Software-defined Automation
What is a Virtual PLC, really? A Virtual PLC Guide
Virtual PLCs (vPLCs) are quickly becoming a hot topic in industrial automation. Major PLC manufacturers are now offering them, LinkedIn conversations are buzzing, and trade publications are covering the trend. While the concept isn’t entirely new, Virtual PLCs are currently in the early stages of adoption and steadily gaining momentum. However, one major hurdle that…
Read MoreDispelling Myths and Misconceptions about Modern Alternatives to Traditional PLCs: Part 3 – Programming Languages
In the first two parts we covered some basic myths and how operating system choice and setup are much more important than the choice of programming language (PL for short in this article). We’ll start this one off by addressing one of the myths from Part 1: “Myth #2: Only PLC programming languages are suitable…
Read MoreDispelling Myths and Misconceptions about Modern Alternatives to Traditional PLCs: Part 2 – Operating Systems
From Part 1: “Myth #2: Only PLC programming languages are suitable for industrial automation” This article was supposed to directly address programming languages, but really, we need to look at what the programs run on first–operating systems. For those unfamiliar, the image for this article is the Python programming language logo, since Python seems to…
Read MoreDispelling Myths and Misconceptions about Modern Alternatives to Traditional PLCs: Part 1 – Introduction
To start, let’s outline the traditional PLC workflow: *Most customers don’t allow downloads or online edits to be done remotely, as you wouldn’t be able to see the effects and communication could be lost during the download/edits. To be clear, the traditional PLC approach is perfectly fine, and should be credited for all its successes.…
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