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OPA Implementation: A System Integrator’s Perspective

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Hi, my name is Lisa Richter. I'm the

director of industry outreach and growth

for CSIA. Welcome to this master class.

Before we get started, a quick word

about CSIA. Probably most of you here

today are familiar with the association,

but if you are not, all you really need

to know that it's CSIA's mission to help

system integrators build better

businesses. How do we do that? Well, for

starters, we have a team of volunteer

system integrators who crowdsource a

best practices manual to help SI scale

their businesses. In fact, the BP manual

released the latest version about a year

and a half ago, and they are already

planning and working on the next

version. CSA is also about to launch a

new learning hub, which is a way for our

members to help their team members get

up to speed quickly with system

integrator specific

um courses and training um around the

business that we think will be super

helpful for our members. Um, CSA also

offers a certification program and other

resources including professional

development, learning from peers, and

access to professional services like

insurance and legal and finance who

really understand the SI's unique

business needs. For our partner members,

CSA offers an ecosystem to grow your SI

programs, understand your customer pain

points, monitor industry trends, and

share your thought leadership. With

thousands of qualified integrators and

suppliers, the CSIA Industrial

Automation Exchange helps system

integrators, industry suppliers, and end

users connect and do business. For

system integrators and partners, it

provides a platform to support your

content and SEO marketing efforts,

position yourself as a thought leader,

and nurture prospects during their

complicated buyers journey. If you are

not currently a member, now is a great

time to join. Membership provides you

and your entire team a full lineup of

virtual events and other re resources

from accounting to sales to operations

365 days per year. It also means you and

your team can attend the CSIA conference

because this annual in-person event is

members only. A quick word about the

conference. Uh we um if you are

attending the welcome reception will be

on the Tuesday evening and uh it's kind

of a beachy theme. So, a reminder to

pack your Hawaiian shirt or as like my

boss likes to say, your loud shirt.

We'll see what happens. If you want to

just get a flavor of CSIA and its

members, I encourage you to listen to

the Talking Industrial Automation

podcast. CSIA members talk all things

industrial automation, and it's a great

way to hear what your peers are up to.

One last housekeeping note before I turn

it over to today's speakers. If you have

a question, please use the Q&A feature

in Zoom. um that just helps us stay

organized and uh the session is being

recorded and you will get a link to a

recording in the next few days. At this

time I would like to turn it over to

I hope you can see my screen.

Yep, you're good. Thank you. So, welcome

from our side as well. Uh, we wanted to

focus on these emerging technologies and

specifically bring in a perspective of a

system integrator on these technologies.

So I am together joined with Timothy

triplet uh president of core and

technologies who will join me during

this pro this process and share with you

his inputs of the project and the

perspective there going forward uh I

would like to emphasize

emphasize

that we will talk about OPAF open

process automation forum the Texas ALM

project. That's where Timothy takes over

and why they selected an OPA system. I

will then step in again with the focus

on the IS-1 plus and the focus that it

can be used in the classified areas in

the hazardous area and then Timothy will

again provide an input on uh what the

current status is and then we can have a

Q&A. So what is open process automation

forum? This is a forum as you can see up

over here. A lot of the end users, a lot

of the uh vendors and now a lot of the

integrators have joined to come together

to put forward this technology. It is a

industry. It's a it's a it's a part of

developing an indust industry standard

which will be based on the current

standards so that you are adding on and

improving on what is already available

but ensuring that they are interoperable

and they

are meeting up to the requirements of

the OPASS uh standard. So this is the

typical architecture what you see over

here. It is

uh comprising here of the OPAS products

itself. But in the blue what you see

here are your legacy devices or

equipment if I can call them and then

you have the relevant gateways which

will allow you to communicate to the

OPAS connectivity framework. As I

mentioned earlier, this is a standard of

standards. So, we are working with a lot

of standard development organizations,

the OPC foundations, the DMTF and

various others where we are working with

them to update, improve, add on, uh add

value to that and develop and integrate

those standards into an overall open

process automation standard.

