I. Intelligent Instrumentation
Within control systems, instruments serve as fundamental components whose technological advancement parallels the evolution of control system technology. With control theory now advancing into the new era of intelligent control, the intelligent transformation of automated instruments has become inevitable.
The intelligent evolution of instruments and meters primarily stems from the development and application of microprocessors and artificial intelligence technologies. For instance, employing intelligent techniques such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, evolutionary computation, and chaotic control enables instruments and meters to achieve high speed, high efficiency, multifunctionality, and enhanced flexibility. Another example involves utilizing fuzzy inference technology based on fuzzy rules to make various types of fuzzy decisions regarding the ambiguous relationships among objects. Additionally, software-based signal filtering techniques-such as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT), and Wavelet Transform-offer effective means to simplify hardware, enhance signal-to-noise ratios, and improve sensor dynamic characteristics. Furthermore, artificial neural networks leverage powerful capabilities including self-learning, self-adaptation, self-organization, associative memory functions, and black-box mapping properties for nonlinear complex relationships between inputs and outputs.
Currently, the weakest and most development-critical sector in China's intelligent technology field is the foundational industry of instruments, meters, and sensors. With the rapid advancement of science and technology and the continuous increase in automation levels, China's instrumentation industry will undergo new transformations and achieve fresh developments. The high-tech orientation of instrumentation products, particularly their intelligentization, will become the mainstream direction for the future development of instrumentation science, technology, and industry. Intelligent instruments and meters based on intelligent control theory have made progress in the following areas:
① Expert Controllers
Expert control systems (ECS) represent a quintessential knowledge-based control approach. These systems function as programmatic frameworks equipped with extensive specialized knowledge and experience. Leveraging artificial intelligence and computer technology, they perform reasoning and judgment based on knowledge and expertise provided by one or more domain experts. By simulating human expert decision-making processes, they resolve complex problems that require human expertise for optimal solutions.
② Fuzzy Controllers
Fuzzy controllers (FC), also known as fuzzy logic controllers (FLC), have gained widespread application in industrial control due to their ability to handle uncertainty, imprecision, and fuzzy information. They enable effective control of processes where mathematical modeling is impractical and resolve issues beyond conventional control methods.
③ Neural Network Controller
The application of neural networks in industrial control systems enhances information processing capabilities and elevates system intelligence. Neural network control, abbreviated as neural control, employs neural network technology to model complex nonlinear objects. It functions as a controller, performs optimization calculations, conducts reasoning, or handles fault diagnosis.
It should be noted that in the field of intelligent instrumentation, despite numerous publications by Chinese scholars on neural networks, fuzzy control, or chaotic control, rigorous, meticulous, and genuinely innovative work and achievements remain scarce. Some high-end instruments and meters still need to be imported from abroad.
II. Networked Control Systems
Control systems in the 21st century will integrate networking with control. Research on Networked Control Systems (NCS) has become one of the cutting-edge topics in the automation field. As communication networks become integrated as a core component within control systems, this significantly enriches industrial control technologies and methodologies. It has brought substantial changes to automation systems and industrial control systems in terms of architecture, control methods, and human-machine collaboration approaches. Simultaneously, it has introduced new challenges such as coupling between control and communication, time delays, information scheduling methods, distributed control approaches, and fault diagnosis.
The emergence of these new challenges necessitates continuous innovation in control methods and algorithms within networked environments. Driven by the ongoing advancement of computer, communication, and network technologies, traditional control domains are undergoing unprecedented transformation, evolving toward networked architectures. Control system structures have progressed from the initial CCS (Computer Centralized Control System) to the second-generation DCS (Distributed Control System), and now toward the prevalent FCS (Fieldbus Control System). The demand for high-speed transmission of large-volume data such as images and voice signals has further driven the integration of industrial Ethernet with control networks. This wave of networked industrial control systems incorporates multiple contemporary technologies-including embedded systems, multi-standard industrial control network interconnectivity, and wireless technologies-thereby expanding the development space for industrial control and creating new opportunities.
