The 20th century is characterised by a series of technological revolutions - the industrial revolution, the transportation revolution, and now the computer revolution, which is helping to modernise manufacturing processes. As we enter the first decade of the 21st century, there will be substantial pressure from end-users of measurement and automation systems to leverage industry-standard technologies. These users want to adopt and integrate commercial computing, communication, and information technologies that are widely available rather than accept the 'invent everything, proprietary system' philosophy of the past.
Another challenge for manufacturers is that consumers in the Internet age want to purchase products built to their specifications and have them delivered tomorrow, rather than next month. As manufacturing companies evaluate their existing facilities, they may become aware that they do not have the flexibility or agility to meet all of these demands. Manufacturing companies that embrace this shift toward a flexible, demand-driven environment while maintaining high product quality will thrive.
To survive and thrive, manufacturers must connect their customer's needs directly to their manufacturing capabilities. The evolution of realtime measurement and control development tools, networking and information-sharing technologies, and industry-standards will make this possible.
With the latest development tools, engineers can place realime measurement and control systems throughout the manufacturing facility. The latest technologies deliver ease-of-use with features that simplify configuration, application development, and maintenance. With these technologies, engineers will easily locate I/O and measurement systems near sensors and signal sources, avoiding the hassle and cost of point-to-point wiring. Systems based on industry-standard technologies such as Ethernet, Foundation Fieldbus, or wireless communication standards will further make the measurement and control application scalable and easily upgradeable to meet the changing needs of customers.
Systems distributed throughout the manufacturing floor and based on industry standards will also decrease costs for manufacturers and consumers. As commercial, off-the-shelf computer and communication technology becomes more prevalent in measurement and control systems, the cost of system building blocks will decrease from the sheer volume sold for business and home computing applications.
Another industry driver is the widespread adoption of commercial operating systems - like Windows NT and Windows 2000 - for manufacturing measurement and control systems. Windows-based systems are ideal for integrating information from factory-floor devices into upper level manufacturing enterprise and business systems, but they do not deliver the reliability, robustness, and realtime determinism required by many manufacturing measurement and control applications. However, next generation embedded measurement and control systems will provide all these features, including seamless integration into the manufacturing enterprise and the Internet.
Computing and operating system standards are also helping to reduce cost and development time of these realtime embedded systems. With these standards, developers add new networking, communication and information sharing capabilities. This helps to increase productivity and empower a greater number of engineers, system integrators, and OEMs who develop realtime measurement and automation systems.
These factors also include new operating systems such as Windows CE 3.0, which provides increased reliability and realtime determinism, while providing the many powerful features of its cousin, Windows NT. With Windows CE, embedded system developers take advantage of the familiarity and productivity of the Windows desktop environment, while targeting their application to run on standard hardware designed for embedded systems that meet the rigours and reliability of many manufacturing systems.
The open PXI platform meets many of these needs for manufacturers. PXI combines CompactPCI, Windows operating systems, and integrated triggering to provide a rugged, more reliable system than desktop PCs. It also simplifies and speeds the development of complex applications because it is based on familiar PC hardware and software and it can be used with a variety of development software. Furthermore, technologies such as MXI, Serial, and Ethernet provide links between the modular, slot-based systems and PCs running anywhere in the organisation.
The next big wave in the automation industry will be Internet-aware wireless measurement and control devices embedded directly in machines that no longer need to rely on physical wiring connections to transmit realtime information from the factory floor into the manufacturing enterprise. In the next five to 10 years, the volume of data passed among web-enabled intelligent devices (referred to as information appliances) and applications over the Internet could easily surpass people-based communication traffic. Embedded intelligence, wireless communication, and the Internet will revolutionise the factory floor. With this revolution, machines and information appliances will communicate with each other and make decisions without human intervention.
The widespread adoption of off-the-shelf technologies for communication and connectivity to the Internet will have a tremendous impact on next generation embedded realtime measurement and automation systems. The key is to use technologies that empower engineers, system integrators and OEMs to create powerful, cost effective, reliable solutions for the manufacturing environment.
National Instruments
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