Top 5 Control Engineering articles, July 14 to August 13: Future of oil prices, robot trends and types, SCADA cyber security, more

Articles about the future of oil prices, industrial robot trends and types, SCADA cyber security, IIoT at the I/O level, and process modeling and feedback controllers were Control Engineering’s five most clicked articles from July 14 to August 13. Miss something? You can catch up here. Also see what ranked 6-10.

By Chris Vavra August 14, 2015

Control Engineering Top 5 most read articles online, for Jul. 14 to Aug. 13, covered the future of oil prices, industrial robot trends and types, SCADA cyber security, IIoT at the I/O level, and process modeling and feedback controllers. Link to each article below. 

1. Black October on the horizon

The price of oil may not have hit the nadir yet, supply is almost double that of demand, and the Iran deal may slash oil prices to new lows.

2. Industrial robot trends and types

Diversity of robotic trends, types, and programming advances make the use of robots attractive to consider in more applications and industries, and resulting innovations should benefit manufacturing. See 10 robotic software trends and 9 robot types.

3. SCADA cyber security

Securing control systems with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA): SCADA software, part of many industrial control systems, can use the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework for cyber security.

4. IIoT at the IO level

Really look at the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): How will device-level communication work using this developing technology? What is IIoT? Learn four IIoT misconceptions, five ways IIoT is new, and six reasons why the disruptive technology of IIoT will be slow to catch on.

5. Process modeling, feedback controllers

Feedback controllers assume that their control efforts will have some effect on the process variable. Advanced process control (APC) and advanced regulatory control (ARC) can help a controller choose its control efforts more effectively by modeling the process.

More popular stories on Control Engineering

As an online-only feature, we’re featuring the stories that finished 6-10.

6. Internet of Things and the oilfield

We are living in an increasingly connected world and this connectivity poses the question: “How will it affect the oilfield?” The implications from this are profound and will affect all industries over the next few years.

7. Cyber security in process plants: Recognizing risks, addressing current threats

As attacks on industrial control systems (ICSs) become more frequent and increasingly sophisticated, defensive strategies must evolve to keep up. Fortunately, the tools are getting better. 

8. A guide to industrial control system security

Although the field of computer security and its relation to ICS security is extensive and highly technical, these recommendations can help mitigate many of the most common and easily exploitable security holes. 

9. Operational technology to Informational technology: Creating a circle of improvement

Linking operations technology (OT) systems, such as SCADA and sensors to IT-level big data analytics is possible, but begs for the right asset-centric and event-driven view of OT-level trends so the IT-level analytics can find relevant patterns.

10. SCADA HMI software security: Understanding and preventing SCADA viruses, intentional and unintentional

Cyber security: Exploring some of the technical concepts will help an end user understand and prevent security flaws when creating SCADA and HMI software applications and the underlying networks architectures. 

The list was developed using CFE Media’s web analytics for stories viewed on controleng.com, July 14 to August 13, for articles published within the last two months.  

– Chris Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, cvavra@cfemedia.com.

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Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.


Author Bio: Chris Vavra is web content manager for CFE Media and Technology.