Driving industrialization through informatization serves as both a powerful guarantee for sustained rapid economic growth and a crucial means for transforming traditional industrial architectures. As a representative of information technology, the integration of networking technology with industrial control systems significantly elevates control system capabilities. It transforms the relatively closed enterprise information management structures of existing industrial control systems, adapting to the needs of modern enterprise-wide automation management. Networking technology has propelled the transformation of traditional industrial control system architectures.
Integrating fieldbus, Ethernet, multiple industrial control network interconnections, embedded technology, and wireless communication into industrial control networks ensures the original stability and real-time requirements of control systems while enhancing system openness and interoperability. This improves the system's adaptability to diverse environments. In today's era of economic globalization, this networked industrial control system architecture enables enterprises to navigate unprecedented market competition. It accelerates new product development, reduces production costs, and improves information services, presenting vast development prospects.
III. Wireless Industrial Communication
Wireless industrial communication is another hotly debated topic in the automation field. Industrial control enterprises increasingly recognize that wireless technology will form the foundation for the next technological leap, significantly enhancing plant efficiency and ensuring user safety.
As wireless technology becomes increasingly prevalent, various suppliers are offering a range of hardware and software technologies to facilitate the integration of communication capabilities into products. Supported communication standards include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS (Global Positioning System), 5G, and WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). However, when adding wireless connectivity features, selecting the appropriate chips and related software (assuming the chosen implementation functions correctly and meets relevant validation requirements) can be highly challenging. Even with a viable design, failure to optimize performance, power consumption, cost, and scale may prevent market success. Today's hottest technologies aren't necessarily the best communication standards or what customers need. Therefore, selected hardware and software implementations should feature adaptability: each new generation of products shouldn't require starting from scratch.
The trend of wireless technology entering industrial applications is undeniable, particularly where wired solutions are impractical. However, this demands continuous refinement of wireless technology itself. Reliability, communication certainty and real-time performance, compatibility, and other capabilities require further enhancement. Consequently, in the near term, industrial wireless technology will remain an extension of traditional wired solutions, with most instruments and automation products incorporating embedded wireless transmission capabilities. Internationally, wireless technology research is still in its infancy, with relevant standards under development. Chinese research institutions are actively participating in this process, which has contributed to advancing wireless technology within China's process industries.
Given that wireless technology remains in the R&D and refinement phase, its functionality is inherently limited. Moreover, within the automation technology domain, there is no universally recognized and proven wireless technology standard that is sufficiently reliable for real-time control applications, a limitation that becomes particularly pronounced in scenarios with very short cycle times. Consequently, the current application scope of wireless technology is restricted to data acquisition and monitoring (SCADA).
However, as reliability improves, wireless technology will find broader applications. Wireless communication will experience rapid growth in the coming years, but it will not replace wired communication. The stability, reliability, and security inherent in wired systems will persist. Wireless solutions will only supplant wired ones where wired implementation is impractical or prohibitively expensive. Integrating wireless and wired systems organically, leveraging their respective strengths, will provide new avenues for boosting productivity. Use wired communication where it is suitable, and wireless communication where it is suitable. Since both wired and wireless communication support the TCP/IP protocol, these two communication methods can be organically integrated to leverage their respective strengths and enhance productivity.
IV. Internet of Things and Automation
Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably one of the most frequently featured terms in major media outlets, closely associated with the concept of "intelligence." From the perspective of "management, control, and intelligence," IoT and industrial automation share a common lineage. Industrial automation encompasses data acquisition, transmission, and computation, while IoT involves comprehensive sensing, reliable transmission, and intelligent processing-the two are fundamentally interconnected.
