At RealPars,
we focus on teaching automation engineers,
controls engineers,
and technicians
the skills that they need to be successful in their careers
both now and in the future.
We are constantly collaborating with manufacturers
to understand what the future of industrial automation holds
and creating content to highlight these exciting industry trends
and shifts to you, our audience.
Today, we are very pleased to introduce you to something completely new
and revolutionary for the automation industry.
In this video,
we will show you how web-based, low-code technologies
are being used to solve simple industrial automation applications
and why we believe that web-based, low-code technology
will continue to become more important for
companies involved in industrial automation.
Just like the web-based, low-code revolution
has made traditional software development easier,
faster, and more accessible,
web-based, low-code technologies
will improve the way engineers
solve simple automation applications.
One of the main advantages of web-based programming
is that any device with a browser can be used to program a controller.
Since the development environment runs in the browser,
You don’t need to install a heavy development environment on your machine,
You don’t need to buy an expensive license for the development environment,
and You don’t need a powerful machine to run the development environment.
Since web-based programming reduces the cost
and requirements of programming controllers,
a web-based development environment makes it much easier
for anyone to write PLC programs
and develop Industrial IoT applications.
Let’s take a look and see
what web-based, low-code industrial automation looks like
in the next section.
In this demonstration,
I will show you how to create a simple PLC program
and visualization
using web-based, low-code technology.
Since Weidmüller is the industry leader in web-based, low-code technology,
we will use a Weidmüller u-control 2000 controller
for this demonstration.
This controller is designed to make automating simple tasks
fast, easy, and reliable.
The u-control controller
is at the heart of the Weidmüller’s u-mation platform.
You may remember the u-mation platform from our previous video
about u-remote
and the value of I/O system modernization.
In case you missed that video,
you can find a link to it in the description below.
Let’s look at how easy it is to create a simple control program
and visualization for the u-control 2000 controller
using u-create web,
the web-based development environment for u-control controllers.
To set up this demo,
I have powered up my u-control starter kit
and connected it to my laptop using a USB cable.
The USB port on the u-control controller
is a service port
and in most situations,
you will connect to your u-control starter kit
using one of the two Ethernet ports
that are available on the u-control controller
instead of the USB port.
However, an enormous advantage of connecting to the controller
using the service port
is that the USB connection supplies enough power
to power the controller.
This is a very useful feature when doing benchtop testing
without I/O modules or development.
If you want to follow along with this demo,
you can grab your own u-control starter kit
from the RealPars marketplace
by following the link in the description below.
Once my computer is connected to the u-control starter kit,
I open my browser and navigate to 192.168.10.202
the default IP address for the USB port of the starter kit.
On this page,
I log in using the default username
“admin”
and the default password “Detmold”.
Fun fact: Detmold is the city in Germany
where Weidmülller is located!
After signing in,
the development environment for u-control controllers is opened.
Unlike many other platforms,
u-control’s development environment
runs directly on the controller
which means that u-control developers
don’t have to: Install heavy development environments
don’t have to Worry about having the correct version
of the development environment installed
don’t have to Have powerful computers to program u-control controllers
and don’t have to Buy expensive software licenses
for the development environment
Let’s configure the hardware for our simple application.
On the u-create homepage,
click on Edit to begin editing the real-time application on the controller.
Before we can write a control program,
we have to configure the hardware for the control system.
In low-code applications,
the goal is to minimize the amount of work
that a user has to do to get up and running.
For this reason,
u-create web has a powerful hardware detection feature
that automatically detects the hardware modules
connected to the u-control controller
and adds them to the project.
Click on Autoscan station
in the Devices tab
to scan for hardware modules
and automatically add them to the project.
The hardware modules are added to the project.
With our hardware configured,
we can switch over to the Global variables tab
and configure the variables for our application.
In the Global variables tab,
click on the “+” button to add a new Global Variable.
I give my variable the name Start_Button
and mapped it to the first digital input
of my digital input module.
Next, I create two more variables for the application.
One is called Stop_Button
and is mapped to the second digital input of my digital input module
and the second is called Running_Light
and is mapped to the first output of my digital output module.
Now that the variables for our application are set up,
we can switch to the Program tab
and write our simple control program
using Function Blocks.
