Due to historical reasons, traditional industrial control has long faced "four major obstacles", namely industrial communication ecological barriers, strong software and hardware binding, complex traditional industrial network forms, and lack of flexible industrial computing power.
According to statistics, there are currently over 30 international standards for industrial communication protocols. Major manufacturers have developed software and industrial communication protocols around PLC industrial control, forming a chimney like closed ecosystem, making it difficult for hardware and software from different manufacturers to be interchangeable and ported.
As an active practitioner and enabler of industrial digital transformation, Schneider Electric has always been committed to breaking down the barriers of this closed ecosystem.
At the recent Industry Expo, Ding Xiaohong, Senior Vice President and Head of Industrial Automation Business in China at Schneider Electric, said, "Schneider Electric has three major directions: software defined automation, open automation, and industrial sustainability.
As the head of Schneider Electric's industrial automation business in China, Ding Xiaohong deeply understands the importance of breaking the traditional hardware architecture "shackles". In her view, the value of open automation and software complement each other, and is an important trend for future industries. It will break the closed nature of traditional proprietary automation systems, achieve software and hardware decoupling, promote the deep integration of IT and OT, and make automation systems truly flexible and efficient.
In 2020, Schneider Electric launched the EcoStruxure Open Automation Platform (EAE). In just four years, the concept of open automation has gradually been put into practice, and the integration of technology and scenarios has continuously emerged. At the same time, more and more mainstream manufacturers have begun to shift from observation to active participation. This platform accelerates the integration of IT and OT with new and open protocols and platforms, promoting the integration of Schneider Electric software solutions, third-party products, and existing OT applications, and achieving true "openness".
Ding Xiaohong revealed that Schneider Electric will further integrate AVEVA software in automation development in the next step. AVEVA is a very comprehensive end-to-end full lifecycle software platform that can serve as a top-level design platform for future software defined automation. Based on this mature platform, secondary development can be carried out to meet the needs of partners.
Challenges and opportunities coexist on the path of open automation The OT field is often labeled as "closed" and "proprietary" due to the difficulty in breaking down the ecological barriers accumulated over the years. However, open automation has become an irreversible trend, where complex cables are replaced by wireless networks, making it more efficient and convenient to quickly build flexible production lines; Engineers can achieve rapid development and testing based on pre packaged functional modules such as AGVs or robotic arms, without the need for repetitive work.
In the field of automation, Schneider Electric's technology has been accumulated for many years. On the one hand, it benefits from Schneider Electric's "liking the new and not hating the old", and on the other hand, it always actively embraces new technologies such as AI, 5G, and open automation technology based on IEC 61499. Now Schneider Electric has incubated and achieved various results.
The Ruidong IOT Rubik's Cube robot exhibited at this Industry Expo attracted a large number of attendees to stop and watch, which is one of Schneider Electric's outstanding achievements in the field of open automation.
It is reported that this system has been successfully put into commercial operation in March 2024, and has successfully verified that industrial cellular network+EAE can be used on high-speed equipment (CT<5s). The product quality of the equipment remains consistent before and after the transformation. It is expected that 10 automatic riveting machines can reduce the transformation cost by up to 750000 yuan.
At present, Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure open automation platform continues to iterate every 3-6 months and has been updated to version V24.0. The newly upgraded version has been strengthened in five aspects: high, large, stable, wide, and easy.