IoT places greater emphasis on wireless connectivity, massive data collection, and intelligent computation. The relationship between IoT and automation technology is profoundly intertwined. The key distinction lies in connectivity: "Traditional automation networks predominantly rely on wired connections with limited reach, whereas sensor networks primarily utilize wireless transmission paths, enabling much broader connectivity." This inherent connection makes it natural for industrial automation manufacturers to explore opportunities within IoT development.
Key application domains for IoT include: Applications in industrial product manufacturing, tracking, progress monitoring, and quality tracing; Applications in monitoring, tracking, and anti-counterfeiting systems for valuable goods and hazardous materials; Applications in electronic credentials for large conferences, high-level meetings, and important events; electronic ticketing for high-traffic areas at major sporting events, concerts, and tourist attractions (e.g., Shanghai World Expo); IoT technology for traffic toll collection, remote automatic identification, and management of various vehicle types; IoT technology for automatic identification, recording, positioning, and querying of personnel within designated areas; IoT technology for full-process traceability in animal husbandry and food industry chains; IoT technology across agriculture, disaster relief, and emergency response sectors; IoT technology for managing valuable and critical assets; IoT technology for full-process applications in branded apparel; IoT technology for library management; Applications of IoT technology in military firearm management, personnel management, vehicle management, material management, and security/confidentiality; Applications of IoT technology in aviation, automotive, and other sectors; Applications of IoT technology in the retail industry; Applications of IoT technology in social security; Applications of IoT technology in smart city development; and short-range communication technologies: Zigbee chips, Zigbee communication modules, Zigbee networks, GPS, RTLS (Real-Time Location Systems), Bluetooth technology, UWB (Ultra-Wideband) technology and applications; EPC (Electronic Product Code) networks: EPC labeling, EPC middleware, EPC servers, EPC public service platforms, EPC networks; sensor networks, mobile communication networks, global positioning networks, and related application networks; business intelligence analysis software systems, etc.
The "Internet of Things" has overturned the traditional mindset that physically separated infrastructure from IT infrastructure. It effectively connects physical facilities like roads and buildings with personal computers, mobile phones, home appliances, transportation systems, and IT infrastructure. This enables comprehensive interconnectivity across government administration, manufacturing, social management, and individuals' personal lives.
From the perspective of the industrial chain required by IoT, upstream technologies and industries include automatic control, information sensing, and radio frequency identification (RFID), while downstream focuses on IoT applications. Industry experts further assert: "Traditional industrial automation is actually part of IoT," calling on industrial control automation manufacturers to become the driving force for IoT implementation. As the convergence point of informatization and automation, IoT possesses immense potential and advantages. Some organizations have keenly recognized its potential for optimizing management processes and production workflows, achieving preliminary successes. Traditional automation networks bear striking similarities to the sensor networks within IoT.
V. Cloud Computing and Automation
Argonne National Laboratory
Cloud computing represents the evolution of distributed processing, parallel processing, and grid computing-or rather, the commercial realization of these computer science concepts. Its core lies in the storage and computation of massive data, with particular emphasis on virtualization technology. In essence, cloud computing is an internet-based supercomputing model that connects vast resources to deliver diverse IT services to users.
For instance, the cloud computing model will bring significant transformations to the automation software industry. Key changes include:
① Automation system architectures will become more flexible, with distributed architectures expanding to broader scales.
In modern large-scale industrial automation and informatization projects, systems are growing increasingly complex and massive. Existing network and system architectures are no longer equipped to handle these challenges effectively. The revolutionary concept of cloud computing has fundamentally dismantled the rigid architectural frameworks traditionally found in automation systems. Within cloud computing systems, automation and informatization systems no longer run solely on a single fixed computer. Instead, they operate across the entire network, including the Internet, leveraging the network as a whole to allocate system resources and execute various functions.
② Analysis and processing of massive information will become standard functions of automation software.
In modern large-scale automation projects, the volume of automation and information data continues to grow exponentially, and describing it as "massive" is no exaggeration. Consequently, the database types, data storage models, and data reading/querying patterns currently employed in automation software are all centered around the accurate and timely processing of large data volumes. The handling of massive information has become one of the bottlenecks constraining the development of automation software.