Before we move on,
I want to highlight that these variables
are truly global in the system.
Global variables exist in a common data pool
that can be accessed by other applications running on the controller
including Node-RED
and visualization applications.
This is a huge advantage
since it eliminates data redundancies
and the annoying need to export variables from one application
and import them into another
to make data available in different applications.
With the Function Block Diagram programming language,
we can develop simple control programs
using a catalog of available Function Blocks.
Here, I am dragging a Set Reset or SR function block
from the catalog
and dropping it onto my programming canvas.
Once a Function Block is added to the canvas,
I can parameterize the Function Block
by dragging and dropping from a pin
onto the canvas as shown here.
Once I release my mouse,
the Add Element dialog opens
and I can select a variable to connect to the Function Block’s interface.
In this example,
I connect the Global Variables
that I previously created
to the Function Block’s interface.
After developing the control program,
I can deploy the application
by clicking on the Deploy button in the top-right corner of the editor.
When the application has been deployed,
click on Start
to start running the application on the controller.
In the Live View that opens,
we can see the current mode of the controller
and monitor the values of the physical inputs and outputs
that are part of the application.
I can see that when I press the Start Button on my u-control starter kit,
the first input becomes True
and the first output is switched on as a result.
When I press the Stop Button on my u-control starter kit,
the second input becomes True
and the output is switched off.
By switching to the Program tab,
I can also monitor my control program as it executes
to troubleshoot any issues that I may be facing.
If we want to create a visualization for this application,
we can click on Edit
to switch back to Edit mode
and then open the Visualization tab.
In the SmartVisu Visualization editor,
we can add a Widget using the Add an element button.
In this case,
I will add an LED Widget.
In the Properties panel,
I can change the way the widget will appear
in the visualization application
and bind the widget to the Running_Light variable.
The RunningLight variable did not become True here.
It becomes True when I push the button in the visualization hardware next.
Once again,
I can deploy the application
using the Deploy button.
To view the deployed visualization application,
I can open a new browser tab
and navigate to 192.168.10.202/visu,
which is the IP address of the controller
plus a forward slash and the word visu.
Since the visualization is hardware-independent,
this visualization can be accessed
by any device on the network that has a browser
like an iPad or an Android phone.
The visualization application can also be configured to have user management
without an additional license
so that application designers
can easily manage who has access to
what information and controls in the visualization.
Since the visualization application is running on the controller,
we don’t need a separate HMI device
to run and view the visualization application.
After deploying the application,
any web browser can act as a client
for the visualization application
running on the controller
which reduces hardware and software costs for a project.
In the introduction to this video,
I explained that low-code, web-based technology
will be very important for the future of industrial automation.
But web-based, low-code technology
is already changing the way
innovative companies deliver automation systems and projects.
One such company is Boreal Light
who use the u-mation platform to power their Water Kiosk product.
The Water Kiosk is a water treatment machine
that provides clean drinking water
to rural villages in Africa.
Boreal Light have decided to use
the u-mation platform for practical reasons.
Since their machines are deployed in rural Africa,
they do not have trained engineers with
powerful laptops available to support and troubleshoot their machines.
With the u-mation platform,
they can train local people with basic laptops
to support the machines
since the development environment is web-based
and the control program is low-code
and easy to understand.
As the skill deficit in the industrial automation industry continues to grow,
we expect to see more companies adopt
low-code automation platforms like u-mation
which do not need highly skilled, engineers
to program and maintain.
In this video,
I have shown you how easy it is
to set up web-based, low-code applications
using a u-control controller
and the u-create web-based development environment
and discussed a practical application of web-based, low-code technology
by Boreal Light.
Web-based, low-code technology
will become more important in the future for simple automation applications
because web-based, low-code technology,
like Weidmüller’s u-mation platform,
helps to reduce hardware and software costs in a project,
and the level of technical skill required
to implement a project.
At RealPars,
we firmly believe that web-based, low-code
has an important role in the future of industrial automation.
If you want to get ahead of the trend
and start working with Weidmüller’s u-mation platform,
grab your u-control starter kit from the RealPars marketplace
and experience the power and flexibility
of web-based, low-code industrial automation
for yourself.