report about internet of things

12 INTECH MARCH/APRIL 2014 WWW.ISA.ORG

Industrial automation industry exploring and implementing IoT

By Bill Lydon

T he idea of the Internet of Things (IoT)

has been creating a great deal of ex-

citement in the computing and com-

munications industry for some time.

Currently, the industrial automation

industry is starting to explore and

implement IoT concepts and technology. Other

terms related to these concepts are machine to

machine (M2M), Internet of Everything, Inter-

net of Things, and IP (Internet protocol) to the

Edge. Kevin Ashton, a British technology pio-

neer, is generally attributed with inventing the

term “the Internet of Things” in 1999; although

the concept has been discussed in literature

since at least 1991 (www.en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Kevin_Ashton). Commercially, in 2008

IBM launched its Smart Planet initiative. The

same year, the nonproft IP for Smart Objects

(IPSO) Alliance was started with more than 50

members from technology, communications,

and energy companies to promote the IP for

“smart object” communications.

The IoT vision is of a massively instrumented

world of intelligent sensors (analog and digi-

tal) and actuators (analog and digital) com-

municating using IP to improve performance

and effciency. Internet protocol is the primary

protocol in the Internet layer of the Internet

protocol suite, delivering packets from source

hosts to destination hosts solely based on the IP

addresses in packet headers. There are a broad

range of IoT applications that can be improved

with sensing and control, including health care,

traffc control, vehicle safety, energy use, ag-

riculture, and manufacturing. This vision in-

cludes coupling massive sensing and control

with big data and analytics to accomplish ad-

vanced levels of optimization and effciency.

Internet of Things

INTECH MARCH/APRIL 2014 13

COVER STORY

Industrial automation has a history of adopt-

ing commercial technology as it becomes

mainstream, and applying IoT technologies to

improve performance and enable better inte-

gration with business systems is a logical step.

Industrial automation

IoT applied to automation uses this technol-

ogy to streamline, collapse, and create system

architectures that are more affordable, respon-

sive, and effective. The goal is frictionless com-

munications and interaction from manufactur-

ing feld input/output (I/O), including sensors,

actuators, analyzers, drives, vision, video, and

robotics, for increased manufacturing perfor-

mance and fexibility. This revolution will drive

intelligence to the edge of the system with the

ultimate goal of all industrial devices support-

ing IP, including feld I/O. Wireless IP devices,

including smartphones, tablets, and sensors,

are already being used in manufacturing.

The wireless sensor I/O open standards Wire-

lessHART, ISA100, and WIA-PA are all IP devices

supporting the latest IPv6 standards, which le-

verage larger address spaces and improved cy-

bersecurity standards.

The IP-enabled manufacturing automation

architecture will distribute more functions into

new breeds of powerful industrial controllers

and sensors/actuators with embedded pro-

cessors, eliminating the need for middle-level

software that is cumbersome, expensive, and

diffcult to maintain.

IPSO Alliance

The IPSO is a global col-

laborative forum, including

many Fortune 500 high-tech

companies. Founded in 2008, the nonproft or-

ganization focuses on providing a foundation

for industry growth through building stronger

relationships, fostering awareness, offering

education, promoting the industry, generating

research, and creating a better understanding of

IP and its role in the Internet of Things. I asked

IPSO a couple of questions about the IoT.

What is your functional defnition

of the Internet of Things?

“Connecting the unconnected. This means iden-

tifcation of the device, a communication infra-

structure able to securely deploy billions of de-

vices, and open standards to sustain innovation

in manned and unmanned environments. The

IoT benefts from decades of innovation and the

benefts of experience from large deployments

[on a worldwide scale] using Internet protocol

technologies and associated security protocols,”

says IPSO president Patrick Wetterwald.

What standards does your organization

believe are fundamental to the success

of the Internet of Things?

“IPv6 up to the end device is the common basis

for the IoT. International standard organizations

in all domains [industrial, smart grid, transpor-

tation, home] have already published standards

based on IP [IPv6] communications and will

continue to work on endorsing IP technologies

on their respective do-

mains. Internet pro-

tocol technologies are

the responsibility of

the IETF [Internet En-

gineering Task Force].

A close relationship

with the IEEE [Insti-

tute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers]

ensures that all the

communication layers work perfectly together.

ISA and IEC are examples of organizations that

have published standards based on IP [IPv6],”

says Wetterwald.

