SugonRI2.0: The dawn of innovative embedded development
2024-07-17 / tech
The equipment manufacturing industry is a pillar of the nation and an integral part of the real economy. Since 2023, China's equipment manufacturing industry has become an important engine for industrial growth, with the high-end equipment manufacturing sector showing a positive development trend. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total value added of the equipment manufacturing industry for the year 2023 increased by 6.8% compared to the previous year, accounting for 33.6% of the total value added of the above-scale industrial sector, an increase of 1.8 percentage points from the previous year. The high-end equipment manufacturing industry is continuously outputting advanced productive forces, promoting the acceleration of the cultivation of new quality productive forces in China's manufacturing industry.
However, while the high-end equipment manufacturing industry has achieved remarkable success, the pain points and challenges on its development path have become increasingly prominent. With the rapid changes in market demand and consumer behavior, the demand for personalized and customized products is growing. Coupled with the accelerated pace of digital transformation in manufacturing enterprises, there are higher requirements for the functionality and level of intelligence of equipment. At the same time, the timeliness, certainty, reliability, safety, and coordination of equipment have become key considerations.
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Under the trend of "software defining products," industrial embedded systems, as the intelligent core of high-end equipment products, have risen to an unprecedented level of importance. The massive outbreak of complex demands is manifested in the transition from the initial small kernel, preemptive scheduling to more complex high-end equipment life cycle systems, driving the development of embedded systems towards a deeper and more substantial direction.
Striving for excellence, creating an innovative industrial embedded software development platform
In the field of industrial embedded system development, open and integrated development platforms have become the mainstream trend, with two major branches—development models based on high-level computer languages and development models based on industrial software—each with its unique advantages and application scenarios.
Development models based on high-level computer languages typically use high-level programming languages such as C, C++, and Java, which are favored by many developers for their high degree of freedom and flexibility. Supported by open-source operating systems, this model alleviates the problem of technical blockades. However, issues such as high dependency, poor decoupling, low software reusability, and limited cross-platform capabilities, coupled with strict requirements for developers' professional and business knowledge, have led to extended development cycles. Especially in today's increasingly tight team collaboration, this model struggles to facilitate rapid coordination among multiple departments.
On the other hand, development models based on industrial software feature high software abstraction, strong platform decoupling, and a rich industrial knowledge base, reducing developers' investment in basic functionality implementation, lowering the learning curve, optimizing development processes and verification stages, and supporting mixed programming with multiple languages, enhancing development efficiency and intuitiveness. The downside is that industrial software is usually designed for specific industries and application scenarios, and there are differences in technical standards and underlying architectures among different software, which to some extent limits the interoperability and portability between software. In addition, some high-end industrial software often comes with high licensing fees and technical support costs, which can be a significant burden for projects with limited budgets or startups.
Both models have their strengths and limitations. At the same time, in the field of industrial control software, cases of encountering technical blockades and dependency dilemmas are common. Faced with such a situation, users yearn for a domestic industrial embedded development platform that integrates the advantages of both, eliminates their respective flaws, and is both open and flexible with the characteristics of industrial software.Shuguang Network Technology Co., Ltd.'s Chief Engineer, Bingbing Chen, stated that as early as 2009, this concept had taken root in the hearts of Zhongke Shuguang's team.
Combining years of accumulation and practice, Zhongke Shuguang has launched the industrial programming platform SugonRI2.0, characterized by "reliability, efficiency, and rapid assembly." Based on the self-developed domestic industrial hardware of Shuguang, it integrates various middlewares that meet industrial needs, is based on the self-developed SugonC++ industrial programming language, and provides a graphical low-code development platform that conforms to industrial research and development habits, an industrial real-time operating system, and a RunTime program that enables industrial software to run across platforms. It has the full platform capability to support the integration and transformation of digital knowledge and industrial practice, providing an innovative industrial embedded software development platform for high-end equipment manufacturing.
One-stop development, SugonRI2.0 helps enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency.
