Opto 22 releases white paper on Edge Programmable Industrial Controllers

Opto 22 announced the release of a new white paper, “Meet the Future: Edge Programmable Industrial Controllers,” which discusses how controls engineers can meet demands for obtaining, using and sharing data.

The white paper focuses on three main communication challenges: complexity, security, and expense. IIoT and other data-intensive automation applications typically require many steps and a lot of middleware: hardware, drivers, parsers, and custom software.

These steps are time-consuming to set up, difficult to maintain and change, and create major security concerns. This white paper explains how a new kind of industrial controller—an edge programmable industrial controller, or EPIC—can simplify and secure automation and IIoT projects. In addition to IIoT and data-based projects, EPIC devices can be also used to provide real-time control for all kinds of traditional automation applications.

Included application examples bring these concepts to life by demonstrating how automation professionals are using EPIC devices to improve operations.

EPIC devices are designed to free users to focus on what they want to do: connect legacy systems and smart systems, get data, transform it into actionable information, visualize it when and where they want, and perform real-time control.

Because EPIC systems are scalable, they can be applied to smaller applications and then expanded, allowing users to see how EPIC can work before committing significant resources.