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OPA Implementation: A System Integrator’s Perspective | Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: OPA Implementation: A System Integrator’s Perspective
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Video Transcript
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
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
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
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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