In the cloud computing era, users can leverage computational power from diverse hardware platforms and networks across different layers. They can easily utilize services (SaaS), platforms (PaaS), and computational hardware/network resources (IaaS) within the "cloud," fully integrating public network computing capabilities. This makes the analysis and processing of massive automation and information data feasible, meeting the demands of large-scale application systems while enabling the control of complex automation and information systems.
③ Completely transforming engineering development models.
In the cloud computing era, engineering project development is no longer confined to individual computers. The SaaS model allows users to directly utilize software on automation software vendors' servers via the Internet. The development process occurs within the cloud computing network, and upon completion, a directly executable engineering project is generated.
④ Transforming software vendors' service models and reducing maintenance costs.
The cloud computing model also reduces service costs for software vendors. Previously, vendors needed to provide technical support and maintenance for automation software running across diverse hardware and software environments. In the cloud era, they only need to maintain a single software instance on their servers.
⑤ Reduces hardware requirements for automation systems and elevates the industry status of software.
Whether private clouds based on internal corporate networks or hybrid clouds with external connectivity, both aim to dynamically allocate computational resources. This enables smoother, more stable system operations, significantly reducing hardware requirements without compromising efficiency. It is widely recognized that in current automation systems, software serves as the "soul" yet holds relatively low value, accounting for only 5%-10% of the total cost. In the cloud computing era, as hardware demands decrease while software requirements grow increasingly stringent, the value and importance of software within the automation industry will rise substantially.
⑥ New technologies and product philosophies will become the core of competition.
Undoubtedly, the cloud computing model will bring profound transformation to the automation software industry. How to navigate the trends in IT development? How to develop next-generation automation software based on cloud computing? How to ensure compatibility of legacy automation software versions with cloud platforms? How to upgrade traditional automation engineering systems to cloud-based systems? These will become primary considerations for industry enterprises. With the maturing of cloud computing technology and the efforts of the automation sector, China's development of automation systems leveraging "cloud computing" will advance rapidly. This is also an issue the Chinese automation industry should pay close attention to.
VI. Automation in Low-Carbon Economy
Automation in the low-carbon economy is a broad and critical topic. We illustrate this using the process industry as an example. The process industry encompasses sectors such as petrochemicals, refining, chemicals, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, building materials, light industry, papermaking, mining, environmental protection, and power generation-industries that hold dominant positions in China's national economy. These sectors occupy a vital economic role, with the annual output value of China's process industry enterprises accounting for 66% of the total annual output value of all industrial enterprises nationwide.
The development status of process industries directly impacts the nation's economic foundation. As a massive sector occupying a vital position, process industries serve as a crucial foundational pillar for national economic growth and constitute an essential component of manufacturing. Characterized by handling continuous or intermittent material and energy flows, they predominantly produce goods in large-scale batches.
Primary production and processing methods in process industries include chemical reactions, separation, and mixing. In the 21st century knowledge economy era, process industries-as traditional manufacturing sectors-will remain vital pillars of economic development. These industries are both major producers of energy and raw materials and significant consumers of energy, making energy conservation, consumption reduction, and emissions control critical. Common shortcomings across these sectors include high energy consumption, severe pollution, poor product quality, outdated production processes, low automation levels, weak management practices, low information integration, and insufficient overall competitiveness. Industry constitutes the largest sector of China's economy and is also the primary consumer of energy and resources, as well as the main contributor to environmental pollution. Process industries have consequently become the primary target for improvement, particularly in six major sectors: petroleum refining, chemicals, steel, power generation, non-ferrous metals, and building materials. These sectors account for nearly 70% of the nation's industrial energy consumption.
Experts assert: First, targeting emerging issues and trend-driven industries has always been a key secret to successful innovation across all sectors! Emerging issues refer to major challenges requiring focused attention for future human societal development; "trend-driven" industries denote projects with immense future potential.