today's ecosystem you have the

automation vendor could be a PLC a DCS

and then a system integrator like you

putting together the solution based on

the end user your customer our customers

applications your expertise of the

industry of the equipment your your uh

your expertise of the processes to

implement and execute which is also a

very important part of the expertise you

carry and then even the possibility to

maintain it over a period of years. So

this is your current uh ecosystem and

what OPAS is trying to do is build up

something very similar. You are still in

the middle of the game but then you have

separate hardware suppliers and software

suppliers. Part of the story is that you

will be able to have an interoperable

system and interoperable systems would

give you the flexibility of using

multiple hardware vendors and multiple

software vendors. It also gives you the

facility that you would be able to use

softwares and then port the applications

you have developed from one hardware to

another. So a lot of the capabilities

are brought in by these two vendors uh

segment. Now it is not necessary they

need to be separate. They can be all

one. You could have the hardware vendor

also providing the software component as

well and then uh as an integrator you

are implementing it uh down the way and

uh installing it at the end users

facility. Service providers basically

are providing the service from a product

life cycle perspective. You are

providing support during the operations

at the plant. So that could be another

role uh which is part of the ecosystem

which you could be

implementing. How are we developing the

standard? the ecosystem. You as a system

integrator, the vendors and of course

the end users. You all have user

stories. You have experiences with your

current installations. And you are

wanting a change. You want something

different. What are your expectations?

You would be building it up and sending

it over to Opaf over user stories.

we can develop use cases out of that and

probably then even a system integrator

is providing a use case or even the uh

vendors are putting up the requirements.

All of these boil down into the

standards. They are

being discussed. They are being

evaluated and then they are being also

generated as profiles as certification

requirements and then they are being

implemented into a standard. So that is

how the industry voice drives the OPAS

standard. We would welcome all of you

all to join us in this role if you all

want to join OPath. Uh contact me. Uh

you'll have an email id down the way

where we can then get you connected to

OPath. Standards are going to enable

functionality. What you see right now is

the standards which have evolved over

the period of some 2017 if I remember

correctly. First version was with

interoperability. Then was the base

configurations, function blocks,

configuration, portability and then we

these are in the works as of now.

Application portability, orchestration,

physical platform. So it's an evolving

standard. Is it done? No. Is it ready to

be implemented? Yes. The version 2.1 is

ready for you to implement a test bed.

is be ready for you to implement a pilot

project and even actually commercialize.

This is what we are going to show you a

commercialization of the project. So

that is the

uh workflow that we have within the uh

forum of what we have to do to finish the

the

standard. Of course it is a continuous

improvement project. So it'll we'll keep

on updating improving as what we learn

from these implementations and what we

need to adapt and improve.

improve.

COPA so OPath is a standards development

organization. OPAF will not go out and

market. These are the OPAF members who

have come together

to market the OPAS based solutions. So

together with C plane together with

collaborative system association with

currently these integrators woodsis

burrows and others and then the

component suppliers we are putting

together industry proven uh devices

along with uh the capabilities of system

management of C plane and CSI and then

also the system integration teams which

are there. Again, you're most welcome to

join the uh COPA group. Uh you do you

would be able to then take the uh active

role in developing uh solutions for your

customers. It was of course built on the

open standard. The opath standard is

ensures high availability applications.

Definitely it is intrinsically secure

capable of remote management and then

the cost factor which is the most

attractive is not only the cost factor

at the time of your capital purchase but

also as a total cost of ownership you

will see definitely a lot of savings there.

Texas&M project. This is the first uh

commercial project from COPA and I will uh

okay thank you Robbie explain to you

Timothy I have you have control.

Okay, very good. Appreciate that,

Robbie. And I would like to um advance

now. And I am trying to do

that. Ah, there we go. Okay. Yes. So the

this project is the auto is for

Texas&M nuclear engineering. They are a

ranked number one in undergraduate

nuclear engineering programs, number two

in graduate nuclear engineering

programs. It's home to one of the

largest university research

reactors. It has a strong partnership

with national labs, department of

energy, other industry leaders and well

supported by the state of Texas.

They have formed a advanced center for

advanced small modular and micronuclear

reactors under the Texas&M engineering experiment

station with the goal of advancing the

nations and the states leadership in

advanced nuclear technology.

