"Feel free to change the game" – this is the motto of the ctrlX AUTOMATION magazine 2022/2023. Learn more about the new freedom in industrial automation enabled by the Linux operating system ctrlX OS and the planar system ctrlX FLOW6D. You can also expect exciting customer projects, partner statements and much more.
ctrlX developR Mauro Riboni: "The only limit is the imagination."
The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered the driver of the future in industry. With it, real production landscapes are merging with the digital world across the entire value chain. The boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. This development is also changing automation. In an interview, ctrlX developR Mauro Riboni explains how the interplay of IT and OT succeeds and what potential the industrial Internet of Things offers.
Mauro, what connects you to ctrlX AUTOMATION?
One special thing about our ctrlX developR team is that many of them helped design our automation solution from the first lines of code. My job as an application engineer is all about getting customers "Two steps ahead". How? By helping them design applications tailored to their needs and take advantage of the latest apps available. My focus is on IoT applications.
What is the significance of the IIoT for the factory of the future?
Without the Industrial Internet of Things, automation will be unthinkable in the future. Until now, manufacturing technology and corporate IT have coexisted peacefully. But that no longer works in the modern factory, where everything is networked. The IIoT combines previously monolithic systems and architectures. Mechanics, electronics and IT form a meaningful interplay. The aim is to increase the degree of automation and thus the efficiency of systems and processes, and to achieve self-organization - in whole or in part - of material flows and processes.
How can these goals be realized in concrete terms with ctrlX AUTOMATION?
I see ctrlX AUTOMATION as the best option for the next generations to enter automation and at the same time as the optimal solution to connect the IT and OT world in a meaningful way. Our automation toolbox opens so many possibilities that the only limit is imagination.
For example, with ctrlX IOT – a key component of ctrlX AUTOMATION – we offer advanced IoT software with integrated security and network flexibility. For users, ctrlX IOT means significant benefits in terms of connectivity. This is enabled by numerous secure, established protocols for data collection and local archiving. With a variety of direct connectivity options and communication standards, our IoT software apps open up the greatest possible flexibility to connect different devices with a high integration with ctrlX DRIVE.
ctrlX AUTOMATION also offers apps in the ctrlX Store to easily implement IoT use cases, for example the Node-RED and InlfuxDB apps. With Node-RED, hardware, interfaces and services can be connected in the sense of the Internet of Things and with Influx DB ctrlX AUTOMATION can be a smart storage for predictive maintenance and production data.
In PLC and IoT applications, ctrlX AUTOMATION also makes it easy to integrate your own know-how. Companies benefit from the openness of the system, the security and the free choice of programming language.
From your perspective, where is ctrlX AUTOMATION headed?
The users interpret our automation revolution in very different ways. For example, the large OEMs see ctrlX AUTOMATION as a tool for standardizing or unifying machine data for predictive maintenance, reporting and artificial intelligence (AI), among other things. Smaller and more agile companies use our control platform ctrlX CORE to develop simpler but smarter machines to differentiate themselves in the market. Pure IT companies are following this trend. Their goal is to bring the solution closer to the machine by abandoning custom hardware and relying on a scalable and standardized operating system.
This might also interest you:
- Article – ctrlX developR: Innovation needs clever minds
- Interview – ctrlX developR Jochen Scheib: "ctrlX OS is the next logical step."
- Interview – ctrlX developR Maurus Bien: "From drive specialist to big player."
- Interview – ctrlX developR André Stury: "AIoT will shape our future."
- Interview – ctrlX developR Michael Langfinger: "Openness and security work together."
- Interview – ctrlX developR Johannes Albrecht: "Automation has to be simple."
If you have any questions or require further information regarding ctrlX AUTOMATION, please contact us:
Mauro Riboni
ctrlX developR
IoT
