For 40 years, PC-based control has put the power of IT standards and Moore’s Law for integrated circuits directly into the hands of machine builders and automation engineers. In the 1980s, industrial manufacturing was dominated by the hardware-based PLC. In 1986, Beckhoff responded by delivering the first industrial PC-based machine control system.

The decisive technological step was the abstraction of the PLC function from proprietary hardware to a highly flexible solution based on industrial IT components. These were design decisions made in the 1980s, which the industry now refers to as software-defined automation. Beckhoff ensured deterministic behavior by developing its own real-time software extensions for standard operating systems, mainly Windows initially, but also others since then, including TwinCAT/BSD and Linux. Ethernet communication opened up new possibilities in production and for integrating production into databases, ERP systems and IoT systems. PC-based control forms the basis for physical AI everywhere from the factory to the distribution center.

Appropriate I/O systems were required to leverage the computing power of industrial PCs up to field level. Beckhoff therefore flanked PC-based control with its own communication systems. Initially, data transmission took place via the fiber optic-based Lightbus. And in 2003, EtherCAT launched into the industrial marketplace. EtherCAT has since become a global standard that is deployed by users across all industries and markets.

In parallel, the TwinCAT automation environment, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, provided the basis for the software in PC-based control technology. Since its market launch, TwinCAT has evolved and combines all automation functions into a single integrated software platform. In addition to classic PLC logic and motion control, the spectrum of functions also includes safety and measurement technology, HMI and IoT connectivity, as well as vision, robotics and industrial AI tools.

PC-based control’s success is based on its exceptional scalability and significant reduction in interfaces. “A high-performance industrial PC, an equally powerful fieldbus with connected peripheral devices such as sensors and actuators, and control software with real-time capabilities for motion and logic control—that’s all it takes,” said Beckhoff Founder and Managing Director Hans Beckhoff. This approach provides the capability to consolidate all machine functions, from a simple PLC to highly complex robotics, into a single controller, saving space, time and money and eliminating latency between distributed controllers.