As a part of their ongoing research,

they are investigating control

technologies to facilitate the

deployment of small modular reactors and micro

micro

reactors. Uh, and why now? Because

nuclear has been around a long

time. Why now? There's a um if you'll

switch to the next uh slide there,

Robbie, I'll can give it a try. But um

go. There are some some diverse and

challenging environments out there. One, remote

remote

power when in areas that that are not

military applications where you need

power, secure power in a in an area that

just doesn't have power. Now emergency

response a hurricane wipes out the um uh

the power sources in say Haiti or some

place like that. A small modular reactor

could be quickly deployed to that

location and reconnected to the grid to restore

restore

power. AI data centers. I'm sure this

hasn't missed your attention that AI is

a massive hog of energy for the for the

training centers and such.

So those uh the companies that are

putting up these multi-billion dollar

projects would like to have the power

source right next to them so they don't

u systems that they don't have control

over to provide power for their data

centers. Uh the micro reactors uh are

particularly useful in space exploration

where you need something that has that

compact form factor, easily transported,

reliable, long life span well over 10

years without refueling. Uh all of that

is is really attractive for space

exploration also which is um

accelerating uh along with the AIS.

So there's a definite need for the

um for nuclear

powerly small modular reactors that have

gone through sufficient training,

testing, evaluation.

uh as opposed to the old way we we our

industry in the United States first

started off with um each nuclear power

plant was huge and custom and so each

one had to reinvent the wheel. But with

small modular reactors, you you've got

the design worked out and you can if you

need more power, you just put in more

small modular reactors. So you just

increase the number of them. It's like

having instead of a one cylinder engine,

now you've got an eight cylinder, a 16

cylinder engine. each one contributing

uh equally to the to the mix which also

increases reliability and lots of other

other positive factors. So the future

for nuclear power is going to be in a

reactors and let's see if there's next

slide. Yes. Okay. So&M part of their uh objective

objective

is to um [Music]

[Music]

um because the the small modular and

micro reactors are going to be often

times in locations where there isn't a

large staff to support it to train to

operate it and such. There's a need for

autonomous control.

for remote

management and of course when you start

talking about remote management

especially now cyber security becomes a

critical critical

factor. So their objectives were to

answer these uh challenges to be a

remote management autonomous control and cyber

cyber

security. So if you'll advance to the

Robbie. So they established a control test

test bed

bed

to prove out the technologies that are

critical for these reactors long term.

So they they created a relatively simple

as you can see the side the the control

unit and test bed on the right and is

small but as you know the control

technologies to control a small process

and a large process are the same basic

technologies. So starting with the P

Pnid they they have a couple of

different loops. The power generation if

you see on the left side the the heater

instead of doing this with nuclear power

they're using uh electrical power as the heating

heating

source but to maintain some fees some

um as much of the feel of a real nuclear

reactor. The control rods is a actuator

that its position determines how much uh

how fast the nuclear reaction is

happening and how much heat is generated

by the reactor. So in this case the

position of that control

rod affects the power generation from

the electrical uh to the heater. So it's

uh they try and make this as realistic as

possible without exposing the uh the

students to dealing with nuclear

sources or the for the research

here. The test this particular test bed

u not yeah stay focused on the one

before Robbie if you would please. U yes

there you go. Okay. So this test bed

uses water. Um but just to assure you&m

is also quite active in the areas of

molten salt and and other um aspects of

the nuclear generation but this

particular test bed is strictly focused

on on the control aspect of it. And on

the right the picture of the system the

black cabinet is the uh copa 500 the

control systems

uh the rest of it is there is the

process and the electrical um

connections. Okay now to the next one Robbie.

Robbie.

So having designed the the

experiment the next question was what

control system we're going are we going

to use? I mean, there's a variety of

standard control systems um uh available

out there, but they wanted something

that was modern, open, and could be the

very best at helping them reach their

research objectives with cyber security,

reliability, rapid iteration uh of the

design. So they can make changes, test

them out, do modeling and iterate over

and over again. So they needed that was

important to them uh to have high

compute and data capability uh a remote

management capabilities for

it. And so when it all boiled down the

the Copa 500 was was an obvious choice.

