Changes to the automation architecture: Impact of technology on control systems algorithms

Since the introduction of distributed control systems in the 1970s the layout of the automation architecture has remained largely unchanged. There now is a wide gap between software used for consumer electronics and software used for industrial production processes with the former outperforming the latter by magnitudes. With the advent of Industrie 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) automation technology vendors have realized the imminent transformation and are now developing new software that may replace existing automation technology in the near future. The contribution of this article is (i) a collection of current trends that are expected to significantly change the way automation is implemented and (ii) the impact of those technological changes on control algorithms.