The Universities of Seville and León have become the first educational institutions to commit to training in the innovative automation system based on the IEC 61499 standard. Both universities, through their engineering faculties, are already training masters and undergraduate students in the new system using Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Automation Expert platform, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation.
The adoption of the IEC 61499-based automation system by the Universities of Seville and León marks an important milestone in the training of new generations of engineers. In addition to allowing a more complete perspective of automation problems in industry, it promotes the convergence of disciplines that engineers usually acquire separately.
IEC 61499 introduces a more flexible, modular and distributed approach to the programming and control of industrial automation systems. Its features make it particularly suitable for complex and changing industrial environments. In this respect, it introduces native IT/OT integration, which improves communication between systems. The programmable logic controller (PLC) can be virtualised on a PC, allowing the addition of artificial intelligence algorithms and providing more flexibility in communication between devices.