Wireless transfer of large format entertainment data – music, video, and photos – between devices at short range is imminent. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced a new way it will provide for consumers’ growing need for speed.

The Bluetooth SIG is developing an innovative method of radio substitution. It will allow the well known Bluetooth protocols, profiles, security and pairing to be used in consumer devices while achieving faster throughput with momentary use of a secondary radio already present in the device. This architecture, called ‘Alternate MAC/PHY’ by Bluetooth SIG members working on the specification, is taking on a two-phased approach as SIG member companies drive the specification forward.

“This is the wireless technology equivalent of ‘low hanging fruit,’” said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, the Bluetooth SIG. “What we’re doing is taking classic Bluetooth connections – using Bluetooth protocols, profiles, security and other architectural elements – and allowing it to jump on top of the already present 802.11 radio, when necessary, to send bulky entertainment data, faster. When the speed of 802.11 is overkill, the connection returns to normal operation on a Bluetooth radio for optimal power management and performance.”

In 2006, the Bluetooth SIG announced the selection of the WiMedia Alliance brand of ultra wideband technology as a high speed channel for Bluetooth technology. This development work continues between the two organizations in advance of widespread ultra wideband technology adoption – expected to be co-located in many Bluetooth devices. In the meantime, however, the SIG will make use of IEEE 802.11, a technology already present in many of the devices demanding greater speeds.

This two-phased roadmap for higher speeds will allow for a steady evolution in Bluetooth devices utilizing the presence of 802.11 today while continuing preparations for the presence of ultra wideband in the near future. “We’re committed to speedy wireless personal area network connections and we’ll always be looking for the best near term and long term way to accomplish that,” adds Foley. “The greatness of a generic alternate radio architecture being developed is that it’s adaptable.” Read more »

To effectively manage real-time control and information flow throughout the manufacturing and IT enterprise, Rockwell Automation is introducing a full portfolio of industrial Ethernet switches and media, featuring a line of managed switches integrated with Cisco technology. The Rockwell Automation switch portfolio also includes Ethernet switch technology embedded in popular Rockwell Automation and third-party products allowing for flexible topologies, as well as lines of unmanaged switches and physical media. The portfolio contains many popular features that are in use today by IT and Controls organizations that deploy standard, unmodified Ethernet, with settings optimized for use in EtherNet/IP applications. “The co-branded line of modular managed switches directly addresses the widespread network convergence activities we see in manufacturing and IT organizations today,” said Brian Oulton, director, Networks Marketing, Rockwell Automation. “By combining the best features of Cisco and Rockwell Automation, we enable IT and manufacturing to bring their best practices together to create business efficiencies, agility and competitive advantage for manufacturers.”

The Rockwell Automation switch portfolio includes modular managed, embedded, fixed managed and unmanaged switches:

Modular Managed Switches: This Rockwell Automation and Cisco integrated and co-branded industrial managed switch line is the first of its kind. The line uses the current Cisco Catalyst switch architecture and feature set, along with powerful configuration tools, helping to provide secure integration with the enterprise network and making IT professionals feel at home.

At the same time, it allows for easy setup and comprehensive diagnostics from within the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture™. The switch can be configured using Allen-Bradley RSLogix 5000 programming software. It also automatically generates Logix tags for integrated diagnostics and includes FactoryTalk View faceplates for status monitoring and alarming. All of these features are the preferred way for controls and automation professionals to integrate networked devices.

In addition, the modular managed switch includes a removable compact flash card for one-step device replacement and default configurations for the manufacturing environment. Modular and industrially rated, the product line scales from six to 26 ports with options for copper and fiber to meet a variety of applications. This switch line will be available for shipment in mid-2008.

“Cisco is pleased to extend its collaboration with Rockwell Automation in the joint integration and co-branding of a highly secure and easy-to-use switch that is ideal for manufacturing environments,” said Shripati Acharya, director of Product Management of Cisco’s Desktop Switching Business Unit. “Together with Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture and Cisco’s market leadership in Ethernet switching, customers gain a cutting-edge switch that extends the benefits of industry-standard Ethernet from the back office to the factory floor for improved collaboration and information flow.”

Embedded Switch Technology for Linear & Ring Topologies: Rockwell Automation embeds Ethernet switch technology directly into popular automation equipment – such as programmable automation controllers, distributed I/O and drives – to allow for better configuration choices for EtherNet/IP applications, such as daisy-chain and ring topologies.

The technology allows for high-performance ring capability (make/break < 1ms), complete with diagnostics. The hardware embeds popular switch features useful in high- performance applications without the need for configuration. These features include IEEE-1588 time synchronization, QoS (prioritization), SFTP for ring configurations (fault-tolerance), IGMP snooping and cut-through. These features are common to the new line of managed switches and help improve network performance and troubleshooting, and allow for more network availability. A standalone three-port module will be available with the initial release of products and will allow single port Ethernet devices to participate in the new topologies. This technology is openly available to third parties, beginning in mid-2008.