SugonRI2.0 is based on the first domestic industrial digitalization full-stack platform, Shuguang SugonRI®, and can cover application fields such as industrial half-physical simulation, real-time control, industrial Internet of Things and security, high-end instruments and meters, integrating a real-time operating system, supporting various processor architectures, and supporting industrial embedded software development platforms with software engineering capabilities such as requirement input, functional modeling simulation, formal verification, code implementation, software testing, and remote operation and maintenance.
SugonRI2.0 consists of a user development layer, a communication layer, and a target hardware device layer. The user development layer includes an industrial integrated development environment, a human-machine interaction interface development environment, and various management tools, debugging tools, and compilers, with comprehensive online and offline programming, debugging, and testing functions, while also providing a large number of visual industrial middlewares to meet users' needs for rapid construction of business applications; the communication layer is implemented by the secure gateway in SugonRI2.0, using the TCP/IP protocol to support debugging, remote access, and operation and maintenance between the programming platform and the target platform, ensuring the security of data and commands under remote operation and maintenance conditions; the target device layer, in addition to the underlying hardware, also includes a real-time operating system, board support packages, Runtime, middleware libraries, and network service components.
From the perspective of development users, the SugonRI2.0 industrial programming platform undoubtedly integrates the flexibility of high-level computer language development with the depth of specialization in industrial software development models, meeting the industry's expectations and needs for an ideal industrial embedded development platform. Focusing on cost reduction and efficiency increase, it provides enterprises with an efficient, intelligent, flexible, and secure one-stop industrial embedded development platform.Harnessing Multi-programming Capabilities for Efficient Development
"The industrial platform needs to meet the demands of the vast majority of users," Chen Bingbing stated frankly, "SugonRI2.0 targets this point, achieving a deep integration of IT and OT." To this end, SugonRI2.0 has integrated multiple types of programming capabilities to accommodate the needs of different developers.
In terms of text, Sugon has drawn on the syntactic features and flexibility of C and C++ to create its own object-oriented text programming language, SugonC++. For graphics, it has introduced graphical programming configuration tools such as SFC, CFC, and LD, making programming more intuitive while also being compatible with the user programming habits of PLC and DCS, aligning more closely with industrial practices.
SugonRI2.0 has introduced the concept of Program Organization Units (POUs), which not only supports customers in developing low-level modules and components with C/C++ but also supports customers in using POU features to assemble modules at various levels from the top down, realizing a top-down and bottom-up product development methodology.
To make programming more efficient, SugonRI2.0 has introduced real-time tasks (Task) and graphical configuration, abstracting various RTOS during runtime. Regardless of the operating system users choose, SugonRI2.0 presents a unified programming approach, and the graphical configuration greatly simplifies the use of RTOS by users, enhancing software reliability.
It is worth mentioning that SugonRI2.0 has abandoned the complex functions that require API calls to implement graphical human-machine interaction, opting instead to introduce HMI programming configuration functions. This allows users to associate variables with HMI controls on the platform, directly achieving visualization of program operation, making embedded programming simpler and more convenient.
SugonRI2.0 not only meets the development needs of industrial automation engineers but also takes into account the usage habits of traditional IT engineers, achieving seamless integration and efficient collaboration.Compatible with multi-scenario demands, meeting intelligent development
In Chen Bingbing's view, the trend of deep integration of IT and OT is unstoppable, and SugonRI2.0 has also achieved comprehensive satisfaction on the scene side.
By utilizing a unified technical platform and architecture, SugonRI2.0 has realized one-stop development of IT and OT. Users can achieve the full lifecycle development of embedded software on a unified platform, including support for requirement input, formal verification, programming implementation, code debugging, testing, system calibration, human-machine interaction, and other functions. It covers semi-physical simulation, instrumentation, control systems, and industrial Internet of Things applications, achieving one-stop resolution of multi-scenario demands.
SugonRI2.0 also includes various industrial middleware. For example, Fourier transform for computation, digital signal processing; industrial intranet zero-trust middleware for security, coprocessor-based national cryptography algorithms 2, 3, 4 packages, behavioral auditing, etc.; ICE61859 substation for control, digital processing, coordinate motion control, etc.; EtherCAT, ESTALK, MQTT, etc. for communication. It is reported that these middleware can be dynamically adjusted and quickly respond to various application scenarios of industrial digitalization and intelligence through real-time loading.