The stall IO is very flexible and

proven. The Cotus control is as is a de

facto standard for IEC

61131. The ignition HMI also very well

established uh and from a from a a good

company with good support. the Azrock um

uh industrial computer and this

leverages all off offtheshelf type of um

technology. So these components are not

expensive especially compared to uh a

DCS vendor or even the the uh normal um

smaller PLC system

suppliers. A super micro um the terrific

capabilities as far as um the computer, the

the

OCF communications platform which is or

technology which is a particular uh

implementation of

OPCUA related to open process

automation. uh Cflame provided this

system management which is um what makes

the whole system work and makes it um

reliable and practical long term for

support and a Cisco

switch a nice package. So okay now if we

can go to the next slide um

Robbie okay and this is just um uh we

won't belabor this but this is the exact

models of the um stall equipment that we

chose for the IO it it need met our

project needs well it's very

flexible so next uh next slide Robbie I

know you'll talk more about that

And so this

identifies the COPA 500 a typical small

system design

uh the components and where where those

reside like the bottom bottom black sort

of box there is the um uh that's the the

um the main compute for advanced process

control and modeling. Uh the

um the style equipment is uh is there

sort of in the middle the the orange and

blue chunks there that handles the

interface to the real world on that

mixed rail above that. Uh the DCN uh the

Azelock is on the the right side.

uh as you're looking at it on the right

side, power supply, switch uh is all

there uh and uh uh it makes for a very

nice um system and it's fully

integrated. That was um that was of

particular interest to us. We weren't

interested in

researching how to build an OPA system.

We were interested in researching what

it can do and how you can use it best.

So, the KOPA 500 provided a really nice

package of a fully integrated OPA

product. Um, and it's uh we know that

it's already been pre-integrated and

tested and so it is a robust

implementation of OPA.

We wanted to give OPA a really good uh

chance to to show what it can do and we

didn't want it to be hampered by our

mislication or

u missing something or overdoing or underdoing

something. Okay. So now um Ravi if you

you. Thank [Music]

[Music] you.

you.

And here we go. uh give you all a a

brief background about stall in case you

don't know and also on the iOS

particularly how it is available with

solutions.

Uh yeah so we are founded in 1876 I may

look old but I'm not that old. It's uh

companies with uh lot of the electronics

uh involvement electrical products and

then we also do and build complete

solutions uh in the sense that uh in the

in the IECX world uh they need a

certified workshop who can do it. Here

in the NEC world you have the UL698 and

all which allows you to build and

certify the complete solution. We can

also do trainings and then we also do

hazardous area uh evaluations and

services related to that based in

Germany and uh accessible all over the

world. uh somewhere around 18 operating

subsidiaries and beyond that about 5960

344.1 million euros with uh

1,743 employees across the globe. Uh

small company, small but nimble. We were

able to learn the opportunities of uh

these new emerging technologies and be

part of

it. We are available across a complete

portfolio of the electrical lighting and

hazardous area automation products. Uh

it is good enough certified for NECX and

ICX. So triple certified nearly 90 95

percent of the products maybe a few

percent where we may need two different

products to satisfy the individual certification

certification

requirements. That's what we call the

automation wall. Uh we have your barrier

isolators over here the IO's and then we

have Ethernet APL switches and then the

power supply for that wireless access

points fiber optics for hazardous area.

