How to get more from automation with AI, digital threads

Automate 2024: End-users, system integrators and original equipment manufacturers should expect more from automation, according to Siemens presentations at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

By Mark T. Hoske May 14, 2024
Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

 

Learning Objectives

  • Understand expanded capabilities when integrating digital and real worlds and how to apply automation to manufacturing more easily.
  • Learn that automation enables efficiency and sustainability goals more quickly, as an ecosystem improves data access and use with smarter automation.
  • Explore new product innovations including a pre-integrated workstation with an automation edge device, controller, HMI, industrial OS; higher-capabilities basic automation controller; generative AI for industrial operations; cybersecurity tools; and improved motion control system sizing, selection.

Automate 2024: Digital thread, AI, automation insights

  • Integrating digital and real worlds and applying automation expands manufacturing more easily, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director of Siemens Digital Industries, at Automate 2024.
  • Automation enables efficiency and sustainability goals more quickly, as an ecosystem improves data access and use with smarter automation.
  • New product innovations include a pre-integrated workstation with an automation edge device, controller, HMI, industrial OS; higher-capabilities basic automation controller; generative AI for industrial operations; cybersecurity tools; and improved motion control system sizing, selection, according to Siemens executives at Automate 2024.

Automation needs to be more easily applied and provide benefits more quickly, according to Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, spoke during a keynote presentation Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Costy, responsible for digital industries business in the U.S., discussed how to “Expect more from your automation: Transforming U.S. manufacturing.” He talked about solving real-world industrial problems with efficiency and resiliency by combining real and digital worlds for a digital enterprise.

Costy, from Detroit, showed a “magical” manufacturing painting by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Art that helped to inspire him as a youth. Industry needs to take credit for industrial melting pot, Costy said. During the 1970s automotive industry shifted, and massive changes hit Detroit. “Now we have an opportunity to take back U.S. manufacturing. But industry has to dig deeper than buzzwords,” he said.

Siemens was a garage start up in 1847 and created a control system 65 years ago (Figure 1). In 2007, Siemens acquired UGS for $3.5 billion, which then was the largest software acquisition to date, he said.

Figure 1: Siemens was a garage start up in the 1847 and created a control system 65 years ago. In 2007, Siemens acquired UGS for $3.5 billion, which then was the largest software acquisition to date, helping to digitalize manufacturing and other industries, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Figure 1: Siemens was a garage start up in the 1847 and created a control system 65 years ago. In 2007, Siemens acquired UGS for $3.5 billion, which then was the largest software acquisition to date, helping to digitalize manufacturing and other industries, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Integrate digital and real worlds, apply automation to manufacturing more easily

Now the company combines digital and the real worlds, product and production.

While greenfield installations are ideal for automation applications, the U.S. has a brownfield challenge, receiving a couple of trillion dollars from government in the last few years and $650 million from private investment. Brownfield sites are heartbeat of country. There’s not a board of directors out there not pushing digitalization strategy, he said.

“My team gets tired of my saying so, but I like to repeat what I heard from a Siemens customer: ‘We need to be able to adopt technology at the speed of relevancy.’” That customer’s site builds product daily, Costy said, and, as that happens, technologies and processes need to change without disruption to make goods better, faster, at a higher quality and less expensively.

Figure 2: Combining real and digital worlds can solve real-world problems with efficiency and resiliency, creating a digital enterprise, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Figure 2: Combining real and digital worlds can solve real-world problems with efficiency and resiliency, creating a digital enterprise, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Automation enables sustainability goals more quickly

BorgWarner, an automotive supplier, is on a sustainability path. Experts there noted that data collection to track energy usage is “killing us.” With the 2030 goal now just six years away, some proposed solutions would have taken three years to install, which was unacceptable.

“We rolled out solutions in 70-plus facilities in under six months” to instrument technologies already in place at BorgWarner. The implementation reduced energy consumption by 8%, and the data collection effort by 80%.

Figure 3: Having a virtual code base avoids supply chain disruptions because update logic and runtime can be updated and tested virtually first, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Figure 3: Having a virtual code base avoids supply chain disruptions because update logic and runtime can be updated and tested virtually first, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Ecosystem improves data access, use with smarter automation

In 2007 Apple’s iPhone combined multiple devices to offer a platform ecosystem. Innovators globally adding to the ecosystem. “Fifteen years later, Siemens Xcelerator portfolio ecosystem adds elements to bring you what you need.”

Costy cited research saying that 86% avoid critical projects due to the complexity of legacy systems. What’s needed is simple access to the latest technologies that are easy to integrate, adopt and build on, he said. Siemens offers a portfolio of products to connect digital and real worlds from a marketplace ecosystem of technology solutions. Using a digital twin to simulate production to better access, contextualize and use data, integrating information technology and operational technologies (IT and OT) using shopfloor, edge computing and cloud capabilities. Digital twin models to run iterations of proposed solutions to improve operations before being applied to the actual operations.

