One always can discuss when an organization is started: at the idea, at the first members, at the first general meeting, or at the registration in the chamber of commerce. If we stick to the foundation meeting, we can now celebrate the 15th anniversary of the association PLCopen.
And looking back, much happened since that time. Starting with the publication of the IEC (6)1131-3 standard, the first focus was on the increase of the awareness and acceptance of this standard. In parallel of course, first implementations were needed, because it is not about paper, but about products. And that created a different market pressure: SoftPLCs on personal computers would take over the dinosaur PLC. Well, we all know what happened, but looking back is easy.
The next phase for PLCopen was creating added value for the users via additions to the standard. This started with the integration of motion control, harmonizing again 100’s of dialects like done with the standard. I still can remember the remarks around the kick-off meeting: Eelco, you will not even be able to standardize the homing functionality. Well in the end we did a lot more, although I have to add that in particular for the homing functionality we needed a whole separate release. So the answer is yes, but we needed more than the original document. But I got some help from a changing market: the intelligent drives were about to have an excess of computing power available, so why not add a PLC / Logic task? And adding to the softPLC, the market boundaries faded again.
The PLCopen motion control suite of specifications increased the value for the users. It was requested more and more, resulting in more companies looking to it, and a growing number of compliant products. Yes, this is a major contribution.
The next logical step, not in IEC but in PLCopen, was to add personnel safety. Or machine safety as it is named also, providing two points of view. With PLCopen safety again harmonization was done in the dialects, and integration on one platform. And yes, also the move to safety digital networks was the underlying change in technology supporting this move.
And on top of this, the coupling and exchange to other software tools is supported by the PLCopen XML schema, and the PLCopen Benchmarking specification provides better performance measurement techniques, helping in the selection of the right platform within a suite of products, as well as improvements for software updates.
And now you expect information on the future? Well, the future is something that we all contribute to. So the best advice here is to stop over at the PLCopen booth at the Hanover Fair in Europe, the FA/PA in China, the PackExpo in the USA, or the Systems Control Fair in Japan, and discuss this as person to person. Let’s meet, and discuss the interesting aspects of the future!