Yes, fiber optics also in the hazardous

area can be a source of ignition because

it is a concentrated form of energy. So

you need to be careful there. uh control

solutions, purge uh grounding devices

again uh handling the static energy that

comes into play when you're transferring

uh um raw material from one tank to

another HMIs and then the cameras for

monitoring the process areas. So we

nearly fit into

the control layer and then the field device

device

level. We've been doing this for the

last 30 years. In fact, uh the uh

iteration from 2000 onwards has been

consistently the same. Uh so you have uh

I would say a a very good form fit

factor which allows you easy

replacements. uh very early in the uh

1997 we implemented the Profus DP RS485

standard which we then donated to the

Profibus International organization. We

were the first to use in 2009 the fiber

optic uh opis standard which allows us

to run fiber optics into hazardous area

without a conduit just a regular fiber

optics maybe an armored cable and we are

now getting ready for the next 30 years

over the span of uh next few years when

the technologies evolve and we are ready

with uh the way forward on what the

industry is looking

for. That's what I was talking about. So

this was the old uh versions if I can

call them uh from 2000 onwards. And uh

this is the latest version. You can see

the drail and the bus rail remains the

same. The IO modules here with a red

handle. I can remove this one, put a new

one in and it runs in a minimum uh

capability uh mode. Uh the CPUs the form

fit factor and the connection to the bus

rail remains the same. So you can

replace an old CPU power supply

combination with a new CPU and still run

the old IO modules if you would like. So

a lot of combinations available. The

zone one day one devices are certified

as such because they are certified. You

don't need a purged enclosure. You don't

need an explosion proof enclosure. You

can put it in a standard Nema 4X or an

EXE enclosure. These are all intrinsic

safe communication uh bus in the back.

So you can implement hot swapping and

then of course the flexibility of using

either detachable terminals and uh screw

terminals over

there. That's the socket if you would

like to have uh from the perspective a

three slot but also a four slot. More

importantly, you have the capability to

select protocols here. Specifically, if

you're using it as a remote IO connected

to the traditional uh PLC and DCS

networks over Profy bus uh profet,

Modbus uh TCP IP, Modbus RTU or Ethernet

IP, you can select the port over here.

And then if you have the RS485, you can

select the addresses over here. That's

how simple and easy it is. Good enough

for minus40 to 167° F or 75° C

installation. Uh you can use either this

three slot version or the four slot

version on your right where you will

have redundant CPU and redundant power

supply as

well. The

IO's some very good features over there.

We all know that project engineering

goes until the time you have installed

and commissioned your panel. At the last

minute, you always have a requirement of

one additional input or one wire is

going in another panel and not in this

panel. So very

flexible multi-function configurable IO

signals. The discrete or the digital IO

module I can configure it as input

output. NAMO discrete inputs whatever I

like. The analog input module I can

configure it as input output port to 20

0 to 20 with heart without heart with

alarms. I can also have a temperature

module which can be either an RTD or a

thermouple or a PT00. So you could

configure these if you have them as

spare channels and then you can you can

configure them uh at as at a late stage

of your project as you go along and you

realize uh you need to add something

more. Uh the temperature ratings are

minus 40F to 167F or 75 C. At that high

temperature you are now able to offer an

extended lifetime because the

electronics is much more capable. This

15 year is just a theoretical

calculation. We have customers with 25

30 years installation who say hey this

is working reliably and I don't want to

change it. I definitely don't have a

happy sales team who would love to have

customers buying products day in and day

out. But then uh that is not Stal's

philosophy. We would definitely like the

customers to have a low total cost of

ownership. Uh additional status

information. This is very very uh

creative if I can say uh that it is able

to detect that hey I'm running in an

extreme temperature beyond the spec or I

was supposed to have 1 million on off uh

uh states and now you're crossing that 1

million onoff states uh you this all

could affect my electronics life and uh

I'm giving you an alarm one year before

I drop dead and let you know, hey, keep

a spare ready, plan a shutdown so that

you can replace me without having to do

a unplanned shutdown. So that's a very

good feature. Uh we talked about

artificial intelligence or machine

learning. This is something of where the

electronics inside with the sensors are

realizing what is the environment around

it, how good it is and how bad it is and

how it is going to affect its lifetime.