Figure 4: In a collaboration with Ford Motor Co., the new Siemens Simatic Automation Workstation pre-integrates a hardware-based edge device, virtual controller, human-machine interface (HMI) and industrial OS, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Figure 4: In a collaboration with Ford Motor Co., the new Siemens Simatic Automation Workstation pre-integrates a hardware-based edge device, virtual controller, human-machine interface (HMI) and industrial OS, said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Digital threads connected capabilities sitting on process definitions in the context of the industries they’re using. Comprehensive dataflows can be applied to scale at the pace an application requires, looking right and left at digital thread maturity to use and deliver value, Costy explained.

An example of how this is applied is through virtual commissioning. A work cell is built up, and safety problems are addressed, such as by adding controlled-access safety gate to a workcell using safety protocols. A short video shows Costy explaining the interactions of mechanical and digital world, including code produced in the digital twin software that works perfectly when applied to the plant floor.

Virtual controllers and virtual assets can be developed in the digital twin and applied without having to fully revamp the current environment. Digital-twin environments can operate in closed-loop, side by side with the real ones in real time.

Automation improves supply chain efficiency, sustainability efforts

During the COVID supply chain disruptions, “Who purchased too much or too little six or nine months in advance?” Costy asked. Industry had to do it and from multiple vendors.

Having a virtual code base avoids supply chain disruptions because update logic and runtime can be updated and tested virtually first. It also helps lean and sustainability efforts. This is a better way than having four people in one location troubleshooting or updating. An integrated data backbone allows centralization and uses worker skills more effectively. It helps with workforce shortages, as well, because the same functions can be applied without errors the first time, more easily, with the available (often smaller) workforce. Technologies needs a purpose.

Pre-integrated workstation of automation: Edge device, controller, HMI, industrial OS

In a collaboration with Ford Motor Co., the new Siemens Simatic Automation Workstation pre-integrates a hardware-based edge device, virtual controller, human-machine interface (HMI) and industrial OS, Costy said. Technology partners and acceleration partners involved in the project were: AWS, Nvidia, Sony, Microsoft, salesforce, SAP, Accenture, Deloitte, Capgemini and IBM.

The product, described as a design environment for immersive engineering, provides an industrial digital model and uses machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI/ML) to provide drag and drop programming capabilities, Costy said.

Each Siemens Simatic Workstation can be viewed and managed from a central point. Since programming, updates and patches can be deployed to the entire fleet in parallel, the shop floor remains in sync. One example of the value this brings occurs when a facility needs to ramp up or down quickly in response to fluctuating demand. The manufacturer is no longer tied to boxes on the floor and can quickly deploy programming adapted to the current demand scenario. The Siemens Simatic Workstation is an on-premises OT device that uses Siemens industrial edge technology to allow for high data throughput with the low latency needed to allow manufacturers to run an expanded variety of modular applications. This applies to traditional automation tasks like motion control, sequencing and safety, and it becomes the platform for future, novel automation tasks that incorporate industrial AI-in-the-control-loop, such as visual inspection and robotic grasping and placing.

Figure 5: In a Siemens partnership with Microsoft, the Siemens Industrial Co-Pilot uses AI to do things that need to be done at the speed of relevancy. The software tool enables experts to produce or update programming “more quickly and effectively, pretty much error free,” said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago.

Figure 5: In a Siemens partnership with Microsoft, the Siemens Industrial Co-Pilot uses AI to do things that need to be done at the speed of relevancy. The software tool enables experts to produce or update programming “more quickly and effectively, pretty much error free,” said Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries, in a keynote presentation at Automate 2024 by A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, in Chicago. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Faster programming, easier technologies give workers a place, purpose in manufacturing

The idea that workers had a place and purpose in manufacturing has been lost. Workers are discovering that manufacturing facilities are existing places to work now. Manufacturing is clean and collaborative, challenging and will make the world the better place. Emerging technologies enable easier machine interactions with dialog instead of code.

In a Siemens partnership with Microsoft, the Siemens Industrial Copilot uses AI to do things that need to be done at the speed of relevancy. The software tool enables experts to produce or update programming “more quickly and effectively, pretty much error free,” Costy said.

More details about Siemens automation introductions

Additional information provided below derives from an Automate news conference for media and from press releases from Siemens. Costy and other Siemens executives (Figure 6) provided more commentary about the enabling products discussed in the keynote presentation, along with additional automation products, and they answered questions.

Costy told assembled media and analysts that customers need to expect more from automation, and that not enough economic credit is given to the wealth-building multiplier effect of industrial growth.

