Episode 16: Smart Process Control in Action - J&W & DeNora | UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

Description

In this episode of UAO Goes Live, J&W shares a real process‑control implementation for DeNora using UAO technology.

From P&ID and cause‑and‑effect matrices to modular function blocks and HMI symbols, the team implements PID loops, hysteresis control, and multi‑step sequences for electrochlorination and water electrolysis. The solution runs on M580 and SoftDPAC with OPC UA to external historians, showing how event‑driven engineering improves modularity, maintainability, and portability—supporting Open Software Defined Automation.

About UniversalAutomation.org (UAO)

UniversalAutomation.org (UAO) is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to transforming industrial automation through open standards and shared source technology. The association manages the reference implementation of a shared runtime execution engine based on the IEC 61499 standard, enabling true interoperability between hardware from multiple vendors and portability of automation software applications.

By providing a ready-to-use, vendor-neutral runtime environment, UniversalAutomation.org empowers companies to build flexible Industry 4.0 architectures, accelerate digital transformation, and maximize return on investment (ROI) through software reusability and hardware independence.

The development of this runtime is governed by shared source principles, ensuring long-term compatibility and collaborative innovation. Members—including end users, OEMs, system integrators, and technology vendors—work collectively to create a global ecosystem for plug-and-produce automation solutions.

UniversalAutomation.org is growing rapidly as more organizations adopt open automation to overcome vendor lock-in, enable IT/OT convergence, and support greenfield and brownfield projects. Academic institutions are also leveraging this technology to train the next generation of automation engineers.