So, uh that's really a very good

feature. Uh enhanced diagnostics. Uh

each of the IO channels have the

capabilities of line fault detect. So if

your field signals from the IO terminal

to the field device are broken or short

circuit, you will get a local alarm, a

red LED over here and also an alarm on

your asset manager or on your

HMIs. The devices are optimized for zone

one, zone 2. Uh basically you are able

to do 16 channels per discrete module

and eight channels per analog or

temperature module. especially if there

are two wires

100% backward compatible and then of

course it's very much cost efficient

because of the high IO

density that's a range for the zone one

day one hot swappable IO modules

intrinsically safe outputs these are the

four and eight channel versions because

they have to drive a lot of power but

then I have the digital input output

which is soft configurable I can

configure it as input or output the 16

channel version, the analog universal,

the temperature. This is an interesting

digital output module with a solenoid

valve built into it. So, I don't need a

separate valve station. I don't need a

separate IO station. I can run it on the

same remote IO station or an extended IO

station. And this would be your output

to drive high voltage, high current

capabilities. Same for zone 2 div 2. The

only advantage here is that I have uh

non-incentive or non-intrinsically safe

inputs available here. So you in our

world here in div 2 in the NAC div2

world end users would prefer to use a

non-intrinsically safe or non-incentive

field devices and uh the IO's are

capable of such an

interface for the non-intrinsically safe

or the non-incentive

uh IO modules and field devices we can

offer IO redundancy like we had for the

CPU redundancy. Uh, one major capability

is that these IO modules aren't talking

to the CPU. So, you actually don't have

to go to the DCS CPU or the PLC CPU. The

IO CPU is uh voting where to take the

data from if one drops dead and the

second takes over. And then it is also

alerting you in uh at the HMI or the

alarm manager that hey one of the IO

modules is dead. You better replace

it. A sample construction specially I

wanted to show you this valve island and

the IO island all together. It's a div

one installation. This is the only

conduit here and then this is the

complete enclosure uh in a name of

4X. Again here the IS and the nonIS and

a different construction in a 1200

by,000 mm you could do anywhere between

signals. Okay, that was all about the

IO's but what are we doing for OPAS? So

uh with the newer hardware and the capability

capability

uh to have an open OS system like Linux,

we were able to implement three

versions. We have this DCN IO which only

has an OPCUA based OPAS server. It talks

the op open communication framework or

the open connectivity framework

information model which can then be

accessed by the DC and computer or the

ACP. So that is acting like a remote IO

but not with the traditional

profuset Ethernet IP but with OPA

server. This is the -40 version. Then we

also have the capability to embed the

IC61131 in this case codices uh which

you can implement which is part of the

OPAS uh group and then you could also

implement IEC 61499 runtime which is the

universal automation which can also

which is nothing but distributed control

or an eventdriven based programming

unlike the IC 61131 which is a

sequential uh sequence-driven

programming uh standard. Uh though the

languages in 61499 are similar to what

uh you use in

61131. The

61131 standard as you would all know is

the same standard that is used by most

of all the PLC

uh companies for their IDE for the

engineering tool. uh it is only that

they customize it add some value add

features and then u uh customize it for

their hardware. So uh if you do know the

any of the ladder programming function

blocks or sequential function blocks and

all that you could still do those

programmings on a codis platform or on a

61499 UAO platform.

platform.

Opas has been in play since 2016 2017

since the association with open group.

Uh Exxon Mobile built the first test bed

and has also implemented the first

lighthouse. That's what you see is an

image of one of the IO panels. 90% of

the IO counts were with stall's IS-1

plus extended IO and uh the selection of

the IO's was by the plant by the by the

actual user who want who wanted a more

sturdy G3 compliant configurable IO

where they have all those flexibilities

like the flexibility opas standard

provides. So that is what is now running since

since

2024. Some of the other test beds which

were built by Schneider which were built

by Intel and demonstrated at the NAMO general

general

assembly in

2023. What we see as an opportunity and

this is for the embedded solutions which

I talked about uh earlier and of course

there are the OPA solutions as well. the

OPA server solutions you could do

migration green field from legacy

systems in a do div to zone to zone one

projects a lot of your com uh you are

providing support or are international

companies where you would be deploying

projects uh in the ATEX IEC world so we

could support you here ideally 100 to

150 IO points please note this is not

good for safety systems or fire and gas systems

systems

OPAF doesn't cover safety. It is only to

the it is only limited to the control

system. And then additionally same

styles I use are not rated for

safety. Not good enough for robotic

machine control or a conveying system.

It is good for a process industry

application. So again uh please be aware

of these uh limitations from a

perspective of using our

hardware. I get back to Tim and uh he

shares with you the uh the current

status of the Texas&M project. All yours

Tim I'll continue to uh scroll through

as you tell me.

