Glossary · PLC and control programming
Software-defined automation
Also known as: SDA, Software-defined control
German: Software-definierte Automatisierung
In industrial automation, software-defined automation is an approach in which control functions are decoupled from specific hardware and deployed, updated and managed as software, for example as virtual PLCs on industrial PCs, edge servers or virtualized infrastructure.
- PLC programming
In one sentence
Software-defined automation decouples control functions from hardware and manages them as software, for example as virtual PLCs.
Example
A plant runs several virtual PLCs in containers on a redundant edge server and deploys updates through a central orchestration tool.
How it applies
- Engineering: Software-defined automation borrows IT practices: virtualization, containers, orchestration, version control and automated testing. IEC 61499 and hardware-independent runtimes support the idea of moving control applications between devices.
- Real time: Deterministic behavior on shared hardware is the main technical challenge. Time-critical control still needs guaranteed Latency and jitter, which must be verified on the target infrastructure.
- Security: More software and more networked infrastructure widen the attack surface. The security architecture, zones and conduits follow IEC 62443.
- Documentation: Documentation shifts from device-centered to deployment-centered: which application version runs where, with which configuration, and how it is updated and rolled back. Deployment descriptions become part of the technical documentation.
Software-defined automation vs. PC-based control
PC-based control moves control from dedicated hardware to an industrial PC. Software-defined automation goes further by treating control applications as deployable software units independent of any specific device.