Michael Horn

Background

About Michael Horn

In 1990 I joined a team of experienced developers working on a totally new control system, APACS, one of the first hybrid DCSs. I worked on 4-mation, API, DDE, and OPC servers. I wrote my first patent that provided transparent redundancy of the OPC communication protocol to provide DCS-quality and reliability to the new COM-based OPC technology. I led the migration of the communication APIs to at least 10 variations of Unix and added COM interfaces to 4-mation. Siemens acquired Moore Products in and my focus switched to migration technologies. I helped create a product referred to as “the DBA” that would migrate existing APACS customers with third-party HMIs to the Siemens HMI (WinCC). We then created versions of this software for Bailey, Freelance, Provox, OpenPMC, 505, Honeywell, any OPC Server, and any WinCC driver using Open OS. This work resulted in 3 more patents. We then create non-migration DBA-based products for PCS 7 called PCS 7 TeleControl, WinCC SCADA, and PCS 7 PowerControl. In 2014, I created a product that could migrate Rockwell configurations to S7-1500 controllers with minimal to no user input. This would publicly become the no-charge “Code Conversion Service” (https://tinylink.net/60sWd). With this service, a customer can submit any RSLogix 5, 500, and series configuration through the website, and have the conversion returned in a few days. Building on the codebase (Migration Studio), I added support for other controllers including PCS 7 (IEA, CSV files, or direct API of blocks, charts, and SFCs to be called Standardization Studio), APACS (https://tinylink.net/PNWZz), Measurex, Bailey, Honeywell LM, NovaTechD3, TI505, Wonderware, and Microsoft Office [mainly for requirement generation]. These tools have been used on 100s of projects and has saved tens-of-millions of engineering dollars. Searching for patterns of interconnected blocks in 75 or more actual customer plant configurations in seconds is a real game-changer for project engineers. Since 2016, I have worked on my third control system. Just like APACS, I was lucky enough to be on the initial team of developers to change the industry with SIMATIC PCS neo (https://tinylink.net/2xY0r). neo is an incredibly future-looking 100% web-based system of modern technologies that will be the basis of future innovation for process control in Siemens. I have focused on connectivity technologies (e.g. MTP, templates), library features (e.g. composition), runtime scripting, and a super-fast OPC server for simulation and testing that supports compiled C# scripts.