Companies and institutions that want to lead the future of industrial automation, develop next-generation control systems, and participate in a global open automation community are invited to join UniversalAutomation.org.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
Hi and welcome to this new session of UEO Goes Live. I'm happy to have you today and to have a new session together with the company and one of our members, which is called GNW. GNW will tell us a bit more about one implementation that they did, about the project, including the technology of Universal Automation.org, based on the IC6499 standards, together with a company called Denora Systems. So let me introduce on the stage Federico. Hello Greg. Can you please introduce yourself shortly and GNW?
Speaker #1
Yes, of course we are a small company, we are a system integrator and we develop a software solution with the IEC 1499 standard. We work for UO and a lot of different customers such as for example Denora where we developed interesting applications. in process control application.
Speaker #0
So can you please tell us a bit more about this this project that you have done?
Speaker #1
Yes, basically we developed a solution to implement two processes electro-chlorination and water electrolysis, two very important processes for again for this industry and we control the small plant through the benefits. and the advantages that the IEC 61499 offers to us as developers and also to the Nora as a user.
Speaker #0
Great. I think you have a presentation for us. Let me put it on the stage. Great. So, yeah, go ahead. Tell us a bit more about your implementation.
Speaker #1
course. So just a few words about who we are as a JNW. We started in 2018 as a innovative startup. We have our own product that we are developing and that we work on, but in parallel, as you can see from this slide, we did a lot of projects in 61499 integration from the TVDA project with General Electric. where we developed a logistic application, both in a digital twin way and also in the real equipment. And we work for Denora. We joined Universal Automation last year. We work with Green, that is part of the organization. Recently, we started also working on this different kind of process control application, for example, the Jess plant project in Italy. where we control hydrogen battery production. And finally, this year we are also controlling our own TVA demonstrator, the real logistic line, also the Schneider Cobot, using again the same standard and the same paradigm of programming approach. Well, here are some words about our some of our projects. In green we developed an application according to what we call advanced programming guidelines because this was our first experience with these very useful and complex guidelines and that we also discussed about during uo training and other activities we carry on and as i was telling you in just project project we are controlling another kind of plant where we where they are producing hydrogen batteries these are their test benches and we are controlling everything with a lot of PLC Schneider PLCs and we are controlling everything with the 1499 standard again the TVDA solution as you can see here we started with a digital twin line simulating the and communicating from the control from EIE part to the digital twin of the line. And recently here you can see in this picture also the real field equipment, the real conveyors and the cobot. And then we are introducing now the Denora project and this is a very important customer for us. Our work with them started in 2022 and we started developing control solutions for electrolytic cells. Now we are controlling more than 80 cells in their laboratory. And one important aspect of this work is that we are also facing complex IT-OT architecture and the focus of this application is the collecting of important... data from the field and from the process. And so even in this first experience with Denora, we face one of the key concepts and one of the most important advantages of this methodology and of this standard of automation. First of all, the event-driven architecture that fits perfectly to this kind of application where we have a process. to control okay and the modularity in fact as i told you we developed the control solution for electrolytic cell okay and here in this slide you can see a typical object of the bie captain where we encapsulated um the key logics the core logics of the of this of a single cell and then we were able to reuse it make it reusable in a lot of different situations implementing for example a single process with the 30 cell for example all communicating with each other and controlling the field equipment so the scalability is also a very important advantage that took place in this application. We tested also the independence from the hardware as we saw in the introduction video it is the one of the core of the of Uo and of this standard in fact we were able to deploy the solution and the logics in both physical PLCs deep controller from Schneider but also on the soft debug so theoretically you can run can run in windows or linux machine or whatever you prefer using you can use industrial pc or the hardware that you that you need that you are available that you have available so easily distributed the code on multiple resources that was very easy using EAE and using our application. And we were able also to guarantee flexible interoperability between objects. We created communication between different PLCs, different soft-debug and also other workstations. that just had to collect data, for example. So this was the final architecture we made up with them. We were able to collect data through Modbus and OPC UA and OPC UA. In the other workstation, we have databases collecting all this data. And then we also gather this digitalization step with them. but now I wanted to spend a few words about Denora and these customers of ours. They have three business areas. They produce electrodes and they are a global leader in this kind of industry. They also manage the water technologies, so they provide solutions for water treatment and disinfection. And they also work with the energy transition. As I told you, they are interested in the production of hydrogen. It is a very important topic in these days. These are their numbers, so their global presence. They are in Milan, but they are very big and they are a huge company distributed all over the world with the office with office rnd centers and so on and as you can see also a very important revenue and income. So now let's concentrate a bit about the project we want to talk about today. It was just a typical process control project. As I told you, we had to control both electrochlorination and water electrolysis. This has been done with to approach we managed sequence control okay It is a typical topic of process industry where you face procedural control or sequence or whatever you want to call them. and also closed loop controls. Another important task to do was to collect the data from the sensor and do dashboarding and data analysis. Here are some projects inside. The end user is actually another customer of Denora, located in Saudi Arabia. It is a very huge and very important company for that country. The business area is now the hydrogen production and we just completed partially our commissioning in Italy and we are waiting for the plant to be shipped in Arabia where we will complete all the operation. But now let's concentrate a bit on the project steps we face and that actually we always do when we implement this kind of project. First of all, we get the specification from the customer. We want to have P&I, process logics, the information about alarms, interlocks, I-List, electrical diagram. We want to know the equipment list we have to use and the network topology. The second step we do is the plant modeling. So before we start with the code implementation, it's very important to organize your application, your work, and... And these documents that you produce, so basically you organize your cause-effect relationship of the interlock of labs. You model your functional behaviors of your application. You schematize your graphs and then your diagram. This is the base to start with the code implementation, where finally you create your logics, HMI, your configuration, and the communication between the OT and the IT world, finally. and then in the end you of course do your final commissioning on the field. So here I wanted to show you a bit of the PNID, the process that we received from them. So we have this electrochlorination section and the water electrolysis. In both cases we have these at the center, we have this cell we have to control through rectifiers actually. Here is an example of what we do during the plant modeling. We create documentation, so these cause-effect metrics. And remember we started also doing this in green plant work, where we organize all these causes and the effect of the plant. These are some of the sensors we had to use, where we collect data from flow meters. gauge meters, temperature transmitter, oxygen analyzers, pressure transmitters, level switches, so a lot of different stuff involved into the process. But also we had to control stuff, so transformer rectifiers, variable speed pumps, solenoid valves, heaters. So this is the object we control through sequence and also closed loop controls. This was the topology we built. So we had an M580 debug PLC from Schneider Electric, controlling of course the logic of the process, communicating with both a field HMI and also a remote office HMI. And through a PC way we exposed all the data and saved them into our own wheelie collector. And it is the database we use and the system. we created as a JW running on this Linux in the network. So let's focus now on the functional behaviors we developed in this application. So the closed loop controls for example PID loops, high-stair resist loops and so on. We first receive the description so maintain a certain temperature set point in anode and cathode department. of the electrolytic cell, we developed the CAT, the PID control CAT, and also the algorithm in this basic function block, and we were able to reuse it also in other closed look of the application. We developed also for each CAT, for each object, the HMI and the symbol, the graphic symbol part. you can see here also they make up concentration control again we use the same object you can see here the reusable the concept of the modularity of the of the standard We control the ORP value regulating pump flow rate using again the same PID controller. And we develop also pH control, this time not using the PID loop but a classical hysteresis algorithm where you switch on and off the pump to maintain the target value. basically and we also give some very simple level control of different tanks this is an example d201 we use the digital level switches to to maintain always the same level of flow of liquid inside these tanks and then the maybe the most difficult part of the implementation. So when you face sequences, you have to manage a lot of different steps and maybe a bit of complicated state machine where you have to stop, start, abort the sequence, or take this kind of decision. Again, you can see on the left side, we developed the cell cut and the rectifier cut. So basically for all the functional behavior and the subsystem we model for the plant we use this kind of object and here Managing and monitoring the toroidal current meters. We were able to control the rectifier Okay, we also implemented the tank filling sequences so basically according to the reading of these level switches we had to insert in the tank different kind of reactive flows maybe urea or or just simple water or other kind of liquid useful for the process. And then we had to complete this sequence according to what the customer gave us. So basically we build within the graph set, so the diagram, and here you can see the translation into EIE. So in this basic function block we build the state machine able to control the time-filling sequence we are to implement. Then, when we created our software architecture, we followed in a light way the UAO advanced guidelines I mentioned at the beginning. So basically we organized all the software objects, all the cuts of the solution in the same way. So we have always this kind of frame organization where we communicate with the field. we have the field input interface left side and also the software, the functional input interface, where we receive signals from other CAT or other areas of the software. The logic part, the field output interface, of course, and the internal initialization. We organize it this way, you can see on the left side the electro coordination father CAT containing all the functional behaviors you saw previously. You see here there is another representation. But you can see on the left side in the field input interface, we communicate with an input cut, digital input cut. And of course, again, these are