{"id":47770,"date":"2025-10-15T11:09:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T09:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressroom-rbt.com\/?p=47770"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:58:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:58:49","slug":"academia-and-industry-discuss-iec-61499","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressroom-rbt.com\/en\/academia-and-industry-discuss-iec-61499\/","title":{"rendered":"Academia and industry discuss IEC 61499"},"content":{"rendered":"
On September 9 and 10, 2025, the international who\u2019s who of the universal automation community gathered at the University of Porto (Universidade do Porto), as various events on IEC standard 61499 were on the agenda of this year\u2019s 30th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA). One of the seven conference workshops held on the first day, for example, was dedicated to the topic: \u201cAdvancing Industrial Automation: Best Practices and Innovations with IEC 61499\u201d, which focused on engineering practices for IEC 61499, vendor-independent commissioning, plug & produce, low-code engineering, and the open-source framework Eclipse 4diac based on IEC 61499. The technology company Kongsberg Maritime also provided insight into how it automates safety-critical processes in Norwegian offshore facilities using IEC 61499.<\/p>\n
The workshop was organized by Prof. Alois Zoitl (LIT Cyber-Physical Systems Lab at Johannes Kepler University Linz), Prof. Valeriy Vyatkin (LTU and Aalto University Finland), Dr. Franco Cavadini (Chief Technical Officer at Gr3n), and Inna Arkhipova (Academic Program Manager at UniversalAutomation.Org). The university professors, Zoitl and Vyatkin, are considered two of the most influential minds in the field of IEC 61499, and Franco Cavadini works for a Swiss start-up, which has opted for an automation approach based on IEC 61499 for its innovative plastic recycling process. Inna Arkhipova is responsible for supporting and connecting members from the academic community at UniversalAutomation.Org.<\/p>\n
Industry Forum bringing academia and industry together<\/strong><\/p>\n
In addition to the workshop on the first day of the ETFA conference, the second day also featured a session of the Industry Forum dedicated entirely to vendor-independent automation. Moderated by \u0160ejla Traki\u0107 and Franco Cavadini, the two panel sessions were attended by representatives from various industrial sectors who have already successfully worked with IEC 61499 in practice. Among them were system integrators such as Stephen Maltby from Platinum (UK) and Zakaria Bencherki from Armony System (France). Representatives from renowned international industrial companies were also in attendance, including from Stratus, Yokogawa, and Novo Nordisk. The first panel was titled \u201cIEC 61499 in Practice: Experience Exchange about Implementing the Technology,\u201d while the second panel was titled \u201cInfrastructural control architecture: Bridging OT and IT through Open Standards, Modular Hardware, and IEC 61499-Enabled Control\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with the Industry Forum session we co-organized, at UAO we also believe it is very important to bring academia and industry together in our community,\u201d emphasizes \u0160ejla Traki\u0107, Member Success Manager at UAO. \u201cBoth sides can benefit enormously from each other. Moreover, these universities are also training the engineers of tomorrow. And we are naturally delighted that more and more institutions are deciding to teach an open and IT-oriented automation approach in accordance with IEC 61499.\u201d<\/p>\n
Runtime Execution Engine as the basis for vendor-independent automation<\/strong><\/p>\n
UniversalAutomation.Org provides an independent automation layer for OT components in the form of a shared source runtime execution engine with no license fees that can be used for automation in accordance with IEC 61499 specifications. With this approach, which was first formulated in 2005, the control logic does not depend on a single component; it can be freely distributed \u2013 independent of the vendor \u2013 to all devices in a system equipped with a CPU. Because the function blocks in IEC 61499 also operate independently of global variables, the software modules stored in vendor-neutral function libraries can be reused much more easily and independently.<\/p>\n
UAO\u2019s Runtime Execution Engine enables this type of automation by fundamentally decoupling the proprietary link between automation hardware and software. The advantage of this approach for users is that code only needs to be created once and can then be reused across multiple providers and installed on various hardware components in a decentralized manner. It also renders hardware and software lifecycles completely independent of each other, making it easier to manage issues such as integration and migration. UniversalAutomation.Org has recently grown to include more than 110 member companies.<\/p>\n
Automation for the next generation<\/strong><\/p>\n
In addition to manufacturers, system integrators, machine builders and the manufacturing industry, universities and other teaching and research institutions account for a significant proportion of UAO members. Interested institutions are also able to obtain special teaching materials from the organization for creating seminars and lectures on the topic of IEC 61499.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowadays, university students are profoundly influenced by the rapid technological developments happening around us,\u201d says Inna Arkhipova, University Program Manager at UAO. \u201cTo many, today\u2019s automation seems like something from a cherished past. For example, the fact that freedom in engineering is still restricted by proprietary systems is difficult for many to understand. This makes vendor-independent automation based on IT logic all the more attractive and in keeping with the times, as it enables the implementation of significantly more resource-efficient and adaptable systems.\u201d<\/p>\n