So, what are the major challenges requiring focused attention for future human societal development and the projects with immense future potential? Undoubtedly, one such area is projects serving the "low-carbon economy" and "low-carbon technologies"! The "low-carbon economy" has become a vital strategic choice for research institutions and enterprises. In other words, vigorously promoting the development of the "low-carbon economy" inevitably secures the initiative in innovation for research projects and market development. Currently, the global economy is accelerating its transition toward a "low-carbon economy," which has spawned numerous new economic growth points. The "low-carbon economy" will be the cornerstone of future national and corporate competitiveness. Smart enterprises excel at seizing opportunities, transforming production methods, and taking the lead-turning passivity into proactivity. They leverage shifts in societal development paradigms as engines for accelerated growth, striving to capture the high ground in the low-carbon economy.
When formulating corporate development strategies, enterprises should consider how to establish a "low-carbon strategy" and strive to grow in tandem with national sustainable development trends. As renowned management guru Peter Drucker famously stated: "No one can control change, but everyone can get ahead of it!" China's process industries must embrace this principle, striving to stay ahead of the curve. Low-carbon emission reduction is a national imperative, a historical mission, and an obligation for process enterprises. Embracing "low-carbon" represents a major mission for these industries.
VII. Automation in Workplace Safety
Automation in workplace safety has become a frequently used term in recent years! This surge stems from the continuous occurrence of various workplace accidents, driving an increasing demand for automation technologies to enhance safety. The urgent priority now is how to efficiently leverage advanced technologies like automation and informatization to elevate workplace safety standards. Consequently, the nation has proposed the "Science and Technology for Safety" strategy! Safety development is equally inseparable from automation. Safety in manufacturing can be categorized into mechanical safety and process safety.
Machinery safety primarily safeguards personnel and has received significant attention. Safety switches, safety buttons, safety doors, and safety mats have become essential in factories, accompanied by products like safety sensors, safety PLCs, safety buses, and safety Ethernet. Process safety ensures the security of production processes. Today, many automation suppliers are considering the provision of safety solutions. A true safety solution involves more than just supplying one or several safety products; it is primarily about enhancing the safety of the user's equipment. How to embed safety functions into the user's machinery and equipment, improving safety assurance without affecting the production process, still requires better development.
Automation refers to the process where machines or devices operate or control themselves according to predetermined programs or instructions without human intervention. Adopting automation technology not only liberates people from arduous physical labor, certain mental tasks, and harsh or hazardous working environments but also extends human capabilities, significantly boosting labor productivity and enhancing humanity's capacity to understand and transform the world. Therefore, machinery, equipment, systems, or processes (production and management processes) achieve predetermined objectives through automated detection, information processing, analysis and judgment, and manipulation control-all according to human requirements-with minimal or no direct human involvement. Safety automation refers to the implementation of the "Science and Technology for Safety" strategy through automation technology to achieve safe production. When applied to specific industries, safety automation takes distinct forms, such as: - Coal mine safety production automation - Petrochemical safety production automation - Chemical safety production automation - Metallurgical safety production automation - Transportation safety production automation - Smart building safety production automation - Safety production automation in other industries
VIII. Energy-Saving and Consumption-Reducing Automation
In recent years, "energy conservation and consumption reduction" has emerged as a highly significant concept in China's automation technology development. "Energy conservation, emission reduction, and scientific development" have become strategic guiding principles for China's economic growth.
According to estimates, China consumes 4.3 times more energy than the United States and 11.5 times more than Japan to generate each dollar of GDP. China's energy utilization rate stands at only 26.9% of the U.S. level and 11.5% of Japan's. This indicates that energy consumption constitutes a substantial portion of product costs for Chinese enterprises, while also highlighting the enormous potential for energy savings within these companies. Enhancing product competitiveness through energy conservation and consumption reduction is entirely feasible.
