2018 Award Winners
Award-winning project: Diagnostic platform for communication systems in automation technology
Project partners: Bosch Rexroth AG, Lohr am Main | Festo AG & Co. KG, Esslingen | Sercos International e. V., Süßen | Steinbeis Embedded Systems Technologies GmbH, Esslingen | Steinbeis Transfer Center Systems Engineering, Esslingen
The ongoing networking of industrial production facilities relies heavily on the use of modern communication systems. Particularly with regard to the ‘Industry 4.0’ vision, the ability to integrate Internet protocols is playing an increasingly important role, alongside the industrial-grade robustness and real-time capability of these systems. The resulting increase in complexity presents developers and operators of such systems and their components with ever-greater challenges when it comes to optimisation, verification and troubleshooting in the event of faults.
To simplify fault-finding and analysis of industrial communication systems, the Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Systems Engineering and Steinbeis Embedded Systems Technologies GmbH (Steinbeis EST GmbH) in Esslingen, in collaboration with Sercos International e.V. in Süßen, Bosch Rexroth AG in Lohr am Main and Festo AG & Co. KG in Esslingen, have developed a comprehensive platform for the diagnosis of such systems. Originally developed for the analysis of the Sercos communication standard and known as the Sercos Monitor, the modular approach of this platform enables a detailed analysis of various communication protocols used in automation technology. These include, amongst others, Ethernet-based protocols, INTERBUS, the IO-Link sensor-actuator interface and other manufacturer-specific protocols.
The platform offers its users a PC-based, interactive user interface for the configuration, visualisation and evaluation of communication data. Furthermore, it can also be used automatically for cross-protocol testing of network components. The challenge in developing this platform lay in creating a common base component suitable for analysing various communication systems with their differing characteristics, such as network topology, cycle times and data throughput. Furthermore, this component had to meet a wide range of requirements regarding user-friendliness and control interfaces for automated operation.
The result of this project is a versatile diagnostic tool for communication systems in automation technology, which is already being used today for troubleshooting in industrial plants, for automated testing and for teaching purposes at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. In particular, the platform’s extensible architecture and the broad support it receives from its users form a promising basis for joint future developments.
The Steinbeis Foundation’s Transfer Prize recognises a successful joint venture in communication that transcends company boundaries.