sercos supports ODVA Machinery Initiative
A comprehensive framework with open interoperability will be developed as part of this cooperation. The open approach to the development of this framework includes alliances between various vendor-neutral standards development organizations such as ODVA, sercos or the OPC Foundation. The expanded cooperation between sercos and ODVA is based on positive experiences with an existing partnership in the area of functional safety. “The cooperation with ODVA and the joint support of CIP Safety have created substantial technical and market synergies for the safety network,” states Peter Lutz. “These positive experiences are what convinced sercos to expand its collaboration with ODVA.”
As an initial measure of the machinery initiative, a task force has already been established to define key focal points. This ensures suitable input from machine engineers in the process. The initiative comprises the technical aspect of framework development as well as workshops with the alliance partners to identify initial areas of collaboration. “End users want good integration and connectivity throughout their systems, especially for their OEM machines. With their production and business applications, users can better measure and understand what happens in their manufacturing processes. This contributes to lower costs and higher productivity,” says Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group. “ODVA’s machinery initiative gives end users access to data that was previously “hidden” in their machines. It eliminates technical hurdles and transforms this data into useable information with business benefits. This includes, for instance, data on the effectiveness of machines and other important performance indicators.”
Users rely increasingly on machine engineers to provide the functionality required to integrate machines into overall production processes and their businesses. Research into the OEM machine market identified four key areas that could be covered by an open interoperability framework. These areas are machine optimization (including important applications related to safety, energy, and motion), connectivity, information exchange, and device definition and configuration.
sercos international cooperates with ODVA in developing and marketing their common CIP Safety protocol. Further cooperations have been established with, among others, the FDT group in order to include the sercos automation bus in FDT’s specifications for cross-manufacturer and cross-product connection of software tools, as well as the Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL) to promote the use of open source software in machine production and factory automation.