Automation in the clouds
Cloud computing means using large, remote Internet-based servers in the same way as if they belonged to your own company. Very large data pipes allow large groups of server farms to appear as if they are local. The result is huge economies of scale and focused communities of excellence.
In the automation world, the benefits of cloud computing are still being weighed against the risks. Process managers and automation engineers are averse to putting their operating software and plant information on remote servers, primarily because of perceptions of reduced security, questionable availability and uncertain location, even though company-owned servers are already somewhat distant and inaccessible.
The use of virtualised servers is becoming attractive for end users. Already, fewer, larger servers are being used to run multiple applications such as workstations, historians and human-machine interfaces (HMIs), and those are mostly remote in any case. Moving to cloud servers has many advantages beyond just space consolidation.
In any event, moving an actual distributed control system (DCS) to the cloud is not likely to happen quickly. However, secondary processes and systems such as HMIs, historians, training systems and engineering workstations may well be moved, albeit tentatively, as plant managers become more comfortable with the concept.
The integrated information model must span the entire enterprise regardless of size, geography or complexity, integrating multiple tiers of information – manufacturing execution systems, automation systems and enterprise applications – to drive planning and execution closer together. Cloud-based applications and information exchange is the best way to service this new global infrastructure.
The key point that fuels doubts is: How secure (safe and spy-proof) is the remote data? Amazon, one of the largest suppliers, recently had a widespread outage that temporarily crippled some of the highly trafficked websites and data centres it hosts.
Cloud computing is spreading throughout the IT world and looks like a classic disruptive technology. It will be used in more and more factories and process plants as the cost savings and reliability are demonstrated. The next five years will see the steady emergence of cloud computing in the automation world.
Kinect revolutionises robotics
For decades, robotics had a fundamental problem: A moving robot must be able to create a map of its environment. The tools for this are known as simultaneous localisation and mapping. But the sensors required to have any reasonable accuracy were expensive and bulky, and required massive computing power.
Then Microsoft released the Kinect, a $150 add-on for Xbox 360 that allows players to direct the action in a game simply by moving their bodies. While most people were fascinated by the controller-free interface, roboticists saw something else entirely: an affordable, lightweight camera that could capture 3D images in real-time.
Within weeks of the device’s release, YouTube was filled with videos of Kinect-enabled robots. When something is that cheap, it opens up all sorts of possibilities. Now just about anybody can play with robots that have revolutionary functionality.
Microsoft’s official response to all this ‘hacker’ activity has gone from hostility to acceptance to vigorous support. They are just about to release a software development kit that makes it easier for anyone to build Windows applications using the Kinect’s camera and microphones.
Microsoft is also granting access to the high-powered algorithms that help the machine to recognise individual bodies and track motion, unleashing the kind of power that was previously available with expensive, high-power computers in top-class laboratories. Microsoft is working on a commercial version of its software development kit that will allow entire new businesses to startup using the Kinect’s technology.
When do-it-yourselfers combine those cheap, powerful tools with the collaborative potential of the Internet, they can come up with the kinds of innovations that once came only from big-budget R&D labs. For $150, the Kinect includes some high-powered hardware.
But until now, no company has made it so easy to hack into a product as popular as the Kinect, the fastest-selling consumer-tech product of all time. The Kinect racked up 10 million sales in just four months. That means 10 million people now have fully functioning depth cameras (which measure the distance between the Kinect and objects in front of it) sitting in their living rooms.
Microsoft is giving everybody the tools, and its blessing, to build new applications. “We are trying to usher in a new era of computers, a world of tomorrow,” says Xbox general manager of incubation Alex Kipman. He adds that the Kinect’s gesture-based interface is an early example of how we will soon interact with all of our computers and appliances.
Now that the drivers are public, every day seems to bring an exciting new innovation. Everyone is now playing with Kinect and xBox. Watch for major advances and inflection points in robotics technology to emerge with dazzling speed.
Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and commentator, writer, technology futurist and angel investor. His popular e-mail newsletter, JimPinto.com eNews, is widely read (with direct circulation of about 7000 and web-readership of two to three times that number). His areas of interest are technology futures, marketing and business strategies for a fast-changing environment, and industrial automation with a slant towards technology trends.
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