Pascal Thubert, technical leader at Cisco, IPSO

member, and IETF 6TiSCH co-chair, also com-

mented on the IoT, “Wireless sensor networks

offer the capability to extend the reach of moni-

toring and control beyond what is physically and

economically possible with wires. The next step of

process optimization will be gained by leveraging

the collection of currently unused measurements

by widely distributed sensing devices and analytic

capabilities. This will require the combination of

the best of IT and OT [operational technology] to-

gether, forming the IT/OT convergence, aka the

Industrial Internet. This evolution is perfectly il-

lustrated by the emergence of time-sensitive net-

working, on both wired networks with determinis-

tic Ethernet and wireless networks with 802.15.4e

TSCH, that are initially driven by automation ap-

plications and generalized to multiple industries,

such as audio video and fnances.”

The alliance recently announced IPSO CHAL-

LENGE 2014, a global IoT competition where

IPSO and its sponsors award monetary prizes

for the most innovative use of IP tech in the IoT.

There are prizes and incentives worth more than

$50,000 USD, and 10 semifnalists will be given

the opportunity to demonstrate working proto-

types to industry experts and investors at Sensors

Expo 2014 (www.ipso-alliance.org/Challenge).

FAST FORWARD

l The IoT vision is a massively instrumented world of intelligent sensors and actuators improving performance and effciency.

l IoT will streamline, collapse, and create system architectures that are more affordable, responsive, and effective.

l IoT eliminates the need for cumbersome, expensive, and diffcult to maintain middle-level automation software.

14 INTECH MARCH/APRIL 2014 WWW.ISA.ORG

COVER STORY

Big data/analytics Powerful industrial controllers and

sensors/actuators with embedded

processors can locally control, opti-

mize, perform analytics, and refne

data. IP-enabled smart sensors, actua-

tors, and output devices will perform

control communicating horizontally

and vertically in automation system

architectures. These devices are also

becoming big data sources, accessible

using IP communications and feder-

ated using big data software that runs

on a large number of processors that

do not share memory.

Hadoop, formally called Apache

Hadoop, is an Apache Software Foun-

dation project and open source soft-

ware platform for scalable, distrib-

uted computing. (Note: “Hadopp” is

a name project creator Doug Cutting

made up and is not an acronym.) Ha-

doop analyzes both structured and

unstructured data. The Apache Ha-

doop software library is essentially

a framework that allows for the dis-

tributed processing of large data sets

across clusters of computers using a

simple programming model. Hadoop

can scale up from single servers to

thousands of processors, each offer-

ing local computation and storage.

OPC UA OPC UA supports

the Internet of

Things with an effcient and secure in-

frastructure for communications from

sensors and controllers to business

enterprise for automation systems in

manufacturing and process control. It

uses Web services, which are becom-

ing the preferred method for system

communications and interaction for

all networked devices. The World Wide

Web Consortium (W3C), the main in-

ternational standards organization

for the World Wide Web, defnes a Web

service as “a software system designed

to support interoperable machine-to-

machine interaction over a network.”

PLCopen integrated Web services PLCopen and the

OPC Foundation

have been col-

laborating for a

few years, and to-

gether developed

IEC 61131-3 PLCopen function blocks

that incorporate OPC UA. These OPC

UA function blocks make it easy for

programmable logic controller (PLC)

programmers to seamlessly link infor-

mation directly from controllers to oth-

er systems and business enterprise sys-

tems transparently using Web services.

The new function blocks allow users of

PLCopen certifed controllers (PLCs)

to expose information in a seman-

tic, standardized way to transparently

exchange data between supervisory

control and data acquisition, manufac-

turing execution systems (MES), and

enterprise resource planning (ERP)

systems and from PLC to PLC.

Eelco van der Wal, managing direc-

tor at PLCopen, described it this way,

“Communication is not about data.

