At the ever-shifting interface of humans & machines

With so much already written about Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT), it can be easy to forget about the ‘join’ between this world of technology and humans. Far from just a control panel with buttons to push, the HMIs of the future will provide an all-encompassing window into fully digitalised, cloud-based manufacturing strategies.

Age of the cloud

It was the advent of the IoT and Industry 4.0 that added the ‘cloud’ to the networking landscape. Remote, secure, yet easily available data in the cloud supports a widespread future for highly automated manufacturers; one that is already becoming a necessary prerequisite for factories that want to be competitive and efficient in an increasingly challenging market. In turn, the impact on HMI technology has been considerable.

Already it is possible for HMIs to collect data from divergent sources, filter it and convey it to the cloud where analytics intervene that send process-critical information to the user. Moreover, there is ongoing research into concepts such as artificial intelligence grafts, augmented reality and learning engines; in short, innovations that could impart further dramatic change on the way humans interact with machines.

With this in mind, what can be expected of future HMIs that are homogeneous with the needs of smart factories?

Real benefits

Firstly, it is undeniable that the latest market demands are strongly influencing the technology installed on machines. However, although we are seeing a proliferation of solutions that collect data, there seems little perceived clarity as to how this information can actually be used to create a benefit for both the manufacturer and the user. Much is said about predictive maintenance and information sharing, but very often these aspects are conditioned by a ‘pseudo manual’ processing, rather than global analysis, of data.

Of course, this observation is understandably normal: industry is at the beginning of a path that will bring great evolutions in big-data processing which, in turn, will involve important developments in the concept of interaction between humans and machines. The graphic operator panel will be only the starting point of a system that processes a large amount of data to provide information on factors such as production and maintenance, for example.

Artificial intelligence is a big area of research for future HMI solutions, which could take advantage of existing big-data infrastructure. In short, such HMIs would be machine learning engines; interfaces that collect data and provide results and information to the user. Retaining this thought, the operator panel as it is known today, will certainly not be tomorrow's panel. In fact, the revolution has already begun, with more and more machines equipped with systems based on smartphone or tablet technology. Tomorrow, operators might interact with a device that is capable of optimising the machine’s set-up according to the production required, the wear of components, the cost of energy, the cost of raw materials and so on.

Security, for sure, will have a key role to play. Data protection, access protection, selective information and secure connections are a must for machine builders. High-level development platforms with standard programming languages and high levels of protection featuring very simple interfaces and advanced real-time data processing will be the standard followed by all developers looking to offer a secure, reliable, simple, but above all, effective system.

Gateway to the smart factory

With the introduction of its PAC system [Parker Automation Controller], Parker began a path of integration that directly involves intelligence and system control, visualisation and, therefore, human-machine interaction, within a single device.

The PAC is a motion controller, but it is also an information concentrator, a gateway and a graphical page manager. With the Codesys 3 language, system developers can collect data from the field or a high-level management company, process it, and make available various information sets, depending on the level of access, to users in a variety of formats. The possibility of acquiring information via, for example, integrated sensors on intelligent motors and actuators that integrate with the PAC, allows simpler and more complete processing of large data sets.

Now, Parker can also offer the PAC Terminal (PT), a thin-client HMI developed to work with the PAC. With the PAC handling the control and HMI logic, the PT is responsible for displaying the embedded HMI, as well as sending touch-screen inputs from the user back to the PAC. The same IEC 61131-3 programming language used to control the PAC PLC logic is also used to control the logic of the embedded HMI – WebVisu. No tag sharing or additional layers of logic are required for the PLC to communicate with the HMI; they are completely integrated.

In essence, the PT provides a window into the PAC, allowing for a traditional HMI look and feel while leveraging modern remote technology and single-device programming.

Voice of the Machine

It will have escaped few that technology in this area is moving fast, which is why developments such as these fit into Parker’s centralised strategy, called ‘Voice of the Machine’, which ensures standardisation across all of the company’s IoT-empowered products.

Ultimately, the HMIs of the future will facilitate the transfer of large amounts of data in real time or with minimal delay, and connect a large number of individual devices in a reliable way and with the highest data security standards. It is said, in human terms, that the eyes are the window to the soul. In machine terms, the HMI is the window to the smart factory of the future; a fact that is already beginning to shape its development.