Some industry experts believe that traditional industrial automation is actually part of the Internet of Things (IoT). As a convergence point of information technology and automation, the IoT has immense potential and advantages. Some organizations have keenly recognized the potential of the IoT in optimizing management processes and production workflows, and have achieved initial success.
From the perspective of "management, control, and intelligence," the Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial automation are inherently related. Industrial automation includes data collection, transmission, and computation, while the IoT emphasizes comprehensive sensing, reliable transmission, and intelligent processing; the two are interconnected. The IoT simply places greater emphasis on wireless, massive data acquisition, and intelligent computing. Looking at the industrial chain required by the IoT, the automatic control, information sensing, and RFID technologies it requires belong to its upstream technologies and industries, while the downstream involves IoT applications.
In today's interconnected world, the scale of industrial information systems is perhaps the largest. The Internet of Things (IoT) equips sensors onto various real-world objects, such as power generation systems and power grids, rail transit, roads and bridges, tunnels, buildings, water supply systems, dams, dikes, and home appliances. Through various network technologies such as RFID, sensors, and 2D barcodes, these objects are connected via the internet to run specific programs, achieving remote control or direct communication between things. Because of the IoT, not only can people and objects communicate and interact, but objects can also communicate and interact with each other.
Automation is the foundation of industrialization. The field of automation has developed for nearly a century, and its theory and practice are now highly sophisticated. In particular, the DCS (Distributed Control System), which emerged with the rise of automation in modern large-scale industrial production and the increasing complexity of process control requirements, is a product of the integration of computer technology, system control technology, network communication technology, and multimedia technology. The concept of DCS is distributed control and centralized management. In this process, all automated equipment is networked and can be monitored at the control center, while operators centrally manage the equipment.
