April 2011 - Control Global

T h e M o b i l e W o r k e r
articles/2010/WorkersUnchained1004.html). Vendors large
and small are lining up with large-scale solutions and simple
apps to access everything from KPIs to simulations via a cell
phone or tablet. Others are offering complex arrays of collaboration
enablers, including audio, video, phone and Internet
conferencing, all predicated on the notion that no meeting
requires all the participants to be in the same room—or even
on the same continent—at the same time. Hardware vendors
are also stepping up with everything from ruggedized
phones and laptops to Internet-enabled video cameras.
Some companies are experimenting, not just with mobile
apps in general, but with the iPad in particular. Jeff Sibley,
a control engineer at the Dow Chemical Co. in Freeport,
Texas, and a member of the Siemens Users Advisory Board,
is part of a group at Dow researching the feasibility of using
of iPads in Dow’s research and development unit.
“We have put all manuals and project documents on
them. We also tried hooking them up to a wireless router
strictly for commissioning.” Sibley says.
Dow’s researchers are also experimenting with instructing
the control system remotely through the iPad. “Say you
have one guy at the operator station telling the guy at the
valve to move it. What we’re hoping to do is have that one
guy move the valve remotely,” he says. “We’re very much still
in the research phase. The software is still wonky.”
He also adds that, at Dow, the iPads may be limited to the
R& D department. “Project notes and commissioning documents,
etc. will be the first use. Also PDFs and spreadsheets.
[You can put] lots and lots of information in a very portable
form, and they’re more convenient than a netbook.”
Sibley adds the advantage of the iPad or other tablet over
the smart phone is its size. “The problem with the iPhone is
that it’s small. Things are easier to read on a tablet,” he says.
There’s an App for That
Aurora Industrial Automation, (www.aurora-ia.com) a system
integrator in Portland, Ore., has developed Aurora Mobile
Apps, an Apple iPad/iPhone application that gives users realtime
access to plant-floor data through Rockwell Automation’s
FactoryTalk View, ViewPoint and VantagePoint software. Using
Mobile Apps, FactoryTalk VantagePoint users can see pertinent
KPIs wherever they are. Plant-floor workers working off
an iPad can see the same information they would see via the
FactoryTalk View application on their PC or inline HMIs.
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