reusable objects for our implementation. The DE-104, the cell, the pH control, the makeup concentration control, all these functional behaviors are encapsulated inside this electrochlorination cut. And on the right side, we... control digital analog device for example variable speed pumps variable position valves and and so on we did the same with water electrolysis electrolysis session of course but controlling different functional behaviors and an important aspect is that using every time cut you can build already there your symbol and your graphic representation of your object. This way it is very easy finally to build a representation of the original PNID. So basically we developed the graphic symbol for the pump for example and now we are using it in the global PNID. Same with this has been done with the tank, with the level switches, with all this kind of field equipment and you can see here a representation of the original PNID and on the right side of course all the commands and the parameters that the operator has to set to properly control the process. We did the same with the water electrolysis, of course. And as I told you, the last step of the code implementation was the communication between the OT and the IT world. Basically, we collected in one single cut all the sensors, and you can see here about 15 variables that we were monitoring from the field. Then we easily exposed them through OBC UA from a single node, single cut, and then we were able to collect them in an external database and show them in Grafana or other systems that allow you to print data in a graphical way. So let's summarize a bit what are the benefits we face. during the implementation of this solution. Of course, the modularity. So we organize the code in well-defined functional blocks and in this way we simply reuse them where we need them. This is very important because when we create an object for one project, it is possible that we reuse it also for other projects, not only in the Nora but also for other customers. as soon as you develop your own analog input, your own digital device cap, your own rectifier, you can easily reuse it. And as I told you also the HMI symbols are always the same. The frame organization of the advanced guidelines is very useful for code readability and cleanness. As soon as we want to do some small modification, we want to debug some strange behaviors during the commissioning we immediately know where to go to find this information to debug to find the problem okay so this is very very useful and important also the maintainability and the facilitated improvement okay because you split your big problem in small semi-independent object and you can easily make a modification there avoiding the the least to propagate errors or unexpected behaviors around the code, around the process. So organizing this way your work is useful for this kind of topic. And here also another advantage we face is that internally in our company, we were able to work on more hands on the same solution. And it's not an easy topic because... This time we were able, for example, in just two courses to work on different functional behaviors. My colleague developed the rectified cut, I developed the cell temperature control and so on. These are examples. And then finally, one single developer can simply integrate everything in the solution. And the communication is really fast because you create the interface of your cut. always in the same way. So basically this was our approach to this process control application and advantages we faced during the code implementation.
Speaker #0
Great, thank you Federico for this introduction and presentation. Just a few questions which are coming out of my mind. So when you saw that project with Tenora, what made you select this technology, so 649 to implement your solution over, let's say, other traditional code like C1141 and so on? Why did you choose this technology in particular?
Speaker #1
Basically, I would say the event-driven approach is the most important aspect. and it fits perfectly with this kind of process control industries where basically you don't need to run a huge code following a time cycle, let me say, a timer of the PLC, but as soon as something happens in a specific place of the plant, then this event is collected and something else has to happen. So this... kind of organization fits perfectly with this standard, I would say. And also all the advantages I mentioned are perfectly done. with this technology, I would say. It's very easy to organize your code, encapsulate your problem, to divide it into different small function behaviors and the small problem. So the object oriented, I would say, approach is very easily done in this way.
Speaker #0
Thank you. Thank you for the feedback and for sure, we can see in the way that you... that you, let's say, created your program, that you organized it, that there is behind like thinking or method how to best utilize the, or to make your program more efficient using 6.14.99 with on one side, the logic on the other side, the interface with the IO, then all those are really, let's say, separated and well constructed. I would like to remind our viewers that if they have any questions, please just type your question on LinkedIn or YouTube and then we can see it and ask it to Federico. Maybe another question from my side, Federico, which is more linked to, let's say, the portability of the code. So today... We saw in your presentation that you were using, I think, the M580 and you were using the Softipak. So kind of containerized version of the runtime, which could run on any Windows or on Linux or server architecture. From your experience, how much time, like roundabout, would it take for you to change the targeted hardware? So let's say... use another hardware which still embeds the ua runtime for sure uh but but in term of code change in term of of of let's say uh yeah change in the in the code how much time would it take for you to to like uh change
Speaker #1
the targeted hardware yeah maybe it's it's difficult to to to tell you how long will it take to me but i would say that the portability of the code is a very important advantage offered from the 61499 and from this standard and from this technology. Basically, if we are using the URL over runtime, I would keep the code identical, just maybe change some configuration in the network topology, in the hardware configuration. Of course, something you have to do. But basically, the logic, the implementation of the code is ready as soon as you finished it. and you can easily deploy on another resource. And the work you've already done with debugging and testing is always valid, I would say. So it's very quick, probably.
Speaker #0
Yeah, it's a value that we always push forward. I mean, as Universal Automation Network, we speak about the decoupling of hardware and software. it's always interesting to see it from the let's say from the field that what we actually say is not only let's say marketing uh uh let's say a marketing uh uh slogan but it's actually what is uh what is actually used on the on the field and um another question because you are a system integrator and what made you a system integrator decide to to join the organization universalautomation.org?
Speaker #1
Yeah, basically I would say that we strongly believe in the standard and in this technology and in this automation approach. We believe that this is the future and we really like it and we think that it's an advantage for us implementing this way and working with this Yeah. with this technology and we every time we try to to push it and also uh propose it to our customers uh telling them that it is uh what what they need basically and uh and we are comfortable comfortable with it we know it and uh yeah and there are also other aspects and this is also an occasion to share ideas inside the organization. we can do a lot of networking and find opportunities and see what's growing, what is happening.
Speaker #0
in this direction,
Speaker #1
I would say. Yeah, I mean, for system integrators, finding opportunities as well through the organization, for sure, that's a big point. We see, for example, collaborations that you work with, with Geoffrey, which is one of our members. We had in one of the last lives, we have the company Barbara working on orchestration and high-scale deployment of the runtime. uh as well working between with with other members uh we have had as well some other system integrators i can i can recall for example uh company platinum or our twice system as well showing how they use the the the technology and um do you have would you have a let's say a word or would you have um like uh if you would have to to like tell to other SI to join the organization, what would you tell them? How would you encourage them to join the organization?
Speaker #0
Very difficult question Greg, a marketing question. No, well I would say that probably the best way is to show all the things, all the different things we are doing as an organization, all the different companies that are joining it. can say something different. So there is a kind of heterogeneous nature behind it. So where you are also a big company at the same space of a small company because we are working for the same aim, for the same objective. And I think this is a very healthy and good environment to work in the world of, in the field of automation that it's not always easy to work with. yeah, in the real application, the real industry is a word, I would say. So this is my opinion.
Speaker #1
Okay, good. Thanks, Federico. Now I see that there was one question coming from LinkedIn, from Augustin Fragosolian. How can you guarantee no event is lost within the application to ensure that the required piece of code is executed?
Speaker #0
Well, I would say that the answer stays into the runtime code. So probably this is a more technical question for someone more expert than me. But regarding the implementation, this is very easy. So basically you link your event from the source to the final destination in the code. So from one cat to another, but also from other kind of... blocks that you usually use inside your application. And then when you make your event travel together with its variables, you are pretty sure that everything will work. I never face problems regarding the risk that an event doesn't go. in the destination. So basically you are totally sure about that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, thank you Federico for coming to that. And what I could add to that, so for sure this could be an interesting topic for one of the next live with our chief architect officer who could tell us more about the mechanics behind how the events are, let's say, ensured between blocks from the runtime perspective. But as well from the use cases that we see, we have had one of the, actually one of the big use cases is the one we have had in Baton Rouge from the company Exxon, ExxonMobil together, implementing, let's say, the all-path turn-down and using as well the UEO technology behind with quite huge scale implementation. So those are quite good, quite. quite nice implementation. Your implementation as well, what you did with the Nora is as well, how many, do you know how many high-yells are we speaking about here in that project?
Speaker #0
This project probably not so many because it is a test, a small plant, like the first one they are developing for the final end user in Saudi Arabia. But I would say that totally with the Nora in the In the laboratory, we actually In about thousands of IO.
Speaker #1
yeah yeah and so far with the test done no no no issues about uh let's say lost lost events so far no no no you shouldn't know about that so that's quite uh quite a proven quite a proven technology yes i don't see any other question coming from the chat so i think we are we are quite good uh Federico? Here are the, let's say, the contact details if you want to contact Federico for any other inquiries or any other projects. Let me mention as well that Federico is one of our trainers for the, let's say, the advanced programming on 6479. So, like, all the, let's say, all the methodology behind 6479, how to best execute, how to best design your program, actually. and all the methodology that you have shown in your slides those are actually part of the training and this training is offered as well when you become a uo member so that's that's a good point to to to to mention and uh well i will take down the opportunity to to thank everyone thank the viewer for for coming here and uh thank you federico for for making it with us uh today was quite interesting uh feedback from you and shared of of share of experience about uh six percent nine at dinara so thank you again federico and uh see you soon see you bye-bye

About UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

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Tune in and discover how UniversalAutomation.org and its ecosystem are transforming industries, one open standard at a time.

