What Feature Articles Made the Top 10 in 2012?

1. Network Determinism: Not Just for Motion Anymore: Engineers know that Ethernet is a stable and well-known industrial network, but building determinism into the network to enable control has been an issue that is now solvable.

2. Streaming Video into HMI/SCADA: Video integration is easier than ever, and new applications keep cropping up. Here’s what you need to know if you want to add live digital video feeds to operator control panels.

3. Leadership In Automation 2011: First Team Honorees: Automation World reports on who readers partner with to implement automation projects and improve their companies’ bottom lines. This new, annual survey helps you know who your peers have chosen as their “first team” suppliers.

4. Why Wireless Sensor Networks are Everywhere (Almost): It seems like it was not so long ago that there was a serious debate over whether or not wireless sensor networks — and wireless communications in general — were a technology suitable for industrial applications. If you take a look around, that debate is over.

5. Zeroing In On Advanced Process Control: While veteran users seek advances in model maintenance and software implementation, industries like pulp & paper and power generation are just discovering modern APC tools. The result is optimized processes requiring far less effort to keep them optimized.

6. MES Implementation Best Practices: Once the selection and purchase of a manufacturing execution system has taken place, what are the most important aspects of the implementation process? Those who have been through the process point to a range of issues including project governance, hardware assessment and data storage.

7. Recipe for a Robust Ethernet Network: Ethernet has gained critical mass as the industrial network of choice. Automation and control engineers can dig into some of the details of cabling, managed switches and topologies here, and leave satisfied with ways to achieve optimum manufacturing network performance.

8. Not Just Vapor, The Cloud Is Real And Can Be Secure: “Cloud” is an unfortunate choice of words for the type of computing growing popular today—one where data and applications are stored somewhere away from the local computer, but in a place that is very real.

9. Historian Best Practices: Distilling the Truth: Historians enable deep insight into the behavior of a process at a given point in time, but depending on which member of the automation team you are, you may not know enough about the data you’re capturing or how to optimize its use.

10. Industry Interrupted: Tablets and Smart Phones Poised to Make a Big Impact: Industrial IT teams are likely to rail against the use of mobile devices, but many equipment makers feel they are fighting against the tide to ignore them. Productivity will ultimately determine which side will win.