Read more »

The UC-7122/7124 embedded computers come with 2 or 4 RS-232/422/485 serial ports and dual 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN ports to provide users with a versatile communication platform, making these RISC-based embedded computers ideal for your embedded applications.
The pre-installed WinCE 5.0 operating system provides a common Windows-based software operating system for software program development. This means that software written in Visual C/C++, VB, and .NET for desktop PCs is easily ported to the UC-7122/7124 by using a general programming tool such as Microsoft Embedded Visual C++ or Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. You will not need to spend time modifying existing software code, and the operating system, device drivers, and your own software can all be stored in the UC-7122/7124’s Flash memory.

Target Markets

• Industrial Automation
• Building Automation
• Transportation Automation Read more »

Symbol Factory for ArchestrA Key Features:

Built for Now & the Future - ArchestrA Symbols built specifically for InTouch 10 and beyond.

Scalable - Symbols are vector based and scale independent of screen resolution. The symbols leverage the vector graphics capabilities of the ArchestrA Symbol Editor

Animatable - Every part of the symbol is available for connecting your custom properties and animations to achieve just the look you want. Read more »

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Sept. 5, 2007 – Wonderware, a business unit of Invensys plc, announced today four major new offerings that are designed to help customers break down barriers to achieving operational excellence across their manufacturing and industrial businesses.

“These releases represent some of the most significant breakthroughs that Wonderware has delivered in its 20-year history,” said Mike Bradley Sr., Wonderware’s president. “We have invested more than 100 person-years to ensure that these offerings and our channels can deliver on real-world software performance and productivity that will continue to enable our customers to meet some of their toughest operations, engineering and IT challenges.”

InTouch 10.0 software is the next breakthrough generation of the world’s most popular HMI software and adds new innovative ArchestrA graphics capability. The intelligent graphics capability, along with direct support for Microsoft .NET technology, enables InTouch 10.0 HMI to provide enterprise-wide visualization for a wide range of real-time applications. With more than 200 new features, InTouch 10.0 HMI delivers the latest intuitive graphical interaction and animation techniques for maximum operator response and comprehension, while minimizing design and engineering efforts. Read more »

Bartlesville, Oklahoma, June 20, 2007 – ABB released a compact natural gas chromatograph that provides precise and reliable measurement of a wide range of natural gas values, including hydrocarbon dew point, a key natural gas quality parameter. The NGC 8209 provides this expanded range of natural gas composition analysis (from C6+ to C9+) in a compact unit that is easier to install, operate and maintain than traditional gas chromatographs.

Hydrocarbon dew point is a complex, difficult to measure natural gas parameter that is computed from gas composition data gathered from the pipeline. Natural gas producers, gatherers, processors, transporters, suppliers, industrial and commercial consumers need accurate and reliable knowledge of this and other vital parameters (such as heating value, relative density, composition) to ensure the quality of their product, as well as to determine its precise quantity when transferring the product for sale. ABB’s NGC 8209 provides a very precise and dependable gas chromatograph to obtain these key measurements; its compact size and streamlined, modular design make it easy to install, use and maintain on natural gas pipelines. Read more »

If you are trying to connect to a remote OPC server from Windows XP SP2 and you are getting the message “DCOM was unable to communicate with the computer using any of the configured protocols”, then think about the additional security features and firewall configuration provided by Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Let’s consider the following points while configuring XP SP2 for OPC communication.

• “Turn Off” firewall only for testing purpose (OPC client should work if firewall is “Off” and DCOM settings are correct). 
• If firewall is “On”, proceed with the following steps.   
  • Goto “Exceptions” tab and select “Add Program”. Add all OPC Clients & Servers and OPCEnum.exe to the list.
  • Select “Add Port” and add TCP port 135 (which is required for DCOM)
• Start DComcnfg.exe and select “COM Security” Tab.
• Edit the limits for “Access Permission” and provide Local and Remote access for Anonymous Login.
• Edit the limits for “Launch Permission” and provide full access to “Every one”

Hope this info will help to solve your OPC issues from Windows XP SP2 clients.

RoboCup is an international joint project to promote AI, robotics, and related field. It is an attempt to foster AI and intelligent robotics research by providing a standard problem where wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined.

Here is a clip taken during Robocup 2006

RoboCup chose to use soccer game as a central topic of research, aiming at innovations to be applied for socially significant problems and industries. The ultimate goal of the RoboCup project is By 2050, develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that can win against the human world champion team in soccer. More

Microsoft has sponsored RoboCup 2007 in Atlanta and will host competitive soccer matches using the Microsoft Robotics Studio. The matches are simulation-based and will be hosted within the Microsoft Robotics Studio physics-based 3D simulation environment which uses the licensed PhysX™ engine from AGEIA™ Technologies Inc.

While this contest will demonstrate a competitive simulation environment, Microsoft is also working with robot manufacturers developing hardware for RoboCup to demonstrate how easily player competition software can be transferred to physical robots.

Download the preview of the soccer simulation for Microsoft Robotics Studio today, which includes a 3D simulated soccer field and scoring services.