Figure 6: Siemens executives discussed new software and hardware advances in digitalization and benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital threads for manufacturing during an Automate 2024 press conference in Chicago: From left, Charlie DiPasquale, media and public affairs strategist, Siemens, Washington DC; Rhienold Neising, head of Siemens automotive group, Detroit; Bernd Raithel, director of product management and marketing and deployment of new technology in the Factory Automation business unit of Siemens Industry; John Kasnokutsky marketing director for the Motion Control Business of the Digital Industries Division for Siemens Industry, and Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries.

Figure 6: Siemens executives discussed new software and hardware advances in digitalization and benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital threads for manufacturing during an Automate 2024 press conference in Chicago: From left, Charlie DiPasquale, media and public affairs strategist, Siemens, Washington DC; Rhienold Neising, head of Siemens automotive group, Detroit; Bernd Raithel, director of product management and marketing and deployment of new technology in the Factory Automation business unit of Siemens Industry; John Kasnokutsky marketing director for the Motion Control Business of the Digital Industries Division for Siemens Industry, and Del Costy, Siemens president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries. Courtesy: Mark T. Hoske, editor-in-chief, Control Engineering

Now, Siemens is fulfilling a wider, more enabling vision using automation software to more effectively enhance automation hardware. Today’s tools provide automation users with a crystal ball, providing prediction with modeling to understand product performance and process behavior on shop floor. Costy said he tells his team, “I love you to love the company you work for but love you to love what our customers do.”

Costy encouraged skepticism about what people are calling digital twins. If a digital twin only provides simulation, or design capabilities or schematics, it’s not going to be as effective as a high-fidelity model with process and production capabilities with added capabilities in specific industries, he suggested.

In addition, Costy called the Simatic Automation Workstation a game changer for digital transformation and automation. Many great ideas don’t get implemented because they’re too difficult, Costy said. This low-code implementation with exponential potential is an IT and OT collaboration, democratizing plant-floor abilities by bringing IT intelligence to OT.

New basic controller has greater capabilities, communications, diagnostics

Bernd Raithel, director of product management and marketing and deployment of new technology in the Factory Automation business unit of Siemens Industry, described the Simatic S7-1200 G2 as the smart choice for basic automation. It’s a modular, space-saving controller for automation systems requiring simple or extended functions for logic, motion, HMI and networking. It also can integrate safety. Siemens Simatic S7-1200 G2 controllers enable machine builders to control multiple coordinated axes and simple kinematics. Customers experience increased performance capabilities thanks to improved processing power, dedicated communication performance and more memory, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality with in-app access to diagnostic, operational and device data. Plain text diagnostic information about the entire programmable logic controller (PLC) station reduces machine downtime and gives users quick access to data.

Generative industrial AI provide gives automation experts a copilot with expertise

Raithel said general-purpose generative AI may give a different answer next week than this week, variability that may not be appropriate for industrial applications. Raithel said Siemens Industrial Co-Pilot brings the power of generative AI more reliability for use for design, planning, engineering and operations.

“What if automation could help create optimal manufacturing in fraction of the time?” Raithel asked. Production scenarios could improve. Virtual environment can prove benefits before machines are moved.

Siemens TIA portal has an interface to Siemens Copilot, Raithel explained. By copy-pasting a process description into Copilot, the software creates a process flow, saving hours of work. The software helps to accelerate the learning curve in operations. Users can query a machine.

Figure 7: A new generation of Siemens controller, Siemens Simatic S7-1200 G2, part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, made its North American debut at Automate 2024. With the controller, machine builders can control multiple coordinated axes and simple kinematics. Customers experience increased performance capabilities thanks to improved processing power, dedicated communication performance and more memory, Siemens said, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality with in-app access to diagnostic, operational, and device data. Plain text diagnostic information about the programmable logic controller (PLC) station reduces machine downtime and gives users quick access to data.

Figure 7: A new generation of Siemens controller, Siemens Simatic S7-1200 G2, part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio, made its North American debut at Automate 2024. With the controller, machine builders can control multiple coordinated axes and simple kinematics. Customers experience increased performance capabilities thanks to improved processing power, dedicated communication performance and more memory, Siemens said, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) functionality with in-app access to diagnostic, operational, and device data. Plain text diagnostic information about the programmable logic controller (PLC) station reduces machine downtime and gives users quick access to data. Courtesy: Siemens

First Copilot release is in the plant. Users can be assured data used in the software doesn’t leave the plant. It provides security and complies with legal requirements, he said.