Meet multiple technical standards, flexible application across platforms
While pursuing technological breakthroughs, Sugon also actively participates in the construction of the standard system. Liu Li, Vice President of Sugon and President of Sugon Network Technology Co., Ltd., stated that based on respecting and integrating the vast existing equipment in the market, the ultimate goal of Sugon is to break the shackles of the "seven countries and eight systems" and establish a new standard system with Chinese characteristics to support the modernization development of China's industry.When discussing the strategy for setting standards, Chen Bingbing stated that the establishment of standards is mainly divided into three steps: First, it is essential to create outstanding user-oriented products. Only products that meet market demands and win user favor can endow the establishment of standards with practical significance and value. Second, it is necessary to actively expand the ecosystem map, promoting widespread recognition and adoption of standards through extensive cooperation and alliances. Finally, it is crucial to gather small efforts to form a scale effect and a positive feedback mechanism, ensuring the solid establishment and continuous optimization of standards.
Currently, SugonRI2.0 is steadily advancing the first step in establishing a standard system, defining a standardized system architecture in line with international conventions, including software models, common elements, programming languages, runtime frameworks, data interfaces, etc., and adhering to the principle of openness and inclusiveness, allowing a broad range of third-party developers from society to develop and integrate their knowledge and achievements on the framework.
At the same time, SugonRI2.0 is not only a standard framework but also a continuously evolving ecosystem. By closely following the development pulse of business and the market, it continuously iterates and upgrades, gathering a variety of standard resources to flexibly meet and satisfy the diverse application development needs from various industries, contributing "Dawn" wisdom and strength to China's industrial digitalization.
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Full domestication, safeguarding product security
In painting the future blueprint of the development of China's industrial enterprises, Sugon insists on promoting information innovation and domestication. Liu Li explained that domestication is a strong support for China's industry to break free from foreign technological constraints and modernize in dimensions such as computing, communication, and security for a long period in the future.
To this end, in addition to various forms of industrial control machines, SugonRI2.0 has fully achieved autonomy in technology, with the operating system, industrial communication protocols, industrial editor platforms, simulation platforms, and other software all realizing domestic self-development, supporting the integration of domestic processors, real-time operating systems, middleware, and industrial knowledge, meeting the urgent needs for real-time and determinism, and ensuring that the product meets industrial requirements.
Furthermore, SugonRI2.0 has encapsulated or restricted the operating system, board support packages, libraries, programming languages, etc., greatly enhancing the reliability of software development.
Open win-win, empowering the construction of the industrial ecosystemLiu Li stated that developing a new type of industrialization and bridging the gap between information technology and industrial technology requires the collective effort of the industrial ecosystem. In the process of adhering to the cultivation of new quality productive forces in China's manufacturing industry, Sugon has always insisted on ecological construction under the conditions of business model innovation.
In the strategy of promoting the healthy development of industrial embedded software development platforms, Sugon has drawn on successful cases such as Apple and Android to build a good business model, in order to stimulate the infinite vitality of SugonRI2.0.
SugonRI2.0 is committed to attracting developers from China and even the world through developer communities, IP transaction platforms, industry-university-research cooperation platforms, and engineer advancement training, to contribute to the ecosystem using the software platform, thereby promoting the enthusiasm of the whole society's participation in the ecosystem. Currently, Sugon has joined hands with many end-user enterprises, OEM manufacturers, vertical field software module providers, various hardware manufacturers, universities, and research institutions to weave a close and powerful ecological cooperation network, promoting in-depth integration of industry, academia, research, and application, and has taken solid steps in building an open, shared, and collaborative innovation industrial ecosystem.
In conclusion, in the era of industrial digitalization, building autonomous technical standards and a prosperous industrial ecosystem is a key path for the transformation and upgrading of national industry, as well as the breakthrough of technology. Sugon has never stopped moving forward.
Looking to the future, Sugon will continue to delve into the technology and applications at the industrial base level, build a comprehensive and multi-level support system, start from software development, continuously innovate, and escort the steady progress of China's industrial digitalization process.
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