Making Legacy Automation Part of the Smart Manufacturing Revolution

　　物聯(lián)網(wǎng)產(chǎn)業(yè)（IIoT）是智能制造的關(guān)鍵推動者，或工業(yè)4（第四次工業(yè)革命），結(jié)合大數(shù)據(jù)來提高生產(chǎn)自動化，減少浪費(fèi)和能源消耗，提高工廠的靈活性。智能制造和IIoT可以使企業(yè)提高生產(chǎn)力的關(guān)鍵績效指標(biāo)，設(shè)備正常運(yùn)行和產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量。公司可能熱衷于利用現(xiàn)有的機(jī)會，但不太確定如何改變，而不會造成不可接受的中斷或浪費(fèi)他們的投資在現(xiàn)有的設(shè)備。目前的機(jī)器可以代表一個(gè)顯著的資本承諾，業(yè)主可能不準(zhǔn)備從事批發(fā)更換，或升級項(xiàng)目，可能涉及重新編程控制器，如PLC。PLC程序可以是復(fù)雜的，即使有足夠的已知的當(dāng)前程序的成功修改是可能的，PLC本身可能沒有足夠的額外資源，以支持額外的功能。

　　Adding Smart to existing facilities

　　To address these concerns， some organizations have explored approaches to introducing web connectivity as an add-on to an existing installation. This can help to lower the cost of entry to smart manufacturing， especially in cases where the installed equipment may contain large numbers of sensors that are used for basic process control. Although rich data may be collected， the lack of external connectivity prevents the organization from realizing its full value.

　　The Industrial Internet Consortium （IIC） has published the Smart Manufacturing Connectivity Testbed， which proposes a solution for extracting data that normally flows through an I/O module to the PLC. This testbed replaces conventional I/O modules with a gateway that sends the data to an IT system through an additional communication channel using the industry-standard OPC Unified Architecture protocol. By using open standards for communication and a common device model， the IIC proposal enables users to configure and manipulate the sensors via the IT system.