Top 5 Control Engineering articles, July 13-19: Salary and career survey, robot trends and types, PLC basics, more

Articles about the 2015 Control Engineering salary and career survey, industrial robot trends and types, PLC basics, the IoT and the oilfield, and operational technology to information technology were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from July 13-19. Miss something? You can catch up here.

By Chris Vavra July 20, 2015

Control Engineering Top 5 most read articles online, for Jul. 13-19, covered the 2015 Control Engineering salary and career survey, industrial robot trends and types, PLC basics, the IoT and the oilfield, and operational technology to information technology. Link to each article below. 

1. Control Engineering salary and career survey, 2015

Control Engineering research: While slightly less is expected for salary and significantly more for bonuses in 2015 compared to 2014, concerns about shortages of skilled workers remained highest on the list of challenges. 

2. Industrial robot trends and types

Diversity of robotic trends, types, and programming advances make the use of robots attractive to consider in more applications and industries, and resulting innovations should benefit manufacturing. See 10 robotic software trends and 9 robot types.

3. Support-focused enterprise controls: PLC Basics

PLC programs do not behave like scripted language programs used by most computer applications. A basic understanding of control application fundamentals is crucial for designing an effective support-focused system.

4. Internet of Things and the oilfield

We are living in an increasingly connected world and this connectivity poses the question: “How will it affect the oilfield?” The implications from this are profound and will affect all industries over the next few years.

5. Operational technology to Informational technology: Creating a circle of improvement

Linking operations technology (OT) systems, such as SCADA and sensors to IT-level big data analytics is possible, but begs for the right asset-centric and event-driven view of OT-level trends so the IT-level analytics can find relevant patterns. 

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, July 13-19, for articles published within the last two months. 

– Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com.