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About UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

Tune in and discover how UniversalAutomation.org and its ecosystem are transforming industries, one open standard at a time.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

In this episode of UAO Goes Live, J&W shares a real process‑control implementation for DeNora using UAO technology.

About UniversalAutomation.org (UAO)

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
Hi and welcome to this new session of UEO Goes Live. I'm happy to have you today and to have a new session together with the company and one of our members, which is called GNW. GNW will tell us a bit more about one implementation that they did, about the project, including the technology of Universal Automation.org, based on the IC6499 standards, together with a company called Denora Systems. So let me introduce on the stage Federico. Hello Greg. Can you please introduce yourself shortly and GNW?
Speaker #1
Yes, of course we are a small company, we are a system integrator and we develop a software solution with the IEC 1499 standard. We work for UO and a lot of different customers such as for example Denora where we developed interesting applications. in process control application.
Speaker #0
So can you please tell us a bit more about this this project that you have done?
Speaker #1
Yes, basically we developed a solution to implement two processes electro-chlorination and water electrolysis, two very important processes for again for this industry and we control the small plant through the benefits. and the advantages that the IEC 61499 offers to us as developers and also to the Nora as a user.
Speaker #0
Great. I think you have a presentation for us. Let me put it on the stage. Great. So, yeah, go ahead. Tell us a bit more about your implementation.
Speaker #1
course. So just a few words about who we are as a JNW. We started in 2018 as a innovative startup. We have our own product that we are developing and that we work on, but in parallel, as you can see from this slide, we did a lot of projects in 61499 integration from the TVDA project with General Electric. where we developed a logistic application, both in a digital twin way and also in the real equipment. And we work for Denora. We joined Universal Automation last year. We work with Green, that is part of the organization. Recently, we started also working on this different kind of process control application, for example, the Jess plant project in Italy. where we control hydrogen battery production. And finally, this year we are also controlling our own TVA demonstrator, the real logistic line, also the Schneider Cobot, using again the same standard and the same paradigm of programming approach. Well, here are some words about our some of our projects. In green we developed an application according to what we call advanced programming guidelines because this was our first experience with these very useful and complex guidelines and that we also discussed about during uo training and other activities we carry on and as i was telling you in just project project we are controlling another kind of plant where we where they are producing hydrogen batteries these are their test benches and we are controlling everything with a lot of PLC Schneider PLCs and we are controlling everything with the 1499 standard again the TVDA solution as you can see here we started with a digital twin line simulating the and communicating from the control from EIE part to the digital twin of the line. And recently here you can see in this picture also the real field equipment, the real conveyors and the cobot. And then we are introducing now the Denora project and this is a very important customer for us. Our work with them started in 2022 and we started developing control solutions for electrolytic cells. Now we are controlling more than 80 cells in their laboratory. And one important aspect of this work is that we are also facing complex IT-OT architecture and the focus of this application is the collecting of important... data from the field and from the process. And so even in this first experience with Denora, we face one of the key concepts and one of the most important advantages of this methodology and of this standard of automation. First of all, the event-driven architecture that fits perfectly to this kind of application where we have a process. to control okay and the modularity in fact as i told you we developed the control solution for electrolytic cell okay and here in this slide you can see a typical object of the bie captain where we encapsulated um the key logics the core logics of the of this of a single cell and then we were able to reuse it make it reusable in a lot of different situations implementing for example a single process with the 30 cell for example all communicating with each other and controlling the field equipment so the scalability is also a very important advantage that took place in this application. We tested also the independence from the hardware as we saw in the introduction video it is the one of the core of the of Uo and of this standard in fact we were able to deploy the solution and the logics in both physical PLCs deep controller from Schneider but also on the soft debug so theoretically you can run can run in windows or linux machine or whatever you prefer using you can use industrial pc or the hardware that you that you need that you are available that you have available so easily distributed the code on multiple resources that was very easy using EAE and using our application. And we were able also to guarantee flexible interoperability between objects. We created communication between different PLCs, different soft-debug and also other workstations. that just had to collect data, for example. So this was the final architecture we made up with them. We were able to collect data through Modbus and OPC UA and OPC UA. In the other workstation, we have databases collecting all this data. And then we also gather this digitalization step with them. but now I wanted to spend a few words about Denora and these customers of ours. They have three business areas. They produce electrodes and they are a global leader in this kind of industry. They also manage the water technologies, so they provide solutions for water treatment and disinfection. And they also work with the energy transition. As I told you, they are interested in the production of hydrogen. It is a very important topic in these days. These are their numbers, so their global presence. They are in Milan, but they are very big and they are a huge company distributed all over the world with the office with office rnd centers and so on and as you can see also a very important revenue and income. So now let's concentrate a bit about the project we want to talk about today. It was just a typical process control project. As I told you, we had to control both electrochlorination and water electrolysis. This has been done with to approach we managed sequence control okay It is a typical topic of process industry where you face procedural control or sequence or whatever you want to call them. and also closed loop controls. Another important task to do was to collect the data from the sensor and do dashboarding and data analysis. Here are some projects inside. The end user is actually another customer of Denora, located in Saudi Arabia. It is a very huge and very important company for that country. The business area is now the hydrogen production and we just completed partially our commissioning in Italy and we are waiting for the plant to be shipped in Arabia where we will complete all the operation. But now let's concentrate a bit on the project steps we face and that actually we always do when we implement this kind of project. First of all, we get the specification from the customer. We want to have P&I, process logics, the information about alarms, interlocks, I-List, electrical diagram. We want to know the equipment list we have to use and the network topology. The second step we do is the plant modeling. So before we start with the code implementation, it's very important to organize your application, your work, and... And these documents that you produce, so basically you organize your cause-effect relationship of the interlock of labs. You model your functional behaviors of your application. You schematize your graphs and then your diagram. This is the base to start with the code implementation, where finally you create your logics, HMI, your configuration, and the communication between the OT and the IT world, finally. and then in the end you of course do your final commissioning on the field. So here I wanted to show you a bit of the PNID, the process that we received from them. So we have this electrochlorination section and the water electrolysis. In both cases we have these at the center, we have this cell we have to control through rectifiers actually. Here is an example of what we do during the plant modeling. We create documentation, so these cause-effect metrics. And remember we started also doing this in green plant work, where we organize all these causes and the effect of the plant. These are some of the sensors we had to use, where we collect data from flow meters. gauge meters, temperature transmitter, oxygen analyzers, pressure transmitters, level switches, so a lot of different stuff involved into the process. But also we had to control stuff, so transformer rectifiers, variable speed pumps, solenoid valves, heaters. So this is the object we control through sequence and also closed loop controls. This was the topology we built. So we had an M580 debug PLC from Schneider Electric, controlling of course the logic of the process, communicating with both a field HMI and also a remote office HMI. And through a PC way we exposed all the data and saved them into our own wheelie collector. And it is the database we use and the system. we created as a JW running on this Linux in the network. So let's focus now on the functional behaviors we developed in this application. So the closed loop controls for example PID loops, high-stair resist loops and so on. We first receive the description so maintain a certain temperature set point in anode and cathode department. of the electrolytic cell, we developed the CAT, the PID control CAT, and also the algorithm in this basic function block, and we were able to reuse it also in other closed look of the application. We developed also for each CAT, for each object, the HMI and the symbol, the graphic symbol part. you can see here also they make up concentration control again we use the same object you can see here the reusable the concept of the modularity of the of the standard We control the ORP value regulating pump flow rate using again the same PID controller. And we develop also pH control, this time not using the PID loop but a classical hysteresis algorithm where you switch on and off the pump to maintain the target value. basically and we also give some very simple level control of different tanks this is an example d201 we use the digital level switches to to maintain always the same level of flow of liquid inside these tanks and then the maybe the most difficult part of the implementation. So when you face sequences, you have to manage a lot of different steps and maybe a bit of complicated state machine where you have to stop, start, abort the sequence, or take this kind of decision. Again, you can see on the left side, we developed the cell cut and the rectifier cut. So basically for all the functional behavior and the subsystem we model for the plant we use this kind of object and here Managing and monitoring the toroidal current meters. We were able to control the rectifier Okay, we also implemented the tank filling sequences so basically according to the reading of these level switches we had to insert in the tank different kind of reactive flows maybe urea or or just simple water or other kind of liquid useful for the process. And then we had to complete this sequence according to what the customer gave us. So basically we build within the graph set, so the diagram, and here you can see the translation into EIE. So in this basic function block we build the state machine able to control the time-filling sequence we are to implement. Then, when we created our software architecture, we followed in a light way the UAO advanced guidelines I mentioned at the beginning. So basically we organized all the software objects, all the cuts of the solution in the same way. So we have always this kind of frame organization where we communicate with the field. we have the field input interface left side and also the software, the functional input interface, where we receive signals from other CAT or other areas of the software. The logic part, the field output interface, of course, and the internal initialization. We organize it this way, you can see on the left side the electro coordination father CAT containing all the functional behaviors you saw previously. You see here there is another representation. But you can see on the left side in the field input interface, we communicate with an input cut, digital input cut. And of course, again, these are