Circular Economy in Automation Programming
Published on : Sunday 05-02-2023
PV Sivaram on how the concepts from manufacturing can well be used for automation and programming.
Anand looks serious. It is a fundamental right of youth to disapprove of the state of things. But what is today’s topic? There are many things wrong with the world. Anand has many suggestions on how to improve them. But, and herein lies the rub – his suggestions are not taken seriously. I tell Anand, this is the fate of every prophet. Prophets like to preach, but are not taken seriously. Only such people who actually practice the noble habits get taken seriously. In other words, to influence people and gain recognition, one must first set an example. As they say, Examples are better than precepts.
Anand is a man of action. What should I start practicing, he asks eagerly. I tell him there is one area which needs someone to propagate seriously. This is about the circular economy in automation. To be more specific, it is about the circular economy in programming of automation. Anand is fired up, but also confused. I take a deep breath and begin to explain. This is a coming together of concepts from two different worlds – of manufacturing and programming.
Circular economy in the sense of manufacturing means minimising waste of precious natural resources. The strategy revolves around 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It tells us to reduce the amount of raw materials used, to reuse materials to the extent possible and recycle the waste generated in the manufacturing process. So how does this apply to automation, that too, industrial automation?
First let us observe that automation is more and more software.
Traditionally, many functions and features were achieved by using ingenious electronic circuits. For example there were electronic boards for loop control, and a variety of boards were developed for loops of different applications. So there were controllers for temperature control, controllers for flow control, and controllers for tension control and so on. Underlying elements were always the same – sensor for the process value, an output for the control value, and an input for the set-point. Interacting with all these signals was a computation element housing the control algorithm.
With time more and more complex control algorithms came into existence. The processors which could perform these algorithm computations became more and more powerful and more and more compact. Therefore, rather than designing electronic boards for making complex calculations, it was expedient to make standard computation boards with the powerful processors, and write software code to make the complex calculations. With this, it becomes easy to switch to a new generation of algorithms. It also provided a better means to protect the IPR of the developers.
Then, where comes the circular economy? It is a piece of ancient wisdom regarding programmer productivity. About half a century ago, many studies were conducted about how many lines of program code could be generated per man day. This program code of course was not just edited, but tested, validated, and documented – ready to ship, as it is called. The number of blocks of code which get generated per man day is till a closely held secret by the respective manufacturers, but known to be quite small. So every effort to improve programmer productivity is hugely welcome.
Anand’s face is slowly brightening. This is leading to something that he can relate to. Where does the concept of 3 Rs come in? Yes, Anand, we can use the same concept while generating code as well.
Reduce – means try to accomplish the result using a minimum of code. Not because memory is costly or that the processing will take more time. More code means more effort to test, debug, validate and get ready to ship. In today’s world, time-to-market is a very important parameter.
Reuse – it is recommended to reuse a piece of tested and validated code rather than rewrite some code. Programmers are creative people and would like to put their signature in every piece of design. But that has a cost in terms of documentation and debugging. It is even worth having a sub-optimal piece of code running rather than making an effort from scratch. So, even if a code segment does not get into the production version, it is worth preserving for possible use in the next project.
Recycle – many code segments can be easily repurposed for another application, with only a modest effort. It can also mean that the final testing stage can be reached early.
So, Anand, you can see that the concepts from manufacturing can well be useful for automation and programming. But before we close our discussion, let us also think about systems which can generate code and algorithms automatically. Yes, I speak of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. These tools may change the centre of gravity of today’s discussion drastically.
PV Sivaram, Evangelist for Digital Transformation and Industrial Automation, is mentor and member of steering committee at C4i4. He retired as the Non-Executive Chairman of B&R Industrial Automation and earlier the Managing Director. He is a past President of the Automation Industries Association (AIA). After his graduation in Electronics Engineering from IIT-Madras in 1976, Sivaram began his career at BARC. He shifted to Siemens Ltd and has considerable experience in Distributed Systems, SCADA, DCS, and microcontroller applications.
Sivaram believes strongly that digitalisation and adoption of the technology and practices of Industry4.0 is essential for MSME of India. He works to bring these concepts clearer to the people for whom it is important. He believes SAMARTH UDYOG is nearer to the needs of India, and we must strike our own path to Digital Transformation. Foremost task ahead is to prepare people for living in a digital world. He is convinced that the new technologies need to be explored and driven into shop floor applications by young people. We need a set of people to work as Digital Champions in every organisation.
