation, Industrie 4.0 attempts to build smart factories that can mass produce customized products flexibly. ‘Automation technology deployed in smart factories conforming to the Plattform Industrie 4.0 standard would have technology buit in to allow for selt- optimization, self-configuration, self-diagnosis, cognition, and intelligent support for workers as their ‘work becomes increasingly complex, Recommendation: Conversations between the lIC and Plattform Industrie 4.0 have been ongoing since 2016. While there has historically been frustration between the two organizations as to which standard makes the most sense for lloT architecture, today the IIC and, Plattform Industrie 4.0 have developed an ongoing collaboration to: ‘Automationiscom Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 31+ Benefit from interoperability of industrial Internet systems from the different domains and maintain a technical exchange Identity mappings, differences, and enhancements on both sides + Formulate requirements for standardization bodies together + Create a joint testbed for testing architectural elements, + Work together to increase the adoption of the industrial Internet ‘There is still much debate between the organizations, leaving many companies unsure of where to invest. At this point a wait-and-see approach is recommended. While it's likely a combined joint effort between the organizations will eventually materialize and an overall, industry standard developed, the timeline is currently unknown. However, while the standards bodies continue to debate which protocols, architectures, and terms are best for the Industrial Internet of Things, industry is already beginning to answer the calls of customers looking for loT platforms that offer ease of use, security, and interoperability—leading to the rise of the oT platform wars. Platforms Rising In a recent developer survey conducted by the Eclipse loT Working Group, IEEE IoT, and Agile loT, 40.8% of respondents indicated that the IoT solutions they were either currently building or planning to build are loT platforms or loT middleware, Almost every large IT or (OT company today has some form of loT platform or middleware, with the current number of self-described IoT platforms exceeding 150. oT platforms and middleware are the software that must exist between physical devices (sensors, actuators, relays, etc.) or data endpoints, and higher level software applications like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and cognitive computing. Ilo platforms and middleware move data between the physical and digital realms and provide software resources powerful enough to cope with the big data ‘generated from the billions of IloT devices the industry is planning to ship. While middleware is not anew technology, the loT has given rise to a need for a new type of middleware specifically designed for lloT applications. lloT applications require a middleware platform that addresses new concerns, including * Scalability: The sheer volume of devices and other data endpoints involved in lloT applications requires advanced and flexible scalability. OT platforms and middleware need to be optimized to support tens of thousands of devices, all trying to exchange not just information with a central hub server or application but with each of the other devices in the application. ‘Addressing, configuring, and managing thousands — ‘even tens of thousands —of devices must be accounted for, * Edge Computing: Centralized intelligence and control topologies are being reevaluated in favor of distributed architectures, with intelligence pushed into each edge device or data endpoint. loT applications involve thousands of devices intercommunicating, often with the requirement for near-real-time communication and control between devices. Edge computing uses intelligence at the edge of the network to decrease network latency, deliver real-time control and. monitoring, and offer report by exception to reduce data volume. * Efficient Communication Architectures: Many lloT applications will be deployed in areas with unreliable and low-bandwidth networks. Asa result, a more efficient network and communication architecture will be required. Protocols like MQTT that empioy a publish/subscribe architecture and low-overhead packets can reduce network latency and improve real-time communication speed between devices and endpoints. ‘Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 32* Protocol Support: Combining OT and IT technologies requires wide support of different OT and IT protocols. At least in the short run, both OT and IT protocols need to be translated through middleware, ‘so that OT devices can communicate with IT devices and software. In the long run, itis likely that OT devices will adopt IT protocols and communication standards, as they've already adopted Ethernet and TCP/IP as the main bus and data transmission protocols. But there is still a massive installed base of legacy industrial systems that will always require some form of middleware for protocol conversion and connectivity to the lloT. * Cognitive Computing: The key value-add of lloT applications is predictive analytics. Knowing