PLCs are going virtual. Are you ready?

They are at the heart of our machines and factory automation systems: programmable logic controllers – PLCs for short. What about the further development of this classic hardware product? Will the magic little box become virtual? We’ve written down the potential and benefits of a virtual PLC. It’s going to be exciting!

You probably use MS Office. Remember how it used to be? You bought the software and installed it on your PC, and you could only use Office on that computer. Things have changed quite a bit. Today, Office is a subscription. Sure, you can install its applications on your computer, but you can also access them via a browser from any computer. The software and the computer are no longer tied together.

PLCs – or programmable logic controllers – are moving in the same direction. PLCs are at the heart of machines and factory automation. These otherwise nondescript boxes are in fact industrial computers – with no mouse, keyboard or screen – but computers nonetheless. We come in contact with them every day – they help control traffic lights and elevators, for example. In manufacturing they control processes, from assembly lines and conveying systems to building automation.

Software is installed directly on the PLCs. The PLC and software are one and the same – just like it used to be with Office on your computer.

The next level will be virtualization of the controller. Which gives us the possibility of decoupling of hardware and software. The software will run on computers in the factory with industrial edge computing while the hardware remains directly in the shop floor.

Why go virtual, you may ask?

Here are three impulses:

1. Today, many factory operators are over-dimensioning the software on their PLCs because they do not know what may come. They want to be prepared for all instances. It is like buying a SUV just in case when a compact car is what you really need. Virtual PLCs work with the hardware you already have, while the applied services stay adaptable and extendable to the current needs. This provides increased flexibility and reduces operational costs by providing a pay-per-use model only for the applied services.
2. Administration, like applying software updates to PLCs, is often done manually,  on-site and individually for each controller. Adding new functionalities is much easier with the virtual PLC, since you can administer automation software for an entire cluster. This is really exciting, because all software updates can be managed centrally. In addition, different scenarios and configurations can be tested virtually first before deploying changes. This eases administration measures and decreases maintenance efforts.
3. Right decisions cannot be made on assumptions but on reliable information. To break up information silos and you need to combine the real world of automation with the digital world of information technology. This IT-OT convergences provides you with much more data at your disposal to make better decisions on performance, productivity, flexibility, sustainability, and more.

You might be thinking, “Great, but what does this mean for me on a day-to-day basis?” Here are two examples of how virtual PLCs can make life easier and allow you to do more:

• For vertical integration a manufacturing engineer needs fast access to data as well as better processing and analysis performance. With a virtual PLC, data can be read from a controller more seamlessly than with a pure hardware-based PLC. The data can also be forwarded to apps in the edge system for further processing.
• For machine transparency an IT specialist wants to optimize very specific automation tasks, such as for sorting out low-quality sheet metal in a forming plant. This use case is quite typical in that OT actions are derived from IT, specifically apps and software that evaluate data. A virtual PLC operating on the same platform as the IT is the ideal solution for carrying out these OT tasks.

If you are like us, you probably cannot wait to start trying. We at Siemens are working on a virtual PLC product and we are going to start testing it soon. If you want to get a head start, check out industrial edge computing and its use cases – some of which center around today’s PLCs.

Change will not come overnight – but it’s coming. Of course, the world of hardware will not disappear, but instead will be supplemented by new possibilities in the virtual world. In my next post, I will talk about further situations where virtual PLCs could save the day and who the early adopters might be.

Further information on SIMATIC controllers and on solutions to accelerate the OT/IT integration you can find here:

www.siemens.com/controller

www.siemens.com/xcelerator