As the carrier and medium for technological transformation, the equipment manufacturing industry serves as a foundational "means-oriented" sector. Its products-production equipment for all industries-constitute the bedrock of foundational infrastructure. Characterized by broad scope, diverse categories, high technological content, and strong interconnections with other industries, China's equipment manufacturing sector has evolved over years into a comprehensive industrial system with considerable scale and technological sophistication, becoming a vital pillar of the national economy. Conserving energy and improving energy utilization efficiency are not only long-term strategies for ensuring normal production operations and achieving healthy, sustainable corporate development, but also inevitable choices for enterprises to adapt to market demands, reduce costs, increase profits, improve environmental performance, and enhance competitiveness. For enterprises to achieve sustained growth, implementing energy conservation and consumption reduction is imperative.
As times evolve, the tasks of energy conservation and emission reduction will become increasingly challenging, with control targets growing ever more stringent. The introduction of these targets will impose higher demands on industrial operations. Proactively adopting advanced energy-saving and consumption-reducing technologies, and implementing scientific management concepts, models, and processes are crucial pathways for enterprises to achieve these goals. The promotion and application of new technologies, processes, materials, and methods based on technological innovation can gradually phase out inefficient equipment and high-energy-consuming product groups from production, playing a vital role in advancing energy conservation and consumption reduction. Driving energy conservation and consumption reduction through high-tech innovation is an essential step for the equipment manufacturing industry. This is because modern high technologies profoundly and extensively influence the development of this sector. The advancement of modern high technologies imposes higher, newer, and better demands on the equipment manufacturing industry. High-tech support is equally integral to the "energy conservation and consumption reduction" efforts within the equipment manufacturing sector.
For instance, motor energy efficiency, process optimization, waste-to-resource conversion, waste heat utilization, enterprise transformation, and new energy adoption are all intrinsically linked to automation technology.
IX. Development of Industrial Control Software
The advancement of industrial control software is another vital aspect of automation technology. Since the 1990s, IBM's successive acquisitions of middleware vendors elevated middleware to the core of enterprise IT architecture, gradually highlighting software's critical importance and central role. Subsequently, IBM acquired renowned software companies like Lotus and DB2. Software began advancing alongside hardware. In 2004, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo-a move signaling the end of hardware's golden age and the dawn of software's ascendant era.
Within industrial control, hardware softwareization represents a key trend, exemplified by the emergence of embedded soft PLCs. Currently, the market features the latest CoDeSys V3.4 software (an embedded system soft PLC based on the CoDeSys platform) pioneered by Germany's 3S Software. It champions the concept of "open, reconfigurable automation" centered on "reusability." This software operates within an IEC 61131 development environment, supporting multiple industrial automation standard languages including ladder logic, flowcharts, block diagrams, and the advanced ST language.
Software reuse represents a methodology and theory within computer software engineering, essentially serving as a solution to eliminate redundant efforts in software development. It constitutes a proven approach to enhancing software development productivity and product quality. Software reuse involves leveraging existing software and its effective components to construct new software or systems, thereby reducing development time and maintenance costs. It stands as a crucial technology for improving software productivity and quality.
Key factors (both technical and non-technical) for achieving software reuse primarily encompass seven aspects: software component technology, software architecture, domain engineering, software reengineering, open component processes, CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) technology, and various non-technical factors. The benefits of software reuse include: (1) Higher productivity (and consequent cost reduction); (2) Improved software quality. (errors can be corrected more quickly); (3) Appropriate use of software reuse improves system maintainability.
Beyond the benefits of software reuse, CoDeSys software also features reconfigurable manufacturing. Reconfigurable manufacturing is a process guiding the management and control of manufacturing system reconfiguration. It enables manufacturing systems to respond effectively to changing environments. Reconfigurability refers to a system where its hardware modules and/or software modules can reconfigure (or reset) the system architecture and algorithms based on changing data flows or control flows. This encompasses: organizational reconfigurability, business process reconfigurability, product reconfigurability, shop floor processing system reconfigurability, and reconfigurable information platforms.
