About Inductive Automation
Ignition by Inductive Automation is a powerful integrated development environment (IDE) with the software you need to create virtually any kind of industrial application—SCADA, IIoT, MES, and beyond—all on one platform.
Unlike traditional SCADA software, Ignition offers modular pricing, unlimited licensing, cutting-edge IIoT communication technology, and the ability to be deployed on a variety of operating systems.
For more information, please visit Inductive Automation.
Integration with Opto 22
Opto 22’s groov EPIC edge programmable industrial controllers and the groov RIO GRV-R7-MM2001-10 edge I/O module come with Inductive Automation’s Ignition Edge®.
Ignition Edge is specifically designed and optimized for edge-of-network devices. It’s a lightweight version of Ignition that comes with unlimited tags, drivers to third-party PLCs, and a variety of data-transfer protocol options. Your groov EPIC or groov RIO with Ignition Edge can do things like enable data buffering, publish and subscribe to data through MQTT, supply remote alarming, and more. Try it out for free, then license Ignition Edge when you're ready to move ahead with your project.
You can also license groov EPIC to run full Ignition SCADA software, giving you external access to the onboard OPC UA server and the ability to run additional Ignition modules (SQL-Bridge, Reporting, MES, and many more).
What problems can it solve?
For remote monitoring and control
The problem: Issues you may encounter in remote applications include inefficient poll-response messaging, network bandwidth usage over cellular connections, unreliable internet connections, and security concerns.
The solution: Ignition Edge supports publish-subscribe technology via the MQTT protocol with report by exception, greatly improving efficiency in remote communication. MQTT with Sparkplug B payload is a lightweight protocol that requires very little network bandwidth. The ability to store and forward buffered data is critical for applications with unreliable network connections. And security vulnerabilities are greatly reduced, thanks to groov products' fully configurable firewall, Ignition’s encrypted communications, and the elimination of one-to-many connections through publish-subscribe architecture.
For connecting to cloud applications
The problem: Sending plant floor or machine sensor and actuator data to a cloud application (such as AWS or Azure), typically requires many layers of hardware and software in between. These layers could include a PLC, an OPC server running on a PC, an HMI, firewalls, and a communications gateway or software middleware.
The solution: The groov EPIC or groov RIO hardware running Ignition Edge flattens the architecture, combining all of these components onto one device.
For edge computing
The problem: Despite the proliferation of cloud-based solutions, industrial applications often require computation in real time at the edge of your network. Tasks such as pre-processing, formatting, and contextualizing real-time data before sending it to cloud and IT-centric software applications typically require a dedicated, industrially hardened computer in tandem with the PLC.
The solution: Ignition Edge with Sparkplug B lets you contextualize disparate plant-floor data via a unified namespace, and it supports scripting. With groov EPIC or groov RIO, you can securely access their Linux® shell to run custom applications and code in higher-level languages of your choice, such as Python and C/C++.
For brownfield applications
The problem: You may have existing control systems in place but need to access their data for other purposes, like storing and analyzing historical data or providing data for business decisions. The prospect of tampering with a PLC already in operation is daunting, as well as time and cost prohibitive.
The solution: The OPC UA server and PLC drivers in Ignition Edge, running on groov EPIC or groov RIO, make this data available to other applications without disturbing existing PLCs.
Have questions or an application you’d like to discuss? Please contact us.