Okay. I do appreciate that Robbie. Uh

yes and uh I appreciate your your

comments about point counts like 100 150

point counts and such. Just to be sure

the audience is clear on

this opass

um open process automation

systems can scale way beyond that up to

you know large large systems. uh what

people would normally think of as a DCS

type of of

application. So it's a uh it's a highly scalable

scalable

system with um the distributed DCNS each

DCN handling its particular area

geographical or functional area where

where that's been assigned. So for&M

this application uh this was a one of

the the smaller

applications and also from a um systems integrator

integrator

perspective it is the

um open process

automation particularly as it scales to

larger systems the system integrator

role varies from what traditionally it

might have been when you get into the

size of like the DCS type size of

systems and such. Often times the

supplier, the vendor would um sort of

politely nudge the system integrator out

of the way and take responsibility for

the entire system and require that in

order for them for them to guarantee and

warrant their system. But now with OPA,

the systems integrator uh is in a really

good position all the way through the

project because he's essentially he's an

extension if he's if he's doing his job

well, he's an extension of the end user

that just a knowledgeable extension of

them and it becomes a very trusted um

part of their of their company even

though he's not physically in the

company. So I have clients that we've

been working with for well over 30

years. Uh and it's because of that

relationship and trust. Now at A&M on

this the OPA what we

um where the status is right now is the

test bed is complete. The control system

is connected. They're developing the

control applications now against a

digital twin. They're um they're quite

happy with the system. the ability to

rapidly iterate has been demonstrated uh

and that they can choose whatever tool

works best for them in their particular

application uh Python, mat

lab skill sets that recent graduates and

researchers have developed as a part of

their normal course development and

learning. So this OPA fits really well

with those. They don't have to conform

to a specific vendor's rigid here's how

you talk to us and you won't talk any

other way. Uh the tools and libraries

are there is still some maturing

happening. it is doesn't affect the

functionality directly the core

functionality but I see that the tools

the suppliers uh continue to enhance and

improve uh the libraries and tools so

it's it's not as mature as say a

uh a DCS or a one of the other PLC's

that is um very slowm moving so there's

a the pro positive part of this is it's

a very fastly fast to um to develop in particular

particular

uh I want to also add that while it's a

solid technology uh which with

application to many projects

uh it is it offers a lower cost than

conventional approaches even on the

small scales which was was surprising it

was eye openening to me uh and it is

seeing good accept acceptance with the

enduser community at ARC. It was very

well received at Arc by the end users

there. They were excited by the progress

that uh some of the early adopters were

seeing and the success they were having.

Uh there are some new concepts as a

systems integrator. There are some new

concepts such as the GDS

um and the OCF communications, how those

are done, how those are configured and

how they uh they are intelligent enough

that sometimes you as a systems

integrator you think I've got to

configure this down to the last detail.

But the GDS and OCF handle a lot of the communication

communication

and that you would normally do it and it

just it just sort of works in the

background. Um someone like uh like a

Macintosh versus a Windows a few decades

ago with the where the Mac just just

worked where the Windows required lots of

attention. But as we get those um as we

hit those copa and stall both been very

supportive and rapidly addressed any

information gaps where we didn't

understand the system fully or an&m to not

not

um the flexibility of the style IO Ravi

presented that very well that was a a

selling point for their the choice of

them out of uh other suppliers that

could have provided the IO style offered

a particularly attractive package

Because at the time we were designing

the system, the&m didn't know exactly

what type of sensors and what type of

signals they'd be using. The fact that

the thermouple card can handle all the

different types of thermouples, RTDs,

um was a plus that the digital IO could

be configured input, output, whatever.

That was all um a

plus from the system. One of the things

we did learn uh as as a systems

integrator uh part since you're

you're taking responsibility for the

system, it's very important that you understand

understand

uh and reduce the risk of have I got

everything I need in this price and when

we estimate here's how much this is

going to cost. uh the Copa 500 provided

a particularly attractive package and

that we didn't have to worry do I have

everything I need in there? Have I

missed a component? Have I missed some

software package or anything? It was all there.

there.