The most prominent advantage of reconfigurable systems is their ability to alter their architecture to match specific application requirements. Facing the ever-changing market, how to enable manufacturing systems to respond quickly and economically to shifting market demands presents a significant challenge for today's manufacturing industry. Traditional mechanized automated production lines offer economies of scale for batch production but lack agility in responding to market shifts. While flexible manufacturing systems can shorten product prototyping and production cycles, they require substantial investment with long payback periods. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a new manufacturing paradigm that combines the benefits of mass production with rapid adaptability to dynamic, changing manufacturing environments, while fully leveraging existing manufacturing resources. In this context, the recently proposed reconfigurable manufacturing system presents an effective solution to meet these demands.
Additionally, Siemens' recommended TIA Portal (博途) represents an innovative engineering software platform developed by Siemens based on the TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) concept. It manages all automation tasks within a single engineering configuration environment, simplifying designers' work, enhancing efficiency, and reducing costs. By achieving unified communication, unified programming, and unified data, it forms a complete, organically integrated system. This fulfills the industry's expectation for a fully integrated platform to execute automation solutions, enabling centralized management of product design, mechanical design, and automation design within a single software suite. Consequently, it stands as the most intuitive, efficient, and reliable engineering technology software platform available today. This development warrants attention within the industrial control sector.
X. Universalization of Simulation and Modeling
Networked modeling and simulation technology represents a current research hotspot in the field. Its technical scope and application models are continuously expanding and evolving alongside advancements in networking technology. The rapid development of networking and computing technologies is ushering us into the era of ubiquitous computing. Ubiquitous computing establishes an information space composed of computing and communication, merging with the physical space of human life to form an intelligent environment.
Within this intelligent space, individuals can transparently access computing and information services anytime, anywhere. Networked modeling and simulation technology will evolve toward universalization. "Universal simulation technology," integrating ubiquitous computing, achieves the convergence of information and physical spaces, propelling modern modeling and simulation research, development, and application into a new era.
For future complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic ubiquitous computing environments, ubiquitous simulation systems exhibit the following fundamental characteristics:
⑴ Ubiquitous Accessibility: Simulation resources are omnipresent. Leveraging grid technology, simulation grids enable the service-oriented provision of diverse software and hardware simulation resources within daily life. This shields users from complex, heterogeneous ubiquitous computing environments, making simulation resources universally available and addressing the issue of "ubiquity."
⑵ Anytime, Anywhere: Users can access simulation services at their work or living locations without being tethered to a dedicated computer. Grid technology extends simulation application terminals to every corner of the network, completely freeing users from temporal and spatial constraints. Any networked device can access simulation resources and services within the grid environment, fulfilling the requirement for "anytime, anywhere" access.
⑶ Adaptive: The simulation information space provides coherent simulation services that adapt to changing conditions, delivering computational environments tailored to user needs.
⑷ Transparent: Users access simulation services with minimal conscious effort. The interaction is highly natural-even unnoticed by the user-embodying what is termed implicit interaction.
Integrating ubiquitous computing concepts and technologies into simulation grids effectively addresses the emerging requirements of ubiquitous simulation environments-mobility, adaptability, intelligence, and application models-enabling simulation information spaces to deliver adaptive environments and consistent services tailored to user needs. The converged technology of grid computing and ubiquitous computing-ubiquitous simulation grid technology-will emerge as a new focal point in networked modeling and simulation research and applications.
In summary, the current top ten trends in automation technology reveal that automation innovation can be summarized in several key words: integration, communication, collaboration, energy efficiency, safety, standards, and openness. This has also given rise to numerous new products and concepts. For many years, new automation has been the most direct force driving the rapid development of manufacturing. This force, inevitably powered by the driving force of "innovation," will undoubtedly shine brilliantly in the era of intelligent manufacturing!