Control Engineering Blogs
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Hey - Big Spender!
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Public Information Monitoring for ICS, How to Stay Up to Date!
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NERC CIP Compliance - CIP-002-1 - Critical Assets and Critical Cyber Assets
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Did oscillations cause the I-35 bridge collapse?
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NIST announces the final publication of Special Publication 800-53, Revision 3, Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations
Safety certifying automotive components
In response to a Pillar to Post blog entry on Toyota’s speed controller woes, one reader asked: For electronics to make their way onto commercial airliners, extensive testing and failure modes must be determined before they are certified for flight. Is there a similar requirement for automobile fly by wire systems? One of the most widely used safety standards is IEC 61508, the international ... More
About this blog
The Ask Control Engineering blog covers all aspects of automation, including motors, drives, sensors, motion control, machine control and embedded systems. Control Engineering answers questions from readers of Control Engineering's print and online magazines, newsletters and other publications. To comment on any blog posting, click on the post's highlighted question and scroll to the "Post a Comment" box at the bottom. Submit questions as comments to any existing post.
2 Down, 1 To Go
This past month we ordered material needed for the bubbler required for the last emergency retrofit station. Primarily we have been focused upon SCADA side re-condifguration required to communicate with each station. The cell service provider dragged their feet on setting up new accounts beyond 2 months - unreasonable to say the least. As long as this project has dragged on, the ... More
About this blog
This $2 million+ project involves the design, assembly, configuration, and installation of a SCADA system to monitor and control 51 critical wastewater lift and booster stations serving the municipality's 412,000 residents, located within a 20-mile by 20-mile service area.
Read about the project. To read prior 2005-06 entrees click here.
USA 18th in world; Becoming a 501(c)3;
USA NOW RANKED 18th IN THE WORLD - national news reports Once 1st in education, the USA is now ranked 18th and slipping farther down as students in other countries race past US students. Something is broken with the system. You may say “who cares, it is not my problem” and go back to the reality-TV program you are watching. Or “I pay ... More
About this blog
The US armed forces have had smart weapons for a long time now. It is just recently that they realized they need smart supply trucks. Hi, I am Paul F. Grayson, Team Leader of AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC (AIM), one of last remaining teams of the 390 teams that worked on vehicles for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge series of unmanned vehicle races. AIM is working to save soldiers lives by making US Army supply trucks driverless. AIM is funded by donations from individuals like you who want to speed up the development of this life-saving technology. With this blog, you will be able to look over my shoulder while I work on developing this important technology. You will get a chance to look into the world of unmanned robotic vehicles, see some of the things that I see, and puzzle over the problems of making vehicles driverless. Welcome to my world! To comment on any blog posting, scroll to the "Post a Comment" box at the bottom and post your comment. (The moderator will review your comment and OK it as soon as he/she can.)
Testing Toyota
I have been following some of the discussions related to Toyotas lately. (In the interests of full disclosure, my wife drives a 2008 Prius and my daughter drives a 2008 Matrix. My wife is out of town at the moment, so I drove the Prius to work this morning. I did give a quick inspection to the floor mat and all seemed fine. I’ve driven it enough to think the concept of “rapid acceler ... More
About this blog
News and comment from Control Engineering process industries editor, Peter Welander
What exactly is the Automation Object that Make2Pack is trying to describe?
There are three possible components that make up a Make2Pack (M2P) Automation Object. The Functional Strategy is always present while the Function and Recourse Managers are optional. If there are optional parts one might ask why have them at all as it may appear to add unnecessary complexity. This is a valid question and one that must be answered in such a way as to make their value unquestionable ... More
About this blog
Help committee members increase dialog about, completion of, interest in, and use of Make2Pack ISA-88 Part 5. Join in with your comments or questions to help the standard along, on your way to gaining competitive advantage.
Augment your profits and be part of the progress as WBF Make2Pack efforts move through ISA88 Part 5. Benefit from a standards effort that streamlines information flow from continuous or batch processes through discrete operations, such as packaging. Related efforts have reduced overall costs by half.
David A. Chappell, Make2Pack chair, and other ISA88 Part 5 committee members provide intelligence and specific links for this effort, spanning OMAC, WBF, and ISA standards efforts. About Dave Chappell.
To comment on any blog posting, click on the post's highlighted text at top, then scroll down and use the "Post a Comment" box that appears at the bottom of the window for each posting.
Click here to receive an email when there's a new blog posting or comment to "Standard profits: Make2Pack and ISA88."
NOTE: ISA grants Reed Business Information the rights to post portions of the ISA88 (or other applicable standards) in this blog for comments and discussions. Reed Business Information clears use of postings (or comments) from this blog for ISA and related standards development.
Machine Safety & Cableless (Wireless) Safety
Machine Safety and Cableless Operator Stations with Safety! Did I just say all of that in the same sentence? Is this Doctor Spoc in Star Trek or is it the 21st Century? Well, beam me up Scotty because my radar screen sees something on the horizon. For several years now we’ve seen applications of safety functions being performed in machine architectures using safety certified and listed prod ... More
About this blog
An ongoing discussion of machine guarding topics, including solutions assessments, regulatory compliance, gap analysis, operating efficiencies and cost savings, as well as all relevant safety standards, such as those from NFPA, ANSI, RIA, IEC, ISO and OSHA.
Join Encari for its complimentary Webinar: "Role-Based Training Under CIP-004, R2 – An Alternative to 'One-Size-Fits- All' Training"
Role-Based Training Under CIP-004, R2 – An Alternative to “One-Size-Fits- All” Training Join Encari (i.e., click here) at its webinar on Thursday, February 25th, 2010. Join Encari for another complimentary and informative webinar. Based on concepts described in NIST Special Publication 800-16 Revision 1 (Draft), “Information Security Training Requirements: A Role and Pe ... More
About this blog
Matt Luallen and Steve Hamburg are managing partners of Encari, a critical infrastructure information security consulting company. Together, they bridge the gap between information technology (IT) and plant security to help process control (DCS/SCADA) systems engineers be aware of system vulnerabilities and have processes in place to respond. Matt Luallen, who started out in network engineering at Argonne National Laboratory, is a cyber security author, consultant, researcher and trainer for critical infrastructure and SCADA/DCS process control systems. Steve Hamburg is a licensed professional civil / structural engineer who ultimately transitioned his career to cyber security consulting ten years ago. Steve is also a published author, public speaker and instructor.
www.encari.com
