ABB Automation Builder provides common automation platform

Combining all of the tools required for configuring, programming, debugging and maintaining automation projects from a common intuitive interface, ABB's Automation Builder addresses the largest single cost element of most industrial automation projects – software. Automation Builder builds on ABB's Control Builder Plus tool for programming PLCs. This provides powerful PLC development resources in the form of the standards-compliant CoDeSys IEC 61131-3 environment and the Panel Builder tool for creating HMIs. These are now complemented by tools for configuring and programming the new generation of safety PLCs, the RobotStudio tool for simulating and programming industrial robot applications, and the Mint WorkBench tool and pre-built and tested libraries for controlling drives, and other devices connected via fieldbuses, networks or the web. The tool suite integrates all these capabilities into a single environment served by common data and intuitive user interface. This provides data consistency that eliminates the need to enter data multiple times, and avoids the programming effort and potential problems associated with exchanging data between the controller and all of the various devices in the automation system such as servomotor drives, robot arms, operator panels, and I/O. Third party devices can also be interfaced into the environment. ABB says Automation Builder also addresses the trend to improve performance with more dynamic and complex control algorithms, the fast-growing trend to incorporate more sophisticated safety mechanisms, and the demand for much larger factory-scale automation networks. The user can achieve a common platform for ongoing management throughout the lifecycle of systems from commissioning to diagnostics, remote access and maintenance, to system expansion and upgrades