The Siemens Industrial Copilot for TIA Portal Engineering includes automated code generation in structured control language (SCL): The TIA Portal can take the code suggestion directly from the AI, eliminating the need to copy and paste. It’s also possible for the Siemens Industrial Copilot to explain SCL code blocks or to guide and easily create an initial machine or plant visualization in WinCC Unified. In addition, engineering teams can search Siemens manuals in natural language. Customers will have the option to access their private instance of Azure OpenAI Service which doesn’t use customer data to retrain models. At Hannover Messe 2023, Siemens and Microsoft unveiled their joint vision for a generative AI-powered assistant: The Siemens Industrial Copilot includes automation and process simulation information from Siemens’ digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator. It is enriched with the large language models in Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, for example to augment the creation and optimization of code in software for factory automation.

Get help for the cybersecurity megatrend in industrial operations, automation

Cybersecurity is at the megatrend intersection with digitalization (for all data types in real time: lean, predictive maintenance and more), knowledge gaps, multiplying adversaries and sophisticated mal-infrastructure, Raithel said. Siberprotect cyber-physical incident response solution helps to ensure operations keep running or can return to running as soon as possible.

Siemens Siberprotect is for protection of critical infrastructure and OT systems at various industrial concerns, including power plants, water treatment facilities, all types of discrete manufacturing enterprises, military depots, data centers and control stations. Siberprotect brings the SOAR (Security, Orchestration, Automation, Response) concept to cyber-physical systems with an OT-friendly and OT-managed methodology. Siberprotect can respond to and dramatically limit the impact of a cyber-attack within milliseconds, resulting in the identification of the infected production equipment groups or plant networks and enabling full visibility and a fast initial response at the automation system level. This quick response leads to much easier remediation and resumption of normal operations, usually in less than a day. Working in conjunction with Siemens Scalance S industrial security appliances, Siberprotect can securely place OT into a safe, isolated condition, after determining the credible identification of a cyber-attack through best-in-class threat detection technology.

In addition, the cloud-based Siemens Sinec Security Guard offers automated vulnerability mapping and security management optimized for industrial operators in OT environments. The software can automatically assign known cybersecurity vulnerabilities to the production assets of industrial companies. This allows industrial operators and automation experts who don’t have dedicated cybersecurity expertise to identify cybersecurity risks among their OT assets on the shopfloor and receive a risk-based threat analysis. The software then recommends and prioritizes mitigation measures. Defined mitigation measures can also be planned and tracked by the tool’s integrated task management. Sinec Security Guard is offered as cybersecurity software-as-a-service (“SaaS”), is hosted by Siemens and will be available for purchase in July 2024 on the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace and on the Siemens Digital Exchange.

Improve motion system sizing, selection to augment energy efficiency, sustainability

John Kasnokutsky, marketing director for the Motion Control Business of the Digital Industries Division for Siemens Industry, said the industrial sector accounts for more than one-third of the world’s energy production and about 70% of that energy is represented by more than 500 million electrical drive trains globally. This represents enormous opportunities for energy savings to help meet industrial sustainability goals, he suggested.

Where is the waste? Often motion system components, often motors, are dimensioned incorrectly. Don’t add 10% or 50% to a motor’s size for an application because it can add inefficiency and may create unexpected failures. Look at entire drive train and system, Kasnokutsky suggested to minimize downtime. Combining the real and digital worlds helps customers reach next level of efficiency and sustainability in the drive-train value chain. Digital twin simulation and virtualization and physical products IoT and analytics.

Sinamics DriveSim Designer is new and provides a digital twin of drives for simulations of tools. NxCAD can simulate the entire drive train before customers buy any product. Sinamics DriveSim Engineer provides virtual commissioning for applications. These tools are important for optimal application of the next generation of Sinamics drives, Kasnokutsky said.

Kasnokutsky said it’s critical to understand what’s happening in process or machine to allow connectivity to happen.

Connection Module IoT has AI built in and has a light with warnings and alarms to cloud and software tool to find what’s happening with process and machine prior to failure.

Siplus CMS uses sensors to dig deep into vibration analysis with built-in AI capabilities of what bearing should be doing. Deeper analysis from outputs use CMS X-Tools to analyze higher-end machines.

Drive Connector Sinamics is the edge connector load to edge device products for direct connection for edge tools, Kasnokutsky said.

Siemens Xcelerator for Digital Drivetrain is a comprehensive digitalization offering along the drivetrain value chain for greater efficiency and sustainability. It has two parts.

  • DriveSim Engineer provides efficient selection, validation, virtual commissioning and optimization of drivetrain systems.

  • Drivetrain Analyzer Cloud and Drivetrain Analyzer X tools provides intelligent condition monitoring for a healthy drivetrain.

Mark T. Hoske is editor-in-chief, Control Engineering, WTWH Media, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

KEYWORDS: Automate 2024, new automation products, AI in automation

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Author Bio: Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.