Consumer-Grade Smartphones And Tablet Computers Are Fast Becoming Commonplace Extensions Of Industrial Networks, Permitting Process Monitoring And, Even (Gasp!) Process Control.

It was a typical buffet breakfast at a process industry user group meeting. Your correspondent was enjoying an unhealthy dose of high-cholesterol selections and making small talk with other attendees. One took out his Apple iPad and began checking email. After a few moments, the discussion turned to ways he used that device, and he said, very of matter-of-factly, that he could use it to access his plant networks using a wireless Internet connection and see how the process was running. If necessary, he could log in and even control the process via that device. He and one other colleague had the credentials to do that. This was not some young tech native, but a gentleman probably in his sixth decade. The plant in question was a full-scale paper mill.

It’s possible that he had become blasé about the level of technology that it represented, but I suspect he realized that the others of us at the table found the whole idea fascinating and maybe a little scary. The notion that such an interface is practical over the Internet, wirelessly, and using an off-the-shelf Apple device, stands much industrial networking convention on its head. What’s next? Controlling a chemical plant with a Mac? That may be a bit too much, but why shouldn’t industrial applications use this level of convenience, provided there is an appropriate level of security? Smartphones and tablet computers, regardless of the manufacturer, are hugely powerful and represent a useful extension of industrial networks, especially Ethernet- and Web-based communication. Apple claims there are more than 425,000 apps available for iPhones, so it’s no surprise that some extend into industrial contexts. The number of offerings for Google’s Android platform is not far behind.

Many industrial system suppliers, particularly those that are a level removed from large plant-wide control platform suppliers, are working with these types of apps, providing extensions of plant networks in process and discrete manufacturing. The basic concept of this is not all that new. Earlier versions typically used an interface to send automated voice or text messages to operators’ cell phones if specific events happened. These were particularly popular in applications such as enabling an unmanned pumping station for a water utility to send an automated alarm message. Such uses go back into the 1990s and are still available today.

However, today’s applications are vastly more sophisticated, taking advantage of the growth of wireless networks, the growing capabilities of portable devices, and rapidly expanding Ethernet networking. Once a system is connected to the Internet, all such barriers disappear, for better or worse. Moreover, the mind-boggling proliferation of applications for smartphones and tablets seem to enable just about anything from anywhere. As tech natives move into manufacturing, there is an expectation that such capabilities are available as a matter of course.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16