reusable objects for our implementation. The DE-104, the cell, the pH control, the makeup concentration control, all these functional behaviors are encapsulated inside this electrochlorination cut. And on the right side, we... control digital analog device for example variable speed pumps variable position valves and and so on we did the same with water electrolysis electrolysis session of course but controlling different functional behaviors and an important aspect is that using every time cut you can build already there your symbol and your graphic representation of your object. This way it is very easy finally to build a representation of the original PNID. So basically we developed the graphic symbol for the pump for example and now we are using it in the global PNID. Same with this has been done with the tank, with the level switches, with all this kind of field equipment and you can see here a representation of the original PNID and on the right side of course all the commands and the parameters that the operator has to set to properly control the process. We did the same with the water electrolysis, of course. And as I told you, the last step of the code implementation was the communication between the OT and the IT world. Basically, we collected in one single cut all the sensors, and you can see here about 15 variables that we were monitoring from the field. Then we easily exposed them through OBC UA from a single node, single cut, and then we were able to collect them in an external database and show them in Grafana or other systems that allow you to print data in a graphical way. So let's summarize a bit what are the benefits we face. during the implementation of this solution. Of course, the modularity. So we organize the code in well-defined functional blocks and in this way we simply reuse them where we need them. This is very important because when we create an object for one project, it is possible that we reuse it also for other projects, not only in the Nora but also for other customers. as soon as you develop your own analog input, your own digital device cap, your own rectifier, you can easily reuse it. And as I told you also the HMI symbols are always the same. The frame organization of the advanced guidelines is very useful for code readability and cleanness. As soon as we want to do some small modification, we want to debug some strange behaviors during the commissioning we immediately know where to go to find this information to debug to find the problem okay so this is very very useful and important also the maintainability and the facilitated improvement okay because you split your big problem in small semi-independent object and you can easily make a modification there avoiding the the least to propagate errors or unexpected behaviors around the code, around the process. So organizing this way your work is useful for this kind of topic. And here also another advantage we face is that internally in our company, we were able to work on more hands on the same solution. And it's not an easy topic because... This time we were able, for example, in just two courses to work on different functional behaviors. My colleague developed the rectified cut, I developed the cell temperature control and so on. These are examples. And then finally, one single developer can simply integrate everything in the solution. And the communication is really fast because you create the interface of your cut. always in the same way. So basically this was our approach to this process control application and advantages we faced during the code implementation.
Speaker #0
Great, thank you Federico for this introduction and presentation. Just a few questions which are coming out of my mind. So when you saw that project with Tenora, what made you select this technology, so 649 to implement your solution over, let's say, other traditional code like C1141 and so on? Why did you choose this technology in particular?
Speaker #1
Basically, I would say the event-driven approach is the most important aspect. and it fits perfectly with this kind of process control industries where basically you don't need to run a huge code following a time cycle, let me say, a timer of the PLC, but as soon as something happens in a specific place of the plant, then this event is collected and something else has to happen. So this... kind of organization fits perfectly with this standard, I would say. And also all the advantages I mentioned are perfectly done. with this technology, I would say. It's very easy to organize your code, encapsulate your problem, to divide it into different small function behaviors and the small problem. So the object oriented, I would say, approach is very easily done in this way.
Speaker #0
Thank you. Thank you for the feedback and for sure, we can see in the way that you... that you, let's say, created your program, that you organized it, that there is behind like thinking or method how to best utilize the, or to make your program more efficient using 6.14.99 with on one side, the logic on the other side, the interface with the IO, then all those are really, let's say, separated and well constructed. I would like to remind our viewers that if they have any questions, please just type your question on LinkedIn or YouTube and then we can see it and ask it to Federico. Maybe another question from my side, Federico, which is more linked to, let's say, the portability of the code. So today... We saw in your presentation that you were using, I think, the M580 and you were using the Softipak. So kind of containerized version of the runtime, which could run on any Windows or on Linux or server architecture. From your experience, how much time, like roundabout, would it take for you to change the targeted hardware? So let's say... use another hardware which still embeds the ua runtime for sure uh but but in term of code change in term of of of let's say uh yeah change in the in the code how much time would it take for you to to like uh change
Speaker #1
the targeted hardware yeah maybe it's it's difficult to to to tell you how long will it take to me but i would say that the portability of the code is a very important advantage offered from the 61499 and from this standard and from this technology. Basically, if we are using the URL over runtime, I would keep the code identical, just maybe change some configuration in the network topology, in the hardware configuration. Of course, something you have to do. But basically, the logic, the implementation of the code is ready as soon as you finished it. and you can easily deploy on another resource. And the work you've already done with debugging and testing is always valid, I would say. So it's very quick, probably.
Speaker #0
Yeah, it's a value that we always push forward. I mean, as Universal Automation Network, we speak about the decoupling of hardware and software. it's always interesting to see it from the let's say from the field that what we actually say is not only let's say marketing uh uh let's say a marketing uh uh slogan but it's actually what is uh what is actually used on the on the field and um another question because you are a system integrator and what made you a system integrator decide to to join the organization universalautomation.org?
Speaker #1
Yeah, basically I would say that we strongly believe in the standard and in this technology and in this automation approach. We believe that this is the future and we really like it and we think that it's an advantage for us implementing this way and working with this Yeah. with this technology and we every time we try to to push it and also uh propose it to our customers uh telling them that it is uh what what they need basically and uh and we are comfortable comfortable with it we know it and uh yeah and there are also other aspects and this is also an occasion to share ideas inside the organization. we can do a lot of networking and find opportunities and see what's growing, what is happening.
Speaker #0
in this direction,
Speaker #1
I would say. Yeah, I mean, for system integrators, finding opportunities as well through the organization, for sure, that's a big point. We see, for example, collaborations that you work with, with Geoffrey, which is one of our members. We had in one of the last lives, we have the company Barbara working on orchestration and high-scale deployment of the runtime. uh as well working between with with other members uh we have had as well some other system integrators i can i can recall for example uh company platinum or our twice system as well showing how they use the the the technology and um do you have would you have a let's say a word or would you have um like uh if you would have to to like tell to other SI to join the organization, what would you tell them? How would you encourage them to join the organization?
Speaker #0
Very difficult question Greg, a marketing question. No, well I would say that probably the best way is to show all the things, all the different things we are doing as an organization, all the different companies that are joining it. can say something different. So there is a kind of heterogeneous nature behind it. So where you are also a big company at the same space of a small company because we are working for the same aim, for the same objective. And I think this is a very healthy and good environment to work in the world of, in the field of automation that it's not always easy to work with. yeah, in the real application, the real industry is a word, I would say. So this is my opinion.
Speaker #1
Okay, good. Thanks, Federico. Now I see that there was one question coming from LinkedIn, from Augustin Fragosolian. How can you guarantee no event is lost within the application to ensure that the required piece of code is executed?
Speaker #0
Well, I would say that the answer stays into the runtime code. So probably this is a more technical question for someone more expert than me. But regarding the implementation, this is very easy. So basically you link your event from the source to the final destination in the code. So from one cat to another, but also from other kind of... blocks that you usually use inside your application. And then when you make your event travel together with its variables, you are pretty sure that everything will work. I never face problems regarding the risk that an event doesn't go. in the destination. So basically you are totally sure about that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, thank you Federico for coming to that. And what I could add to that, so for sure this could be an interesting topic for one of the next live with our chief architect officer who could tell us more about the mechanics behind how the events are, let's say, ensured between blocks from the runtime perspective. But as well from the use cases that we see, we have had one of the, actually one of the big use cases is the one we have had in Baton Rouge from the company Exxon, ExxonMobil together, implementing, let's say, the all-path turn-down and using as well the UEO technology behind with quite huge scale implementation. So those are quite good, quite. quite nice implementation. Your implementation as well, what you did with the Nora is as well, how many, do you know how many high-yells are we speaking about here in that project?
Speaker #0
This project probably not so many because it is a test, a small plant, like the first one they are developing for the final end user in Saudi Arabia. But I would say that totally with the Nora in the In the laboratory, we actually In about thousands of IO.
Speaker #1
yeah yeah and so far with the test done no no no issues about uh let's say lost lost events so far no no no you shouldn't know about that so that's quite uh quite a proven quite a proven technology yes i don't see any other question coming from the chat so i think we are we are quite good uh Federico? Here are the, let's say, the contact details if you want to contact Federico for any other inquiries or any other projects. Let me mention as well that Federico is one of our trainers for the, let's say, the advanced programming on 6479. So, like, all the, let's say, all the methodology behind 6479, how to best execute, how to best design your program, actually. and all the methodology that you have shown in your slides those are actually part of the training and this training is offered as well when you become a uo member so that's that's a good point to to to to mention and uh well i will take down the opportunity to to thank everyone thank the viewer for for coming here and uh thank you federico for for making it with us uh today was quite interesting uh feedback from you and shared of of share of experience about uh six percent nine at dinara so thank you again federico and uh see you soon see you bye-bye

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About UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

Tune in and discover how UniversalAutomation.org and its ecosystem are transforming industries, one open standard at a time.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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In this episode of UAO Goes Live, J&W shares a real process‑control implementation for DeNora using UAO technology.

