New-Tech Europe Magazine | May 2016

Intelligent Gateways Make a Factory Smarter

Armando Astarloa, System-on-Chip engineering S.L

An intelligent gateway powered by the Zynq SoC enhances productivity in a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant. The Industrial Internet of Things- the idea that all systems should be connected on a global scale in order to share information-is quickly becoming a reality. Today, a growing number of companies, especially in the industrial equipment markets, are taking IIoT one step further by creating complex systems that integrate sensors, processing and communications to form intelligent factories, smart energy grids and even smart cities. These developments increase productivity and profitability, as well as enrich lives. New technology implemented on a Xilinx ® Zynq ® -7000 All Programmable SoC is helping to bring intelligent systems into the manufacturing sector of the IIoT. The smart gateway, designed by System-

on-Chip engineering S.L. (SoC-e), streamlines productivity and helps companies like Microdeco become more reliably connected and secure. To maximize profitability, factories seek more flexibility in their layouts, more information about the process and manufactured products, more intelligence in the processing of this data and an effective integration of the human experience/interaction. However, as new technology is introduced into the factory sector, those creating it need to respect some rules. The first and most important is that production cannot stop. New technologies must be compatible with old systems and interoperability among vendors should be facilitated. Furthermore, the solutions should provide a means of taking the next step in automation, leading to more autonomous or decentralized analytics.

In order to achieve what many are callingthe“fourthindustrialrevolution,” factories need infrastructure and systems to use the IT and electronics for automated production. Although many factories automated in the third industrialization wave, in many scenarios it is necessary to implement both steps simultaneously: the third and fourth evolutions of automation. This situation offers a good opportunity to integrate IT infrastructures that will fit with new requirements for smart factories but are compatible with the third era production-scheduling and automation systems. Figure 1 depicts the typical production system widely used in industry that helps adapt and optimize production to demand. The enterprise resource-planning (ERP) software consists of tools that support the commercial database. It defines what to fabricate. Meanwhile,

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