when a Part is going to fail before it actually falls can bring almost immeasurable value to lloT applications through reduced truck rolls, safety improvements, and optimizing overall equipment efficiency (OEE). The basis of predictive analytics is cognitive computing — essentially, computers that mimic the way the human brain works. For lloT platforms to perform predictive analytics, they'll need support for cognitive computing, For some years to come, our root problem is that oT applications inherently require connecting legacy systems and devices to cutting-edge IT systems. And a massive gap exists in technology, communication protocols, and standards between equipment designed several decades ago and the equipment shipping today. That is the gap loT middleware is trying to fil Current Platform Contenders But lloT applications are not and should not be designed as a one-size-fits-all solution. Choosing the right IloT platform depends on what you are trying to achieve in your application. Here are the major IloT platforms in the market today, their key strengths, and their potential weaknesses. * GE Predix: Predix uses a platform as a service (PaaS) model and is a cloud-based operating system designed for lloT applications. According to GE, Predix is built on Cloud Foundry, an open source platform, and is optimized for secure connectivity and analytics at scale, both in the Cloud and on the Edge. we Key Strength: Predix targets system-wide optimization, Rather than making one piece of equipment better, the software aims to create a detailed model that spans the entire system. The view created by this model allows both improved optimization of each part of the system and optimization of the entire system. Potential Weakness: Predix in its current form is fairly new to the market, having been released in February 2016. Reports have surfaced claiming that core parts of GE is Predix software rely on partnerships with other ‘companies, including PTC. * Cisco loT Cloud: Cisco is offering is designed around six pillars of technology: network connectivity, fog computing, data analytics, security (cyber and physical), management and automation, and application enablement. The Cisco loT Cloud addresses challenges across a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, utiles, oil and gas, transportation, mining, and the public sector. Key Strength: Cisco has a strong background and support for lloT applications at layers 1 through 4 and potentially 5 of the OSI model of interconnectivity. This is a wide product offering for general networking and Internet connectivity. Potential Weakness: Cisco is loT Cloud lacks direct ‘support for legacy endpoint devices including sensors, instrumentation, and other OT-specific assets. The core function of the Cisco loT Cloud appears to be network connectivity, with OT integration needs being a lower priority + IBM Watson IoT: Another platform as a service based on open standards ( Cloud Foundry, Docker, Openstack), Watson loT Platform is designed to simplify cognitive IoT development. The platform Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 33connects sensors to cloud applications using IBM Bluemix, which includes the Node-RED development ‘environment (an open-source tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services). Key Strengths: IBM Watson loT leverages both open technologies, such as RESTful API architecture, and in- house-built advanced cognitive computing and artificial intelligence capabilities. Potential Weakness: Constant internal IBM development cycles can slow down users during application development; current documentation can be missing or hard to find. {REST/ul Api} act ‘© PTC Thingworx: PTC Thingworx was recently named by BCC Research as the Internet of Things application enablement platform market share leader with 279% market share. Thingworx has three pillars of technology: core application enablement, connection services with device and cloud adopters, and edge connectivity using the Edge MicroServer and Edge “Always On" SDK. Key Strengths: PTC is platform architecture takes a holistic approach to connectivity, from end data points and devices all the way to the cloud. Thingworx. integrates with cloud providers such as AWS loT Service, Microsoft Azure loT Hub, Salesforce loT Cloud, and many others and has vast OT protocol support through recent acquisition of Kepware Technologies. Potential Weakness: Core features include software tools and products acquired through company acquisitions; internal technology integration pitfalls are potential concern. Recommendation: The market is still forming in lloT platforms. Two considerations to take into account: PTC Thingworx currently holds the largest market share for lloT platforms IBM Watson IoT has strong cognitive computing capabilities. No matter which platform is chosen for any given lloT application, the key to successful oT application development and rollout lies in system interoperability, and overcoming software and hardware integration challenges. Open Source and Open Standards Provide Interoperability Solutions In the recent developer survey conducted by the Eclipse loT