About UniversalAutomation.org (UAO)

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Hi and welcome to this new session of UEO Goes Live. I'm happy to have you today and to have a new session together with the company and one of our members, which is called GNW. GNW will tell us a bit more about one implementation that they did, about the project, including the technology of Universal Automation.org, based on the IC6499 standards, together with a company called Denora Systems. So let me introduce on the stage Federico. Hello Greg. Can you please introduce yourself shortly and GNW?
Speaker #1
Yes, of course we are a small company, we are a system integrator and we develop a software solution with the IEC 1499 standard. We work for UO and a lot of different customers such as for example Denora where we developed interesting applications. in process control application.
Speaker #0
So can you please tell us a bit more about this this project that you have done?
Speaker #1
Yes, basically we developed a solution to implement two processes electro-chlorination and water electrolysis, two very important processes for again for this industry and we control the small plant through the benefits. and the advantages that the IEC 61499 offers to us as developers and also to the Nora as a user.
Speaker #0
Great. I think you have a presentation for us. Let me put it on the stage. Great. So, yeah, go ahead. Tell us a bit more about your implementation.
Speaker #1
course. So just a few words about who we are as a JNW. We started in 2018 as a innovative startup. We have our own product that we are developing and that we work on, but in parallel, as you can see from this slide, we did a lot of projects in 61499 integration from the TVDA project with General Electric. where we developed a logistic application, both in a digital twin way and also in the real equipment. And we work for Denora. We joined Universal Automation last year. We work with Green, that is part of the organization. Recently, we started also working on this different kind of process control application, for example, the Jess plant project in Italy. where we control hydrogen battery production. And finally, this year we are also controlling our own TVA demonstrator, the real logistic line, also the Schneider Cobot, using again the same standard and the same paradigm of programming approach. Well, here are some words about our some of our projects. In green we developed an application according to what we call advanced programming guidelines because this was our first experience with these very useful and complex guidelines and that we also discussed about during uo training and other activities we carry on and as i was telling you in just project project we are controlling another kind of plant where we where they are producing hydrogen batteries these are their test benches and we are controlling everything with a lot of PLC Schneider PLCs and we are controlling everything with the 1499 standard again the TVDA solution as you can see here we started with a digital twin line simulating the and communicating from the control from EIE part to the digital twin of the line. And recently here you can see in this picture also the real field equipment, the real conveyors and the cobot. And then we are introducing now the Denora project and this is a very important customer for us. Our work with them started in 2022 and we started developing control solutions for electrolytic cells. Now we are controlling more than 80 cells in their laboratory. And one important aspect of this work is that we are also facing complex IT-OT architecture and the focus of this application is the collecting of important... data from the field and from the process. And so even in this first experience with Denora, we face one of the key concepts and one of the most important advantages of this methodology and of this standard of automation. First of all, the event-driven architecture that fits perfectly to this kind of application where we have a process. to control okay and the modularity in fact as i told you we developed the control solution for electrolytic cell okay and here in this slide you can see a typical object of the bie captain where we encapsulated um the key logics the core logics of the of this of a single cell and then we were able to reuse it make it reusable in a lot of different situations implementing for example a single process with the 30 cell for example all communicating with each other and controlling the field equipment so the scalability is also a very important advantage that took place in this application. We tested also the independence from the hardware as we saw in the introduction video it is the one of the core of the of Uo and of this standard in fact we were able to deploy the solution and the logics in both physical PLCs deep controller from Schneider but also on the soft debug so theoretically you can run can run in windows or linux machine or whatever you prefer using you can use industrial pc or the hardware that you that you need that you are available that you have available so easily distributed the code on multiple resources that was very easy using EAE and using our application. And we were able also to guarantee flexible interoperability between objects. We created communication between different PLCs, different soft-debug and also other workstations. that just had to collect data, for example. So this was the final architecture we made up with them. We were able to collect data through Modbus and OPC UA and OPC UA. In the other workstation, we have databases collecting all this data. And then we also gather this digitalization step with them. but now I wanted to spend a few words about Denora and these customers of ours. They have three business areas. They produce electrodes and they are a global leader in this kind of industry. They also manage the water technologies, so they provide solutions for water treatment and disinfection. And they also work with the energy transition. As I told you, they are interested in the production of hydrogen. It is a very important topic in these days. These are their numbers, so their global presence. They are in Milan, but they are very big and they are a huge company distributed all over the world with the office with office rnd centers and so on and as you can see also a very important revenue and income. So now let's concentrate a bit about the project we want to talk about today. It was just a typical process control project. As I told you, we had to control both electrochlorination and water electrolysis. This has been done with to approach we managed sequence control okay It is a typical topic of process industry where you face procedural control or sequence or whatever you want to call them. and also closed loop controls. Another important task to do was to collect the data from the sensor and do dashboarding and data analysis. Here are some projects inside. The end user is actually another customer of Denora, located in Saudi Arabia. It is a very huge and very important company for that country. The business area is now the hydrogen production and we just completed partially our commissioning in Italy and we are waiting for the plant to be shipped in Arabia where we will complete all the operation. But now let's concentrate a bit on the project steps we face and that actually we always do when we implement this kind of project. First of all, we get the specification from the customer. We want to have P&I, process logics, the information about alarms, interlocks, I-List, electrical diagram. We want to know the equipment list we have to use and the network topology. The second step we do is the plant modeling. So before we start with the code implementation, it's very important to organize your application, your work, and... And these documents that you produce, so basically you organize your cause-effect relationship of the interlock of labs. You model your functional behaviors of your application. You schematize your graphs and then your diagram. This is the base to start with the code implementation, where finally you create your logics, HMI, your configuration, and the communication between the OT and the IT world, finally. and then in the end you of course do your final commissioning on the field. So here I wanted to show you a bit of the PNID, the process that we received from them. So we have this electrochlorination section and the water electrolysis. In both cases we have these at the center, we have this cell we have to control through rectifiers actually. Here is an example of what we do during the plant modeling. We create documentation, so these cause-effect metrics. And remember we started also doing this in green plant work, where we organize all these causes and the effect of the plant. These are some of the sensors we had to use, where we collect data from flow meters. gauge meters, temperature transmitter, oxygen analyzers, pressure transmitters, level switches, so a lot of different stuff involved into the process. But also we had to control stuff, so transformer rectifiers, variable speed pumps, solenoid valves, heaters. So this is the object we control through sequence and also closed loop controls. This was the topology we built. So we had an M580 debug PLC from Schneider Electric, controlling of course the logic of the process, communicating with both a field HMI and also a remote office HMI. And through a PC way we exposed all the data and saved them into our own wheelie collector. And it is the database we use and the system. we created as a JW running on this Linux in the network. So let's focus now on the functional behaviors we developed in this application. So the closed loop controls for example PID loops, high-stair resist loops and so on. We first receive the description so maintain a certain temperature set point in anode and cathode department. of the electrolytic cell, we developed the CAT, the PID control CAT, and also the algorithm in this basic function block, and we were able to reuse it also in other closed look of the application. We developed also for each CAT, for each object, the HMI and the symbol, the graphic symbol part. you can see here also they make up concentration control again we use the same object you can see here the reusable the concept of the modularity of the of the standard We control the ORP value regulating pump flow rate using again the same PID controller. And we develop also pH control, this time not using the PID loop but a classical hysteresis algorithm where you switch on and off the pump to maintain the target value. basically and we also give some very simple level control of different tanks this is an example d201 we use the digital level switches to to maintain always the same level of flow of liquid inside these tanks and then the maybe the most difficult part of the implementation. So when you face sequences, you have to manage a lot of different steps and maybe a bit of complicated state machine where you have to stop, start, abort the sequence, or take this kind of decision. Again, you can see on the left side, we developed the cell cut and the rectifier cut. So basically for all the functional behavior and the subsystem we model for the plant we use this kind of object and here Managing and monitoring the toroidal current meters. We were able to control the rectifier Okay, we also implemented the tank filling sequences so basically according to the reading of these level switches we had to insert in the tank different kind of reactive flows maybe urea or or just simple water or other kind of liquid useful for the process. And then we had to complete this sequence according to what the customer gave us. So basically we build within the graph set, so the diagram, and here you can see the translation into EIE. So in this basic function block we build the state machine able to control the time-filling sequence we are to implement. Then, when we created our software architecture, we followed in a light way the UAO advanced guidelines I mentioned at the beginning. So basically we organized all the software objects, all the cuts of the solution in the same way. So we have always this kind of frame organization where we communicate with the field. we have the field input interface left side and also the software, the functional input interface, where we receive signals from other CAT or other areas of the software. The logic part, the field output interface, of course, and the internal initialization. We organize it this way, you can see on the left side the electro coordination father CAT containing all the functional behaviors you saw previously. You see here there is another representation. But you can see on the left side in the field input interface, we communicate with an input cut, digital input cut. And of course, again, these are reusable objects for our implementation. The DE-104, the cell, the pH control, the makeup concentration control, all these functional behaviors are encapsulated inside this electrochlorination cut. And on the right side, we... control digital analog device for example variable speed pumps variable position valves and and so on we did the same with water electrolysis electrolysis session of course but controlling different functional behaviors and an important aspect is that using every time cut you can build already there your symbol and your graphic representation of your object. This way it is very easy finally to build a representation of the original PNID. So basically we developed the graphic symbol for the pump for example and now we are using it in the global PNID. Same with this has been done with the tank, with the level switches, with all this kind of field equipment and you can see here a representation of the original PNID and on the right side of course all the commands and the parameters that the operator has to set to properly control the process. We did the same with the water electrolysis, of course. And as I told you, the last step of the code implementation was the communication between the OT and the IT world. Basically, we collected in one single cut all the sensors, and you can see here about 15 variables that we were monitoring from the field. Then we easily exposed them through OBC UA from a single node, single cut, and then we were able to collect them in an external database and show them in Grafana or other systems that allow you to print data in a graphical way. So let's summarize a bit what are the benefits we face. during the implementation of this solution. Of course, the modularity. So we organize the code in well-defined functional blocks and in this way we simply reuse them where we need them. This is very important because when we create an object for one project, it is possible that we reuse it also for other projects, not only in the Nora but also for other customers. as soon as you develop your own analog input, your own digital device cap, your own rectifier, you can easily reuse it. And as I told you also the HMI symbols are always the same. The frame organization of the advanced guidelines is very useful for code readability and cleanness. As soon as we want to do some small modification, we want to debug some strange behaviors during the commissioning we immediately know where to go to find this information to debug to find the problem okay so this is very very useful and important also the maintainability and the facilitated improvement okay because you split your big problem in small semi-independent object and you can easily make a modification there avoiding the the least to propagate errors or unexpected behaviors around the code, around the process. So organizing this way your work is useful for this kind of topic. And here also another advantage we face is that internally in our company, we were able to work on more hands on the same solution. And it's not an easy topic because... This time we were able, for example, in just two courses to work on different functional behaviors. My colleague developed the rectified cut, I developed the cell temperature control and so on. These are examples. And then finally, one single developer can simply integrate everything in the solution. And the communication is really fast because you create the interface of your cut. always in the same way. So basically this was our approach to this process control application and advantages we faced during the code implementation.
Speaker #0
Great, thank you Federico for this introduction and presentation. Just a few questions which are coming out of my mind. So when you saw that project with Tenora, what made you select this technology, so 649 to implement your solution over, let's say, other traditional code like C1141 and so on? Why did you choose this technology in particular?
Speaker #1
Basically, I would say the event-driven approach is the most important aspect. and it fits perfectly with this kind of process control industries where basically you don't need to run a huge code following a time cycle, let me say, a timer of the PLC, but as soon as something happens in a specific place of the plant, then this event is collected and something else has to happen. So this... kind of organization fits perfectly with this standard, I would say. And also all the advantages I mentioned are perfectly done. with this technology, I would say. It's very easy to organize your code, encapsulate your problem, to divide it into different small function behaviors and the small problem. So the object oriented, I would say, approach is very easily done in this way.
Speaker #0
Thank you. Thank you for the feedback and for sure, we can see in the way that you... that you, let's say, created your program, that you organized it, that there is behind like thinking or method how to best utilize the, or to make your program more efficient using 6.14.99 with on one side, the logic on the other side, the interface with the IO, then all those are really, let's say, separated and well constructed. I would like to remind our viewers that if they have any questions, please just type your question on LinkedIn or YouTube and then we can see it and ask it to Federico. Maybe another question from my side, Federico, which is more linked to, let's say, the portability of the code. So today... We saw in your presentation that you were using, I think, the M580 and you were using the Softipak. So kind of containerized version of the runtime, which could run on any Windows or on Linux or server architecture. From your experience, how much time, like roundabout, would it take for you to change the targeted hardware? So let's say... use another hardware which still embeds the ua runtime for sure uh but but in term of code change in term of of of let's say uh yeah change in the in the code how much time would it take for you to to like uh change
Speaker #1
the targeted hardware yeah maybe it's it's difficult to to to tell you how long will it take to me but i would say that the portability of the code is a very important advantage offered from the 61499 and from this standard and from this technology. Basically, if we are using the URL over runtime, I would keep the code identical, just maybe change some configuration in the network topology, in the hardware configuration. Of course, something you have to do. But basically, the logic, the implementation of the code is ready as soon as you finished it. and you can easily deploy on another resource. And the work you've already done with debugging and testing is always valid, I would say. So it's very quick, probably.
Speaker #0
Yeah, it's a value that we always push forward. I mean, as Universal Automation Network, we speak about the decoupling of hardware and software. it's always interesting to see it from the let's say from the field that what we actually say is not only let's say marketing uh uh let's say a marketing uh uh slogan but it's actually what is uh what is actually used on the on the field and um another question because you are a system integrator and what made you a system integrator decide to to join the organization universalautomation.org?
Speaker #1
Yeah, basically I would say that we strongly believe in the standard and in this technology and in this automation approach. We believe that this is the future and we really like it and we think that it's an advantage for us implementing this way and working with this Yeah. with this technology and we every time we try to to push it and also uh propose it to our customers uh telling them that it is uh what what they need basically and uh and we are comfortable comfortable with it we know it and uh yeah and there are also other aspects and this is also an occasion to share ideas inside the organization. we can do a lot of networking and find opportunities and see what's growing, what is happening.
Speaker #0
in this direction,
Speaker #1
I would say. Yeah, I mean, for system integrators, finding opportunities as well through the organization, for sure, that's a big point. We see, for example, collaborations that you work with, with Geoffrey, which is one of our members. We had in one of the last lives, we have the company Barbara working on orchestration and high-scale deployment of the runtime. uh as well working between with with other members uh we have had as well some other system integrators i can i can recall for example uh company platinum or our twice system as well showing how they use the the the technology and um do you have would you have a let's say a word or would you have um like uh if you would have to to like tell to other SI to join the organization, what would you tell them? How would you encourage them to join the organization?
Speaker #0
Very difficult question Greg, a marketing question. No, well I would say that probably the best way is to show all the things, all the different things we are doing as an organization, all the different companies that are joining it. can say something different. So there is a kind of heterogeneous nature behind it. So where you are also a big company at the same space of a small company because we are working for the same aim, for the same objective. And I think this is a very healthy and good environment to work in the world of, in the field of automation that it's not always easy to work with. yeah, in the real application, the real industry is a word, I would say. So this is my opinion.
Speaker #1
Okay, good. Thanks, Federico. Now I see that there was one question coming from LinkedIn, from Augustin Fragosolian. How can you guarantee no event is lost within the application to ensure that the required piece of code is executed?
Speaker #0
Well, I would say that the answer stays into the runtime code. So probably this is a more technical question for someone more expert than me. But regarding the implementation, this is very easy. So basically you link your event from the source to the final destination in the code. So from one cat to another, but also from other kind of... blocks that you usually use inside your application. And then when you make your event travel together with its variables, you are pretty sure that everything will work. I never face problems regarding the risk that an event doesn't go. in the destination. So basically you are totally sure about that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, thank you Federico for coming to that. And what I could add to that, so for sure this could be an interesting topic for one of the next live with our chief architect officer who could tell us more about the mechanics behind how the events are, let's say, ensured between blocks from the runtime perspective. But as well from the use cases that we see, we have had one of the, actually one of the big use cases is the one we have had in Baton Rouge from the company Exxon, ExxonMobil together, implementing, let's say, the all-path turn-down and using as well the UEO technology behind with quite huge scale implementation. So those are quite good, quite. quite nice implementation. Your implementation as well, what you did with the Nora is as well, how many, do you know how many high-yells are we speaking about here in that project?
Speaker #0
This project probably not so many because it is a test, a small plant, like the first one they are developing for the final end user in Saudi Arabia. But I would say that totally with the Nora in the In the laboratory, we actually In about thousands of IO.
Speaker #1
yeah yeah and so far with the test done no no no issues about uh let's say lost lost events so far no no no you shouldn't know about that so that's quite uh quite a proven quite a proven technology yes i don't see any other question coming from the chat so i think we are we are quite good uh Federico? Here are the, let's say, the contact details if you want to contact Federico for any other inquiries or any other projects. Let me mention as well that Federico is one of our trainers for the, let's say, the advanced programming on 6479. So, like, all the, let's say, all the methodology behind 6479, how to best execute, how to best design your program, actually. and all the methodology that you have shown in your slides those are actually part of the training and this training is offered as well when you become a uo member so that's that's a good point to to to to mention and uh well i will take down the opportunity to to thank everyone thank the viewer for for coming here and uh thank you federico for for making it with us uh today was quite interesting uh feedback from you and shared of of share of experience about uh six percent nine at dinara so thank you again federico and uh see you soon see you bye-bye

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Description

In this episode of UAO Goes Live, J&W shares a real process‑control implementation for DeNora using UAO technology.

