Software-Defined Automation for Traditional Core Process Control – General Approach and Challenges

NAMUR AK 2.8 – Automation Architectures – is exploring new architectural principles. A key result of this work has been the development of the NAMUR Open Architecture (NOA). Building on this, the group is now turning its attention to Edge Computing and Virtual Architectures, collectively referred to as Software Defined Automation (SDA) for Core Process Control (CPC). CPC encompasses layers 2 and 3 of the Batch/MES/MOM architecture (IEC 61512 / ISA-88 and IEC 62264 / ISA-95). These layers apply not only to chemical and pharmaceutical production but also to sup-porting infrastructure such as HVAC and wastewater treatment systems.
The core idea of SDA is to gradually move more and more automation functions to cloud-native platforms, be it edge devices, on-premises clouds, or off-premises cloud-native stacks, such as monitoring, optimization, and control. This excludes instrumentation, which is closely linked to the systems. Among several challenges key advantages include the ability to scale applications with high platform availability. The separation of function and hardware enables greater flexibility, meaning dependencies on devices are reduced over the long service life of the systems.
... mehr
This article presents a novel architectural paradigm that facilitates potential future automation scenarios through the convergence of existing OT technologies—such as industrial communication, NOA, MTP, OPC UA, AAS, and the IEC 61131 PLC platform—with IT containerization and orchestration technologies, including e.g. Docker and Kubernetes. These building blocks must be orchestrated to establish a reliable, long-lasting foundation for adaptive and cloud-native process control. The approach also draws on the findings of the project MARGO (Edge interoperability of industrial automation ecosystems) and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which contribute essential insights into managing and scaling such virtualized automation architectures.
Representative use cases in predictive maintenance, environmental monitoring, and model predictive control illustrate the applicability of SDA across interoperable monitoring, regulated quality-assurance, and control functions.
This article is a subset of the NAMUR Position paper “Software Defined Automation in Process Control” which is still in progress. Some parts are cited one-to-one.