Working Group, IEEE loT and Agile !oT, almost a third of respondents indicated interoperability ‘as a major concern related to developing lloT solutions. While there has been widespread adoption of open ‘communication bus standards like Ethernet for industrial networks and TCP/IP for addressing and data transmission, software applications in the OT and IT realms still lack interoperability. Here are some current technology solutions to help overcome these hurdles in 2017: © RESTful APIs: REST{ul (REpresentational State Transfer) APIs are the tools that stitch together the Internet and mobile computing as we know them today. Almost every modern application built for the Internet ‘or mobile devices is built using RESTful APIs. REST is an architectural style for software development. It provides developers with a set of constraints to write their software code against and is the baseline for critical interoperability in IloT applications. Automation manufacturer Opto 22 chose the REST architectural style when developing its industrial controller API, to ensure interoperability between other web and software applications. Opto 22 SNAP PAG automation controllers come with a built-in RESTful web server and, APL ‘Automationiscom Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 34‘* Node-RED: Node- RED is an innovative visual wiring tool to connect edge ‘computing systems such as industrial ‘automation controllers to cloud services such as Amazon Web Services ™AWS) loT, IBM® Watson loT, and Microsoft® Azure®, An open- source, cross-platform technology available on GitHub.com and npmjs.org, Node-RED is currently available for a variety of platforms, including OS X®, Microsoft Windows®, Linux®, and Raspberry Pi'™, and for cloud offerings like IBM Bluemix® and AT&T® Flow. Node-RED benefits from a large library of prebuilt javascript applications—over 500 prebuilt nodes— allowing lloT application developers to leverage existing software code and deploy it directly into their applications, Opto 22 is groov IloT application development appliance ‘comes with Node-RED natively builtin and offers developers a way to rapidly build lloT applications and mobile operator interfaces. © OPC: OPC was designed to connect applications running ‘on Windows operating systems to industrial ‘automation devices for data access. In 1996, automation vendors Fisher-Rosemount, Intellution, Opto 22, and Rockwell Software formed a task force to develop a standard for industrial device data access based on Windows COM and DCOM, and named it OLE for Process Control, later shortened to OPC. The major drawback to OPC in its original form (-DA, -HDA, etc.) is that it utilizes ‘a mandatory client-server architecture where a Windows- only server brokers device specific custom drivers and protocols from many different devices up to standard OPC clients again running only on Windows systems. ‘The recent OPC UA specification attempts to overcome requiring a dedicated Windows PC by removing reliance ‘on COM/DCOM and permitting a server to be embedded into an edge product like a PLC or PAC. FOUNDATION Unfortunately, hardware vendor participation with this approach is meager, and there are few OPC UA software clients available (notable exception: groov). In addition, OPC (and OPC UA) is a large set of specifications spanning more than 13 documents and 1000 pages. ‘The standard specifies many aspects including transport protocols, security, services, information models, profiles and others. Vendors that choose to embed an OPC UA server into their products should consider development cost and time to market, flash and RAM footprint size, CPU Utilization, and ongoing support costs. When considering OPC for an lloT application, routers, firewalls, and VPNs. (virtual private networks) have to be addressed. Allin all, OPC is an excellent solution for Windows software to ‘exchange data with legacy systems particularly on a local area network. However, for IloT applications where data is being transported among different types of devices with different operating systems and constrained hardware footprints through varying network architectures, an alternative protocol may be a toon ®\MOTE —_—— ‘* MATT: MQTT is a transport protocol that pushes data using a publish/subscribe (pub/ sub) architecture, and offers several distinct advantages in lloT applications: open standards and suitability for remote ‘r tenuous connections, and for devices behind a firewall. Ina pub/sub architecture, clients subscribe to topics that contain data, which are hosted on an MOTT broker. In a typical loT application where MOTT is used, you might see PAC (programmable automation controler) at a remote site publishing its VO status under a given topic to a broker located at a headquarters location. Then other systems, such as HMIs, can subscribe to the topic on the broker and be updated as the state of the l/O changes. ‘One of the greatest benefits MQTT offers in lloT applications is that it's an open protocol and OASIS standard. This means system developers can adopt MQTT as a communication protocol in their designs no matter what OS their systems are built around. Adding MQIT to a newly