About UniversalAutomation.org (UAO)

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Transcription

Speaker #0
Hi and welcome to this new session of UEO Goes Live. I'm happy to have you today and to have a new session together with the company and one of our members, which is called GNW. GNW will tell us a bit more about one implementation that they did, about the project, including the technology of Universal Automation.org, based on the IC6499 standards, together with a company called Denora Systems. So let me introduce on the stage Federico. Hello Greg. Can you please introduce yourself shortly and GNW?
Speaker #1
Yes, of course we are a small company, we are a system integrator and we develop a software solution with the IEC 1499 standard. We work for UO and a lot of different customers such as for example Denora where we developed interesting applications. in process control application.
Speaker #0
So can you please tell us a bit more about this this project that you have done?
Speaker #1
Yes, basically we developed a solution to implement two processes electro-chlorination and water electrolysis, two very important processes for again for this industry and we control the small plant through the benefits. and the advantages that the IEC 61499 offers to us as developers and also to the Nora as a user.
Speaker #0
Great. I think you have a presentation for us. Let me put it on the stage. Great. So, yeah, go ahead. Tell us a bit more about your implementation.
Speaker #1
course. So just a few words about who we are as a JNW. We started in 2018 as a innovative startup. We have our own product that we are developing and that we work on, but in parallel, as you can see from this slide, we did a lot of projects in 61499 integration from the TVDA project with General Electric. where we developed a logistic application, both in a digital twin way and also in the real equipment. And we work for Denora. We joined Universal Automation last year. We work with Green, that is part of the organization. Recently, we started also working on this different kind of process control application, for example, the Jess plant project in Italy. where we control hydrogen battery production. And finally, this year we are also controlling our own TVA demonstrator, the real logistic line, also the Schneider Cobot, using again the same standard and the same paradigm of programming approach. Well, here are some words about our some of our projects. In green we developed an application according to what we call advanced programming guidelines because this was our first experience with these very useful and complex guidelines and that we also discussed about during uo training and other activities we carry on and as i was telling you in just project project we are controlling another kind of plant where we where they are producing hydrogen batteries these are their test benches and we are controlling everything with a lot of PLC Schneider PLCs and we are controlling everything with the 1499 standard again the TVDA solution as you can see here we started with a digital twin line simulating the and communicating from the control from EIE part to the digital twin of the line. And recently here you can see in this picture also the real field equipment, the real conveyors and the cobot. And then we are introducing now the Denora project and this is a very important customer for us. Our work with them started in 2022 and we started developing control solutions for electrolytic cells. Now we are controlling more than 80 cells in their laboratory. And one important aspect of this work is that we are also facing complex IT-OT architecture and the focus of this application is the collecting of important... data from the field and from the process. And so even in this first experience with Denora, we face one of the key concepts and one of the most important advantages of this methodology and of this standard of automation. First of all, the event-driven architecture that fits perfectly to this kind of application where we have a process. to control okay and the modularity in fact as i told you we developed the control solution for electrolytic cell okay and here in this slide you can see a typical object of the bie captain where we encapsulated um the key logics the core logics of the of this of a single cell and then we were able to reuse it make it reusable in a lot of different situations implementing for example a single process with the 30 cell for example all communicating with each other and controlling the field equipment so the scalability is also a very important advantage that took place in this application. We tested also the independence from the hardware as we saw in the introduction video it is the one of the core of the of Uo and of this standard in fact we were able to deploy the solution and the logics in both physical PLCs deep controller from Schneider but also on the soft debug so theoretically you can run can run in windows or linux machine or whatever you prefer using you can use industrial pc or the hardware that you that you need that you are available that you have available so easily distributed the code on multiple resources that was very easy using EAE and using our application. And we were able also to guarantee flexible interoperability between objects. We created communication between different PLCs, different soft-debug and also other workstations. that just had to collect data, for example. So this was the final architecture we made up with them. We were able to collect data through Modbus and OPC UA and OPC UA. In the other workstation, we have databases collecting all this data. And then we also gather this digitalization step with them. but now I wanted to spend a few words about Denora and these customers of ours. They have three business areas. They produce electrodes and they are a global leader in this kind of industry. They also manage the water technologies, so they provide solutions for water treatment and disinfection. And they also work with the energy transition. As I told you, they are interested in the production of hydrogen. It is a very important topic in these days. These are their numbers, so their global presence. They are in Milan, but they are very big and they are a huge company distributed all over the world with the office with office rnd centers and so on and as you can see also a very important revenue and income. So now let's concentrate a bit about the project we want to talk about today. It was just a typical process control project. As I told you, we had to control both electrochlorination and water electrolysis. This has been done with to approach we managed sequence control okay It is a typical topic of process industry where you face procedural control or sequence or whatever you want to call them. and also closed loop controls. Another important task to do was to collect the data from the sensor and do dashboarding and data analysis. Here are some projects inside. The end user is actually another customer of Denora, located in Saudi Arabia. It is a very huge and very important company for that country. The business area is now the hydrogen production and we just completed partially our commissioning in Italy and we are waiting for the plant to be shipped in Arabia where we will complete all the operation. But now let's concentrate a bit on the project steps we face and that actually we always do when we implement this kind of project. First of all, we get the specification from the customer. We want to have P&I, process logics, the information about alarms, interlocks, I-List, electrical diagram. We want to know the equipment list we have to use and the network topology. The second step we do is the plant modeling. So before we start with the code implementation, it's very important to organize your application, your work, and... And these documents that you produce, so basically you organize your cause-effect relationship of the interlock of labs. You model your functional behaviors of your application. You schematize your graphs and then your diagram. This is the base to start with the code implementation, where finally you create your logics, HMI, your configuration, and the communication between the OT and the IT world, finally. and then in the end you of course do your final commissioning on the field. So here I wanted to show you a bit of the PNID, the process that we received from them. So we have this electrochlorination section and the water electrolysis. In both cases we have these at the center, we have this cell we have to control through rectifiers actually. Here is an example of what we do during the plant modeling. We create documentation, so these cause-effect metrics. And remember we started also doing this in green plant work, where we organize all these causes and the effect of the plant. These are some of the sensors we had to use, where we collect data from flow meters. gauge meters, temperature transmitter, oxygen analyzers, pressure transmitters, level switches, so a lot of different stuff involved into the process. But also we had to control stuff, so transformer rectifiers, variable speed pumps, solenoid valves, heaters. So this is the object we control through sequence and also closed loop controls. This was the topology we built. So we had an M580 debug PLC from Schneider Electric, controlling of course the logic of the process, communicating with both a field HMI and also a remote office HMI. And through a PC way we exposed all the data and saved them into our own wheelie collector. And it is the database we use and the system. we created as a JW running on this Linux in the network. So let's focus now on the functional behaviors we developed in this application. So the closed loop controls for example PID loops, high-stair resist loops and so on. We first receive the description so maintain a certain temperature set point in anode and cathode department. of the electrolytic cell, we developed the CAT, the PID control CAT, and also the algorithm in this basic function block, and we were able to reuse it also in other closed look of the application. We developed also for each CAT, for each object, the HMI and the symbol, the graphic symbol part. you can see here also they make up concentration control again we use the same object you can see here the reusable the concept of the modularity of the of the standard We control the ORP value regulating pump flow rate using again the same PID controller. And we develop also pH control, this time not using the PID loop but a classical hysteresis algorithm where you switch on and off the pump to maintain the target value. basically and we also give some very simple level control of different tanks this is an example d201 we use the digital level switches to to maintain always the same level of flow of liquid inside these tanks and then the maybe the most difficult part of the implementation. So when you face sequences, you have to manage a lot of different steps and maybe a bit of complicated state machine where you have to stop, start, abort the sequence, or take this kind of decision. Again, you can see on the left side, we developed the cell cut and the rectifier cut. So basically for all the functional behavior and the subsystem we model for the plant we use this kind of object and here Managing and monitoring the toroidal current meters. We were able to control the rectifier Okay, we also implemented the tank filling sequences so basically according to the reading of these level switches we had to insert in the tank different kind of reactive flows maybe urea or or just simple water or other kind of liquid useful for the process. And then we had to complete this sequence according to what the customer gave us. So basically we build within the graph set, so the diagram, and here you can see the translation into EIE. So in this basic function block we build the state machine able to control the time-filling sequence we are to implement. Then, when we created our software architecture, we followed in a light way the UAO advanced guidelines I mentioned at the beginning. So basically we organized all the software objects, all the cuts of the solution in the same way. So we have always this kind of frame organization where we communicate with the field. we have the field input interface left side and also the software, the functional input interface, where we receive signals from other CAT or other areas of the software. The logic part, the field output interface, of course, and the internal initialization. We organize it this way, you can see on the left side the electro coordination father CAT containing all the functional behaviors you saw previously. You see here there is another representation. But you can see on the left side in the field input interface, we communicate with an input cut, digital input cut. And of course, again, these are reusable objects for our implementation. The DE-104, the cell, the pH control, the makeup concentration control, all these functional behaviors are encapsulated inside this electrochlorination cut. And