Industrial embedded software will also be integrated into UAO, just like Android.

Greg Boucaud, Chief Marketing Officer at the Universal Automation Association, argued that to fully realize the potential of industrial IoT, it is necessary to use open platforms to separate software and hardware and restructure into a technology model that fundamentally improves system agility and scalability. He asserted that industrial sites must move away from closed automation platforms, which incur high maintenance and upgrade costs, and instead share open runtime engines.

Schneider Electric Korea (Country Representative Kim Kyung-rok), a global company leading digital innovation in the field of energy management and automation, [affiliated with] the Universal Automation Association (Universal Automation. We held a media briefing at the Press Center on the 23rd to share insights on universal automation together with Org, UAO.

At the meeting, Greg Boucaud, Chief Marketing Officer of the Universal Automation Association, introduced the association's role and significance in promoting universal automation. Kim Gun, Manager of the Industrial Automation Division at Schneider Electric Korea, Kwon Jong-won, Center Director at the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL), and Lee Myung-seop, Vice President of Isaac Engineering, all members of the association, participated to share the significance of joining the UAO and related experiences.

At the event, Greg Bouchard stated, “As digital innovation accelerates, the adoption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has sped up, but industrial sites are still operating inefficiently using closed automation platforms that incur high upgrade and maintenance costs.” He added, “To fully realize the potential of Industrial IoT, we must use open platforms to separate software and hardware and reconfigure into a technology model that fundamentally improves system agility and scalability.”

The Universal Automation Association is a non-profit, independent industrial automation organization established in 2021 to realize the spread of such open automation.

Based on the IEC 61499 standard, which defines the separation of hardware and software, the goal is to share the Runtime Engine, an automation software component, across automation technologies regardless of the vendor's specific brand.

Accordingly, equipment manufacturers, equipment engineers, system integrators, end customers, and educational institutions are collaborating to promote the widespread adoption of universal automation for distributed control systems.

Currently, the Universal Automation Association includes global industrial companies such as Schneider Electric, Omron, Cognex, Yokogawa, Phoenix Contact, and Intel.In addition to companies, the membership includes end customers and system integrators (SIs) such as Hyundai Motor, Shell, ExxonMobil, Cargill, and Isaac Engineering, as well as educational institutions and government agencies such as the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL), the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Huazhong University in China, and Edith Cowan University in Australia. To promote the spread of open automation, approximately 80 member companies have participated to date, and 11 manufacturers, including Schneider Electric, have already launched products with built-in UAO runtime engines.

Schneider Electric is introducing EcoStruxure Automation Expert, an open automation solution with a built-in UAO runtime engine.

This is the world's first general-purpose automation product based on the IEC 61499 standard, enabling the construction of software-centric automation applications by independently modeling and deploying software applications regardless of the underlying hardware infrastructure. Engineers can improve work efficiency by automating tedious manual tasks and eliminating redundant work.

Greg Boucaud, Chief Marketing Officer at the Universal Automation Association, stated, “While today’s automation systems excel in terms of automation, speed, and quality, it is difficult to upgrade existing systems to include Industry 4.0 capabilities. This is because today’s automation systems are primarily based on proprietary frameworks, which reduces user flexibility and increases costs.” He added, “The Universal Automation Association enables users to utilize software independently of hardware, thereby reducing development costs and providing high flexibility and enhanced quality. Furthermore, we will strive globally to realize efficient open automation across industries by encouraging the participation of more vendors to expand the ecosystem of products with built-in UAO runtimes.”