Communication is about information

and access to that in an easy and se-

cure way. In order to communicate in

Industry 4.0 or the Internet of Things,

there are open standards needed that

are implemented on a broad scale. To

provide these standards, the organiza-

tions PLCopen and OPC Foundation

cooperated. The OPC UA technol-

ogy creates the possibility for safe and

transparent communication indepen-

dent of the network, which is the foun-

dation for a new communication age

I asked Thomas Burke, OPC Foundation president and executive

director for his thoughts about the Internet of Things:

OPC UA fts into the Internet of Things paradigm to serve a

range of applications, including industrial automation. OPC UA

provides secure communications using established computer in-

dustry standards, including IP and Web services, to allow the mul-

titudes of devices to gather and convert remote data into useful

information to make intelligent decisions. OPC UA by defnition

and by design is all about being the technology and specifcations that provide an

infrastructure for multivendor, multiplatform secure, reliable interoperability for in-

dustrial automation and related domains.

OPC UA is about collaborating with a multitude of information model providers.

OPC becomes the transport and discovery mechanism for generic client applications

to discover and be able to exchange data and information with servers that under-

stand the intricate details of the lower-level device applications and their correspond-

ing information models.

One of the most exciting things is OPC UA has been demonstrated and proven to

be scalable into a chip and very small-level embedded devices. I have been carrying

around the Raspberry Pi, demonstrating the power of OPC UA in such a small device.

This is perfect for the Internet of Things if you imagine all the devices to be connected

and how OPC UA provides an open standard for communications and integration of

devices and applications.

Protection is a high priority to ensure that communications and the exchange of

data and information is highly secure. OPC UA provides a scalable, secure architec-

ture that allows you to confgure security down to the lowest level object in the OPC

UA server-enabled device. With this you have secure, encrypted communication and

can provide the necessary access controls for reading and writing the data and meta-

data associated with that lowest level object.

The Internet of Things with OPC UA provides a unique opportunity to leverage

volumes of sensor data in applications to improve operations and effciency in a wide

range of applications.

My vision of OPC is all about collaboration and the importance of developing

standards that are successfully adopted by the vendor community into real products

and services.

OPC UA and the Internet of Things

INTECH MARCH/APRIL 2014 15

COVER STORY

in industrial control. PLCopen pro-

vides the technology to make the in-

formation in the controller accessible

in a harmonized way. This means that

communication on the factory foor is

becoming possible “out-of-the-box.”

PLCopen even provides machine-to-

machine communication, as well as

machine-to-cloud communication,

connecting the controller to the world

and the world to the controller.”

Manufacturing integration Companies have been grappling with

the integration of manufacturing and

business systems to increase effcien-

cy for a number of years. Enterprise IT

has been evolving for years from ERP,

material requirements planning, man-

ufacturing resource planning, and

MES to integrated suites encompass-

ing business functions, supply chain

management, asset management,

production scheduling, and optimiza-

tion. These systems are becoming real

time, aided by the growing availability

and adoption of IP-based technolo-

gies, making it practical to improve

manufacturing performance and re-

turn on assets. The task of manufac-

turing and IT people is to orchestrate

the application of new technologies to

achieve performance goals. There are

now XML standards for ISA95/IEC/

ISO 62264 (B2MML) and ISA88/IEC

61512 (BatchML) to work well in this

new environment. The IoT may well

be the catalyst for tightly integrated

business and automation systems.

Cybersecurity issue The IoT leverages IP communications

standards, technology, and infrastruc-

ture, but this also broadens the cyber-

attack surface for all applications, in-

cluding industrial automation systems

that use IP-based networks. The indus-

try acknowledges the risks of cyber-

attacks on production environments

have increased dramatically, includ-

ing unintentional breaches, industrial

espionage, and state-sponsored at-

tacks. These attacks can result in un-

scheduled downtime, interruptions in

equipment availability, and production

disruptions. This is a real dilemma. The

advantage of implementing IoT tech-

nology to improve effciency and pro-

ductivity is in opposition with cyber-

security goals to keep predators out.

The ISA-99 Industrial Automation and

Control Systems Security standard and

the ISASecure certifcation Embedded

Device Security Assurance (EDSA) are

two important elements supporting

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Big data deals with large amounts of data measured in

petabytes, which is 1,015 bytes of digital information.

One petabyte is equal to one quadrillion bytes.

16 INTECH MARCH/APRIL 2014 WWW.ISA.ORG

COVER STORY

the securing of systems. EDSA focuses

on the security of embedded devices

and addresses device characteristics

and supplier development practices

for those devices. An embedded de-

vice that meets the requirements of

the ISASecure EDSA specifcation

earns the ISASecure EDSA certifca-

tion, a trademarked designation that

provides instant recognition of prod-

uct security characteristics and capa-

bilities, and provides an independent

industry stamp of approval similar

to a “safety integrity level” certifca-

tion (ISO/IEC 61508). The ISASecure

EDSA certifcation offers three levels

of recognition for a device, refecting

increasing levels of device security as-

surance (www.isasecure.org).

