Control technology is the "brain" of every automation technology application. Especially in the age of Industry 4.0, it will be exciting to see where the technology is heading and what users in particular expect for the future. To find out, Computer&AUTOMATION conducted an online survey between November 2016 and April 2017. A total of 253 participants gave their detailed opinions on the following topics, among others:

• Which control concepts do you use today?
• How will architectures change over the next few years?
• How important is IEC 61131-3 in particular - today and tomorrow?

In addition to the assessment of technological trends, the study participants were asked how they rate the suppliers they know in terms of their strengths and weaknesses - including the quality of the software and hardware offered, support, price/performance ratio, documentation, availability of development information, etc.

The status quo in terms of control architecture - a further shift towards decentralized intelligence is already foreseeable.

© Computers&AUTOMATION

One result of the survey: Currently, almost 30% of companies still favor a purely centralized control approach, while almost 10% already have the control intelligence completely on site at the machine modules. And in the future, architectures will continue to develop in the direction of decentralization - at least 42% of participants are convinced of this.

As far as software is concerned, three out of four respondents use development environments that are IEC 61131-3 compatible. In first place is Step 7 / TIA Portal from Siemens, followed by Codesys(3S-Smart Software Solutions) and high-level language tools. Solutions such as Twincat(Beckhoff), Automation Studio(B&R) and IndraWorks(Bosch Rexroth) are in second place (multiple answers possible!).

When asked what features and criteria the development environment must meet in the future, a clear trend towards the integration of functions that have generally been handled with separate tools to date emerged. Last but not least, the survey participants also commented on aspects such as What role does the topic of object orientation play? What is the status of testing? What measures are being taken with regard to security and what importance do you attach to cloud & co. in the field of control technology?

The complete study comprises 230 pages and is available from the WEKA Fachmedien online store. There you will also find a detailed table of contents for the survey items.