on the right side, we... control digital analog device for example variable speed pumps variable position valves and and so on we did the same with water electrolysis electrolysis session of course but controlling different functional behaviors and an important aspect is that using every time cut you can build already there your symbol and your graphic representation of your object. This way it is very easy finally to build a representation of the original PNID. So basically we developed the graphic symbol for the pump for example and now we are using it in the global PNID. Same with this has been done with the tank, with the level switches, with all this kind of field equipment and you can see here a representation of the original PNID and on the right side of course all the commands and the parameters that the operator has to set to properly control the process. We did the same with the water electrolysis, of course. And as I told you, the last step of the code implementation was the communication between the OT and the IT world. Basically, we collected in one single cut all the sensors, and you can see here about 15 variables that we were monitoring from the field. Then we easily exposed them through OBC UA from a single node, single cut, and then we were able to collect them in an external database and show them in Grafana or other systems that allow you to print data in a graphical way. So let's summarize a bit what are the benefits we face. during the implementation of this solution. Of course, the modularity. So we organize the code in well-defined functional blocks and in this way we simply reuse them where we need them. This is very important because when we create an object for one project, it is possible that we reuse it also for other projects, not only in the Nora but also for other customers. as soon as you develop your own analog input, your own digital device cap, your own rectifier, you can easily reuse it. And as I told you also the HMI symbols are always the same. The frame organization of the advanced guidelines is very useful for code readability and cleanness. As soon as we want to do some small modification, we want to debug some strange behaviors during the commissioning we immediately know where to go to find this information to debug to find the problem okay so this is very very useful and important also the maintainability and the facilitated improvement okay because you split your big problem in small semi-independent object and you can easily make a modification there avoiding the the least to propagate errors or unexpected behaviors around the code, around the process. So organizing this way your work is useful for this kind of topic. And here also another advantage we face is that internally in our company, we were able to work on more hands on the same solution. And it's not an easy topic because... This time we were able, for example, in just two courses to work on different functional behaviors. My colleague developed the rectified cut, I developed the cell temperature control and so on. These are examples. And then finally, one single developer can simply integrate everything in the solution. And the communication is really fast because you create the interface of your cut. always in the same way. So basically this was our approach to this process control application and advantages we faced during the code implementation.
Speaker #0
Great, thank you Federico for this introduction and presentation. Just a few questions which are coming out of my mind. So when you saw that project with Tenora, what made you select this technology, so 649 to implement your solution over, let's say, other traditional code like C1141 and so on? Why did you choose this technology in particular?
Speaker #1
Basically, I would say the event-driven approach is the most important aspect. and it fits perfectly with this kind of process control industries where basically you don't need to run a huge code following a time cycle, let me say, a timer of the PLC, but as soon as something happens in a specific place of the plant, then this event is collected and something else has to happen. So this... kind of organization fits perfectly with this standard, I would say. And also all the advantages I mentioned are perfectly done. with this technology, I would say. It's very easy to organize your code, encapsulate your problem, to divide it into different small function behaviors and the small problem. So the object oriented, I would say, approach is very easily done in this way.
Speaker #0
Thank you. Thank you for the feedback and for sure, we can see in the way that you... that you, let's say, created your program, that you organized it, that there is behind like thinking or method how to best utilize the, or to make your program more efficient using 6.14.99 with on one side, the logic on the other side, the interface with the IO, then all those are really, let's say, separated and well constructed. I would like to remind our viewers that if they have any questions, please just type your question on LinkedIn or YouTube and then we can see it and ask it to Federico. Maybe another question from my side, Federico, which is more linked to, let's say, the portability of the code. So today... We saw in your presentation that you were using, I think, the M580 and you were using the Softipak. So kind of containerized version of the runtime, which could run on any Windows or on Linux or server architecture. From your experience, how much time, like roundabout, would it take for you to change the targeted hardware? So let's say... use another hardware which still embeds the ua runtime for sure uh but but in term of code change in term of of of let's say uh yeah change in the in the code how much time would it take for you to to like uh change
Speaker #1
the targeted hardware yeah maybe it's it's difficult to to to tell you how long will it take to me but i would say that the portability of the code is a very important advantage offered from the 61499 and from this standard and from this technology. Basically, if we are using the URL over runtime, I would keep the code identical, just maybe change some configuration in the network topology, in the hardware configuration. Of course, something you have to do. But basically, the logic, the implementation of the code is ready as soon as you finished it. and you can easily deploy on another resource. And the work you've already done with debugging and testing is always valid, I would say. So it's very quick, probably.
Speaker #0
Yeah, it's a value that we always push forward. I mean, as Universal Automation Network, we speak about the decoupling of hardware and software. it's always interesting to see it from the let's say from the field that what we actually say is not only let's say marketing uh uh let's say a marketing uh uh slogan but it's actually what is uh what is actually used on the on the field and um another question because you are a system integrator and what made you a system integrator decide to to join the organization universalautomation.org?
Speaker #1
Yeah, basically I would say that we strongly believe in the standard and in this technology and in this automation approach. We believe that this is the future and we really like it and we think that it's an advantage for us implementing this way and working with this Yeah. with this technology and we every time we try to to push it and also uh propose it to our customers uh telling them that it is uh what what they need basically and uh and we are comfortable comfortable with it we know it and uh yeah and there are also other aspects and this is also an occasion to share ideas inside the organization. we can do a lot of networking and find opportunities and see what's growing, what is happening.
Speaker #0
in this direction,
Speaker #1
I would say. Yeah, I mean, for system integrators, finding opportunities as well through the organization, for sure, that's a big point. We see, for example, collaborations that you work with, with Geoffrey, which is one of our members. We had in one of the last lives, we have the company Barbara working on orchestration and high-scale deployment of the runtime. uh as well working between with with other members uh we have had as well some other system integrators i can i can recall for example uh company platinum or our twice system as well showing how they use the the the technology and um do you have would you have a let's say a word or would you have um like uh if you would have to to like tell to other SI to join the organization, what would you tell them? How would you encourage them to join the organization?
Speaker #0
Very difficult question Greg, a marketing question. No, well I would say that probably the best way is to show all the things, all the different things we are doing as an organization, all the different companies that are joining it. can say something different. So there is a kind of heterogeneous nature behind it. So where you are also a big company at the same space of a small company because we are working for the same aim, for the same objective. And I think this is a very healthy and good environment to work in the world of, in the field of automation that it's not always easy to work with. yeah, in the real application, the real industry is a word, I would say. So this is my opinion.
Speaker #1
Okay, good. Thanks, Federico. Now I see that there was one question coming from LinkedIn, from Augustin Fragosolian. How can you guarantee no event is lost within the application to ensure that the required piece of code is executed?
Speaker #0
Well, I would say that the answer stays into the runtime code. So probably this is a more technical question for someone more expert than me. But regarding the implementation, this is very easy. So basically you link your event from the source to the final destination in the code. So from one cat to another, but also from other kind of... blocks that you usually use inside your application. And then when you make your event travel together with its variables, you are pretty sure that everything will work. I never face problems regarding the risk that an event doesn't go. in the destination. So basically you are totally sure about that.
Speaker #1
Yeah, thank you Federico for coming to that. And what I could add to that, so for sure this could be an interesting topic for one of the next live with our chief architect officer who could tell us more about the mechanics behind how the events are, let's say, ensured between blocks from the runtime perspective. But as well from the use cases that we see, we have had one of the, actually one of the big use cases is the one we have had in Baton Rouge from the company Exxon, ExxonMobil together, implementing, let's say, the all-path turn-down and using as well the UEO technology behind with quite huge scale implementation. So those are quite good, quite. quite nice implementation. Your implementation as well, what you did with the Nora is as well, how many, do you know how many high-yells are we speaking about here in that project?
Speaker #0
This project probably not so many because it is a test, a small plant, like the first one they are developing for the final end user in Saudi Arabia. But I would say that totally with the Nora in the In the laboratory, we actually In about thousands of IO.
Speaker #1
yeah yeah and so far with the test done no no no issues about uh let's say lost lost events so far no no no you shouldn't know about that so that's quite uh quite a proven quite a proven technology yes i don't see any other question coming from the chat so i think we are we are quite good uh Federico? Here are the, let's say, the contact details if you want to contact Federico for any other inquiries or any other projects. Let me mention as well that Federico is one of our trainers for the, let's say, the advanced programming on 6479. So, like, all the, let's say, all the methodology behind 6479, how to best execute, how to best design your program, actually. and all the methodology that you have shown in your slides those are actually part of the training and this training is offered as well when you become a uo member so that's that's a good point to to to to mention and uh well i will take down the opportunity to to thank everyone thank the viewer for for coming here and uh thank you federico for for making it with us uh today was quite interesting uh feedback from you and shared of of share of experience about uh six percent nine at dinara so thank you again federico and uh see you soon see you bye-bye

About UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

Tune in and discover how UniversalAutomation.org and its ecosystem are transforming industries, one open standard at a time.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About UAO Goes Live: The Future of Automation

Tune in and discover how UniversalAutomation.org and its ecosystem are transforming industries, one open standard at a time.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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