designed device is generally easier than embedding OPC UA into a device. MOTT is also ‘an extremely lightweight protocol, which means it uses less bandwidth to send data than other protocols, such ‘as OPC. This is important in lloT applications where things may be deployed in remote locations with network constraints such as low bandwidth, high latency, data limits, or generally fragile connections. MTT is pub/ sub architecture also makes it ideal for IloT applications because it pushes data to a broker using an outbound connection. Most firewalls block inbound traffic (for ‘example, an external OPC client requesting data from an Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 35internal OPC server) but allow outbound connections ‘over secure TCP ports, such as 443 for TLS/SSL. In| an lloT application, for example, a PAC deployed on ‘a remote oil well could open an outbound connection through a firewall and phone home to report its data to an MOTT broker that resides at headquarters. Roadblocks Ahead Cyber Security Threats ‘The number one concern associated with IloT application development and rollout today is security. In 2016 the Internet experienced the largest cyber attack in history. Many popular websites went offine for the better part of a day as three waves of cyber attacks hit the DNS infrastructure company DynDNS. And the attack was perpetrated by a botnet of malware-infected oT devices, shipped with poor cyber security features to a customer base uninformed on cyber security threats and best practices. Recommendation: According to Gartner, Inc. spending on IoT secutity is expected to reach $547 milion in 2018. As investment in lloT security continues, itis important to establish best practices for cyber ‘security no matter what industry an IloT application is being deployed to. No device should be connected to a network without having had a full security audit performed. OT professionals need to begin adopting IT security policies and technology, as their technology is increasingly becoming a participating member of the IT realm. OT hardware and software vendors need to establish cyber security as their highest priority in product development. Engineering talent shortage ‘There is a systemic lack of experience and manpower, to create and implement IloT systems. “Perhaps the hardest challenge to overcome is that of breaking silos between different disciplines and departments,” notes Gary Mintchell, an industry-leading writer ‘on automation, control, software, manufacturing, marketing, and leadership. “The famous ‘IT/OT Convergence’ that has been discussed for many years must happen. Control engineers must upgrade their skills so that they in the very least understand networking and security. And IT engineers and architects must understand the difference between business processes and manufacturing processes.” Recommendation: OT engineers can increase their knowledge of IT technology through vendor certification programs from companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and CompTIA. IT engineers can increase their knowledge of OT technology through university extension courses specifically designed for operations technology, like control system design and management. Identifying and Quantifying ROI For any enterprise lloT project to be successful, itis important to build a business case before the project can be started. However, the challenge with lloT projects is that defining the Return On Investment (RO) can be difficult. And the new technology resources the UloT offers, like big data and predictive analytics, require hardware and software investments to tap into the benefits lloT applications offer. lloT applications offer different possibilities with different end results to each ‘organization in each industry. A significant investment in technology is dificult to make without a proven track record of the new technology providing a significant ROI Recommendation: To determine ROI, start with a pilot project—which is also a learning experience that will provide insight into the ROI of future lloT projects. Cloud-based platform providers often provide reduced- cost evaluation licenses of their products to prototype applications and help calculate fully scaled return on investment. In addition, software development tools like REST APIs and the Node-RED development environment can help accelerate lloT application, prototyping and piloting, reducing the time and ‘expense required to reach return on investment. Conclusion The value proposition for many consumer loT applications has dwindled over the past year, but the opportunity for industrial loT applications is only growing. The details of how to connect lloT building blocks together are stil foggy, but it is clear that industry has already delivered the blocks themselves. ‘The hardware and software products required to design, build, and deploy IloT applications are here. ‘And the market is only poised to grow as time passes. formation on Opto22, woww.opto22,com ‘Automationiscom PAGE 36INTERNET aa Cady THINGS CUM a ect ‘ (PER se etme aes 5 nt EY a ae TTT am . oPTO 22 www.opto22.com fionttcom ‘Advancing Automation eBook PAGE 37