Industry 4.0 The Internet of Things is a key tech-

nology in the Industry 4.0 project con-

ceived under the German federal gov-

ernment’s High-Tech Strategy focusing

on information and communication

technology (informatics). The High-

Tech Strategy was adopted in 2006,

reaffrmed by the federal government

in 2009, and expanded in 2010 as the

High-Tech Strategy 2020 initiative.

Participants include private indus-

try, the Federal Ministry of Education

and Research, the Federal Ministry

of Economics and Technology, and

the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

In late 2011, the KOMMUNIKATION

Promoters’ Group of the German

Industry-Science Research Alliance

initiated the initial working group

with the purpose of drafting compre-

hensive strategic recommendations

for implementing Industry 4.0. The

goal is the intelligent factory (smart

factory), which is characterized by

adaptability, resource effciency, and

ergonomics, as well as the integration

of customers and business partners in

business and value processes.

Manufacturing implications The strength of the Internet of Things

is that everything down to end devices,

including sensors, actuators, and con-

trols (i.e., contactors, relays, circuit

breakers), can be accessed using the

Internet infrastructure. This access

opens the possibilities for holistic and

adaptive automation with the goal of

increasing effciency. This is a logi-

cal evolution in step with the Internet

of Things trend and will lead to more

responsive and effcient production,

along with better integration with

business systems.

Competitive risk As these architectures evolve, us-

ers have two big risks. The frst risk is

adopting these technologies before

they are proven and suffering through

growing pains. The second risk is not

adopting them when they are stable

and before competitors use the tech-

nologies to outperform them in the

marketplace.

What are suppliers doing? The Internet of Things is being forecast

as a catalyst for major growth in moni-

toring and control that most industrial

automation suppliers are exploring.

There are a wide range of applications

and thoughts on the topic. I posed

questions to a number of suppliers to

get their views:

What is your functional defnition of

the Internet of Things?

How will industrial automation sys-

tems change to achieve the goals of the

Internet of Things?

What products (hardware/software)

do you deliver today that are compo-

nents for users to deploy the Internet

of Things?

What products (hardware/software)

will you be delivering in the next twelve

months that are components for users

to deploy the Internet of Things?

You can see the answers from a wide

range of vendors on the Internet of

Things Web exclusive at InTech online

(www.isa.org/intech/201404web01). n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Lydon is chief editor for InTech.

Lydon has been active in manufacturing

automation for more than 25 years. He

started his career as a designer of com-

puter-based machine tool controls; in

other positions, he applied programma-

ble logic controllers and process control

technology. In addition to experience at

various large companies, he cofounded

and was president of a venture-capital-

funded industrial automation software

company. Lydon believes the success fac-

tors in manufacturing are changing, mak-

ing it imperative to apply automation as a

strategic tool to compete.

View the online version at www.isa.org/intech/20140401.

The Smart Factory initiative

Professor Detlef Zühlke, Ph.D., scientifc director at Innovative

Factory Systems at the German Research Center for Artifcial In-

telligence discussed the Smart Factory initiative at the Hannover

Messe 2014 preview event. It is an association to develop new

ideas with partners and to put these ideas into practice in com-

mon projects. Contributors to this effort include 28 partners and

sponsors, including Siemens, Harting, Cisco, Phoenix Contact,

Festo, Belden, Rexroth, Beckhoff Automation, Emerson Process

Management, and Weidmueller. Zühlke discussed the need for standards, including

physical, mechanical, pneumatic, and communication, to accomplish more effciency

and functionality to achieve Industry 4.0. He cited standards that support these con-

cepts, including OPC UA, WSDL, EDDL, and IEC 61499. He also discussed the need

for fexible horizontal and vertical communications between controllers, feld devices,

and enterprise systems. Professor Zühlke explained:

Each element of everything, from the factory down to machines and their sen-

sors and actuators, will become smart [i.e., have a built-in Web server capability].

This makes everything addressable and accessible in the connecting network. As

the network will follow the Ethernet/IP standards, every object is part of the Inter-

net. Each object can communicate with every other object regardless of applica-

tion level or function.

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