Episodes
Monday Mar 08, 2021
Monday Mar 08, 2021
So here's the thing, data from industrial sources is inherently messy. For example, a typical PLC system manages thousands of tags from both physical instruments and internal calculations, but this data is often unstructured, not linked to a unifying data model, and uses naming conventions that are vague to the outside world.
This makes data from such sources not readily usable in analytics applications and has led to the emergence of a new field of industrial data preprocessing for IIoT, called Industrial DataOps.
To discuss more on industrial DataOps, I had a conversation with John Harrington who is the Co-Founder of HighByte, a company pioneering this field with their HighByte Intelligence Hub.
Here some of the topics that we discussed.
✔️ What is Industrial IoT DataOps
✔️ Limitations of the Purdue Model/ISA-95
✔️ The importance of Data Quality
✔️ Data Standardisation, Normalisation and Contextualisation
✔️ Best Practices for integrating industrial data silos
✔️ Principles of IIoT Data Modelling
✔️ How DataOps enforces privacy and security
✔️ HighByte Intelligence Hub
John has previously worked as the VP of Business Strategy at PTC, and he's also served as the VP of Product Management at Kepware Technologies.
Wednesday Jan 20, 2021
Wednesday Jan 20, 2021
Cliché as it may sound, data IS the new Oil. But, to fully reap the benefits, data needs to be properly collected and advanced analytics correctly applied to it.
To better understand the process, I had a conversation with one person who has close to 3 decades of building industrial data aggregation and advanced visualisation tools, Marcos Taccolini.
Marc is currently the Founder and CTO of Tatsoft, a platform developer for real-time factory-floor data monitoring, SCADA and HMI Systems, Distributed Data Aggregation, and Advanced Visualization Tools.
Below, is the outline of our conversation.
✔️Collecting Real-Time Data
✔️Collecting Enterprise Data
✔️Plant-Floor to Cloud Integration
✔️Integrating Structured and Unstructured Data
✔️Data Lakes for Plant-Floor Data
✔️MQTT Sparkplug B
✔️Role of OPC UA in IIoT Dataflow
✔️Real-Time Metrics Tracking
✔️Advanced Analytics Best Approach
✔️OEE Explained
✔️Plant-Floor Machine Learning Applications
✔️Operational Intelligence with the Digital Twin
✔️Tatsoft, FrameworX, and Factory Studio
Marc also previously served as the Founder of Indusoft, a provider of HMI and embedded intelligent device software, which was acquired by Invensys. He was also the co-founder of Unitec and Unisoft.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
While the connectivity of industrial systems is the most important aspect of IIoT, there is currently a confusing mix of connectivity technologies and standards.
To understand IIoT Connectivity I had a conversation with Stan Schneider, who specialises in innovation where pervasive networking meets functional AI
Stan is CEO of Real-Time Innovations (RTI), the world’s largest software framework provider for smart machines & real-world systems such as power plants & autonomous vehicles
Here's what we discussed
✔️ Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework
✔️ Why Connectivity Technologies Don't overlap
✔️ Why Connectivity Wrappers Don't Work
✔️ Industrial Connectivity Stack
✔️ The Core Connectivity Standard Architecture
✔️ Data Distribution Service Explained
✔️ OPC UA vs DDS
RTI software runs over 1500 designs including the largest power plants in North America, the Canadian Air Traffic Control system, NASA's launch control system, nearly all Navy ships, GE Healthcare's hospital device networks, Siemens wind turbine farms, trains, & metro control systems, & over 250 autonomous vehicle designs
Stan holds a PhD from Stanford in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science with a focus on Autonomous Systems.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
The success of IIoT in mission-critical applications depends on its ability to support local storage, compute, and connectivity for real-time responses, while sending selected data to the cloud for additional analytics. In short, Edge Computing
To gain a comprehensive understanding of Edge Computing, I sat down with somebody whose day job is strategising and executing at the intersection of 5G, Edge Computing, and the Internet of Things, Rob Tiffany
Rob is currently VP and Head of IoT Strategy at Ericsson
Here's what we discussed
✔️ Edge Computing Intro
✔️ Edge Computing Architecture Trends
✔️ Edge Computing Frameworks
✔️ Edge Analytics
✔️ Digital Twins in Edge Computing
✔️ Edge Solution Orchestration
✔️ Security Challenges & Solutions
✔️ Role of Edge Computing in 5G
✔️ Moab Foundation
Rob was previously, the CTO & Global Product Manager at Hitachi, where he created the Lumada IIoT platform. He was also the Global Technology Lead at Microsoft, where he was one of the co-authors of the Azure IoT Reference Architecture. Rob is the Executive Director of the Moab Foundation, a non-profit organisation working to create a more sustainable planet through the application of connected intelligence
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Ep 02 : Principles of IIoT Architecture - Rick Bullota (Co-Founder, Thingworx)
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Having a solid understanding of the key components of an IIoT architecture and how to integrate them is the most important aspect of building an IIoT application, both as an in-house solution and as a service offering
So, to help shed light on the principles of IIoT architecture design, I had a discussion with one person who is best positioned to speak on the subject, Rick Bullotta
Rick Co-Founded Thingworx, which is one of the first and arguably the most successful IIoT platform to date
Here's what we discussed
✔️ IIoT Architectural Patterns
✔️ Edge Computing
✔️ IIoT Gateway Selection
✔️ Integration Mechanisms
✔️ Communication Protocols
✔️ IIoT Security
✔️ Request-Response vs Publish-Subscribe
✔️ IIoT Platform selection
✔️ Avoiding Vendor Lock-In
✔️ Cloud to Cloud Integration
✔️ Effects of Data Residency
✔️ Private Cloud vs Public Cloud
Among other diverse roles, Rick previously served as Partner Director at Microsoft, where he helped define and drive Azure IoT Strategy. He was also previously CTO and Director at Wonderware, and he was a VP with SAP Research, focusing on future manufacturing. Rick was also the CTO and co-founder of Lighthammer Software Development
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Ep 01 : The Ultimate Guide to Digital Twins - Pieter van Schalkwyk (CEO, XMPRO)
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Digital Twins will, undoubtedly, transform how manufacturers build and maintain products. From consumer goods to complex structures such as buildings and aircraft.
But as of now, confusion and lack of its grasp are limiting adoption.
To understand the technology better, I had a conversation with Pieter van Schalkwyk, whose company has helped Fortune 10 companies build Digital Twins.
Here's what we discussed
✔️ What is a digital twin?
✔️ Digital modeling concepts
✔️ Types of digital twins
✔️ Digital Twin formats
✔️ Tools and frameworks
✔️ Step by Step Process
✔️ Interfacing with digital twins
✔️ Digital Twin vs Digital Thread
✔️ AI and ML in Digital Twins
✔️ Digital Twins and Blockchain
✔️ Digital Twin Consortium
Pieter is the CEO of XMPRO, a low-code application development platform that enables subject matter experts to build and deploy real-time applications in weeks.
He currently serves as the co-chair of the Natural Resources Working Group for the Digital Twin Consortium & previously co-chaired the Digital Twin Interoperability, Industrial Digital Transformation, & Distributed Ledger Task Groups at the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)