On September 24th, Schneider Electric unveiled "Open Automation Solutions Enabled by Industrial Cellular Networks" at the 2024 Industrial Expo. This marks a new solution derived from the practical application and experimental testing in factory production lines and scenarios following Schneider Electric's introduction of the concept of "New Type of Industrial Control" in 2023. In 2023, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in conjunction with Schneider Electric and over 20 other enterprises and research institutions, initiated the "New Type of Industrial Control Action". The key lies in how the "New Type of Industrial Control" can integrate with open automation and be implemented.
Wang Zhe, the Chief Engineer of the Technology and Standards Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, introduced that the new type of industrial control has four major characteristics: networking, openness, collaboration, and intelligence. Networking involves utilizing advanced industrial network technologies such as 5G and industrial cellular networks for networking and circulation, ensuring full real-time operation of all industrial control production elements, as well as reliable interconnectivity; Openness is based on the decoupling of hardware and software, supporting equipment interchangeability with open, layered decoupling capabilities, and reducing deployment costs through the pooling of control resources; Intelligence also involves hierarchical considerations, including edge-side computing power and central-side computing power. Addressing the challenge of协同 computing without a base, the integration of artificial intelligence technology has enabled the entire industrial control to execute, decide, and adapt autonomously. Finally, at the highest level, which is collaboration, production control systems are reconstructed through modularization to support interoperability between devices and systems.
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Wang Zhe stated that the test bed has essentially completed the construction of version 1.0, with subsequent plans to include more new network technologies such as 5G and 5G-A, as well as large-scale industrial model technologies. Related achievements have already been displayed at this year's Industrial Expo, and this work will be a key focus for future exploration.
In Schneider Electric's SSIC's digital factory in Shanghai, the originally complex cables have been replaced by wireless networks, making the rapid setup of flexible production lines more efficient and convenient. The open automation solution empowered by industrial cellular networks enhances production capacity and efficiency, achieving equipment transformation and flexible production line upgrades.
"The deployment of 5G, industrial cellular networks, and open automation platforms mainly has two major needs and challenges," said Ying Peng, Vice President of the Low Voltage Product Business Unit of Schneider Electric's Global Supply Chain in China. From the perspective of needs, the first is the demand for the transformation of automated equipment. The improvement of automation is gradually realized. The challenges encountered in the transformation of old equipment include both the difficulty of how hardware binds with PLCs and workstations, and how to break the relatively isolated situation between IT and OT, that is, the phenomenon of "islands" of information and data. The migration cost after the aging of PLCs is also very high.
"In addition, the demand for production line flexibility is also one of our challenges. This challenge comes from the customer's demand for multi-variety and small-batch customization, which puts higher demands on the automation and flexibility of enterprise production," Ying Peng said. AI applications are being promoted on Schneider Electric's production lines, including AI cameras and the integration of AI with OT. Throughout this process, it is necessary to add 5G transmission on the open automation platform, which is also a pain point that we need to focus on solving at present. Therefore, we must continue to promote the Industrial Internet + Open Automation Platform.
Ying Peng introduced that Schneider Electric has a total of 30 factories and logistics centers in China, and 12 factories and one logistics center have already deployed 5G networks. The next step is to upgrade all factories and logistics centers to industrial cellular networks.
On the production line of Schneider's factory, a major technical upgrade is the cloudification of PLCs. After cloudification, PLCs no longer need physical controllers, and all data integration and processing are completed in the cloud.
Shen Hongfeng, Director of Open Automation Business Development for Schneider Electric's Industrial Automation Business in China, said that G+EAE is an iteration of the original 5G+PLC. In terms of hardware control, the CPU of the PLC has been replaced with EcoStruxure, which is software-defined automation.
Shen Hongfeng further explained that after virtualized deployment on a hyper-converged server, Soft dPAC, or virtualized PLC, software PLC, replaced the control logic and control tasks of several PLCs on the field side and equipment side. This is an upgrade in hardware and control; in terms of networking, the previous 5G+PLC used more 5G private networks, and this year, industrial cellular networks are used to empower open automation."The cost of 5G private networks is relatively high. Therefore, in addition to 5G, narrowband networks and 4G will also be chosen according to specific scenarios. Open automation is not about blindly pursuing 5G, but rather about adapting to local conditions," said Shen Hongfeng.
"For industrial enterprises, integrating industrial control with 5G, flexible production is an important demand, which is whether the same production line can mix-produce products of different styles. At this time, it is necessary to upgrade the software part of PLC, which is a combination of hardware and software, to meet the requirements of different styles of processes and processes," said Fan Jiran, Chief Data Scientist of China Unicom. After the transformation and upgrade of PLC, it is also necessary for manufacturers' hardware platforms to break the closed loop, that is, the hardware Internet, in addition to the same IT standards and cloud-edge-end architecture, all of which are necessary conditions for open automation.
The "heavy responsibility" of traditional physical PLC can be undertaken by the industrial edge computing platform using hyper-converged architecture. Wang Yunan, General Manager and Founding Partner of Beijing Huasheng Ruiying Technology Co., Ltd., said that hyper-convergence is a very feasible choice for industrial enterprise customers. Hyper-convergence can effectively reduce costs from equipment procurement to maintenance, and secondly, it can achieve rapid and flexible expansion according to the growth of enterprise needs. It has the advantages of high openness, high availability, easy expansion, elasticity, and easy maintenance and management.
Shen Hongfeng said that Schneider Electric and its partners further extended the wireless southward linkage of the control system to the virtualization of control and platform ecosystem in practical applications this year; at the same time, the network connection also evolved from 5G private networks to industrial cellular networks that integrate 5G, 4G (including Cat.1, Cat.4, etc.) and NB-IoT and other network standards. With the support of networks and computing platforms, the vision of open automation can be better realized.
At this year's Industrial Expo, enterprises are accelerating technological upgrades in the field of industrial automation, and the direction and speed of technological breakthroughs have become the core of industrial automation technology competition.
Ding Xiaohong, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric and Head of Industrial Automation Business in China, said that in the field of automation, on the one hand, Schneider Electric "likes the new and does not dislike the old", on the other hand, it has always actively embraced new technologies, such as AI, 5G and other technologies, as well as open automation technology based on IEC 61499, and now there are incubation and results of all sizes, whether it is the smart IoT magic cube robot, or the application in the water industry and the report on "Industrial Cellular Network-Empowered Open Automation Solutions", all are Schneider Electric's continuous attempts and explorations in the field of open automation, a new technology.
Ding Xiaohong further said that the new quality of productivity has put forward new requirements for industry, and the development of manufacturing industry shows the trend of high-end, intelligent, and green development. In order to cope with new market changes, further superimposing AI technology on the basis of digitalization, this year proposed "AI+", industrial cellular network-enabled open automation solutions, etc., all are through AI, 5G technology to enhance digitalization, and further progress in "future industry".
Cheng Xiaoli, Director of Product Marketing of Schneider Electric Industrial Automation China, said that local R&D in China is very important. The focus of R&D is how to better adapt to these application scenarios in China and how to collaborate with global R&D. With the establishment of the Schneider Electric China Center (China Hub), the localization strategy in China is more and more in line with local needs, and the R&D capability has been greatly improved in the past few years.
Regarding software and hardware innovations such as 5G+cellular networks, Ding Xiaohong said that Chinese factories are part of the global supply chain. Not only will they continue to promote related technological innovations in Chinese factories, but they will also share experiences with the global market and launch more targeted industrial automation solutions combining different markets and scenarios.