Um that um um that was uh that was a

plus from a systems integrator

perspective and long-term as cyber

security because threats are

continuously emerging. This isn't like a

normal world where you put in a system

and you're not going to change it for 30

years. you put in a system

today, it is likely to have cyber

security initiatives that need to be

rolled out to it at some point. The fact

that we're working with

COPA, we know that they have already

pre-verified and tested the cyber

security initiatives that need to be

rolled out so to flush out any

incompatibilities and make sure

everything is is smooth. So that was um

that was a big big um learning thing

from our perspective to realize this is

a little bit of a different world. If

Robbie. Okay, these are some of the

higher level control that's being done

in the um compute package. um uh and it

is things that is looking at uh

regarding autonomous control and since

most system integrates most systems

integrators don't really get into this

but they trust me there is a lot going

on in the world of autonomous control

and the development there that the

researchers love the the capabilities of

the of the system. If you'll go to the

next slide, uh

Robbie, so this is this is sort of where

we sit right now. the the system is

installed um and it has put&m in a great

position to continue their research uh

into a variety of autonomous control

technologies and is um

uh helping them address the critical

aspects of SMR small modular reactor

control enabling faster and better

development of clean nuclear power which

is the benefit of us all. Uh and that's

where we are today. Um we've had some

wonderful learning opportunities during

this uh in Copa and and uh Style have

always been there to provide good

support and help us with any area where

we had a little information gap that we

needed to um properly apply the system.

And that's uh that's it for me.

Thank you uh Timothy. Uh these are our

contact details. Uh we would be happy to

receive any inputs from you and if there

are any questions uh right now or later.

So I do have a couple questions. Sorry

I'm I'm buttoning in. Um a couple

questions came in from the audience. You

may have addressed them. Um but just to

be perfectly clear uh the first question

is can other IO module vendors other

than stall be used with OPA?

Uh definitely possible. Uh it is a

matter of asking your preferred vendor

if uh they have the op they are opath

aligned or they have the opt

certification which will come in place

uh soon. uh from a copa membership. Yes,

there is uh Phoenix already there uh and

star but uh typically down the way uh it

will be an open platform for other IO

vendors also.

Yes. And we have Go ahead. Go ahead. I

was just going to say we have uh in some

of our other projects we have actually

used the the Phoenix contact since they

are part of the of the ETH ecosystem. We

have used them in the past. uh but this

particular project stall just uh the

flexibility built into their package was

really attractive and so we went with

stall for this one.

So this one might be a little bit out of

context because it came in while you

were talking about something else but it

says what are they using for digital twin?

twin?

Ah okay that is for Texas&M. Yeah. Yes.

Yes. That is a um um

that is where we passed it over to&m and

they're the ones that um uh that are

actually doing that. Uh otherwise I I

would I would just tell you what they're

they're doing but and because it is a

university so they are very open about

what they're they're doing. This is not

like oh this is proprietary they're not

going to tell anybody. It's just that I

don't have the ability to answer it

clearly, but if someone will reach out

to me, I can get them in contact with&m

uh researchers to uh answer that

question for them. Awesome. So, I have

one final question before uh we do the

final slides and that is

uh as system integrators, what do they

we need to get started?

Well, the first thing definitely is to

build a test bet as I would say get your

hands dirty, experience the technology,

experience the plug and play and uh once

you are sold out then of course uh you

will never go back to a legacy system at

least that is what OPath is all about

and uh I'm sure uh that will give you

that confidence to also uh talk to your

customers about it. So building a test

bed will be the first step over there

and uh you can join copa you can join

opath and uh you can learn more of the

technologies you can share your stories

what experiences you have from the test

bed or otherwise and uh we would be

happy to take those inputs in at

awesome thank you all right so I'm just

going to wrap things up here um my

colleague will put up some slides for me

as I go through my last little bit here.

On behalf of C Go ahead. No, I said

thank you from our side. Yeah.

On behalf of CSA, I would like to thank

our speakers Robbie and Timothy for this

informative discussion and thank you to

our staff for sponsoring the event and

of course thank you for attending. Um,

and that's a wrap. Please bookmark the

CSA events calendar so you don't miss

any upcoming events and um, have a great day.

day.

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