44 - From Mining PLCs to AI-Powered Automation: Building the Future SoftPLC with Alex Sharikov
Unplugged: An IIoT PodcastShow Notes
What happens when a controls engineer with 16 years of mining and manufacturing experience decides to build an AI-powered SoftPLC from scratch? In this episode, we find out. Alex Sharikov, Founder of JasperX and creator of JasperNode, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to share how he's enabling small manufacturers to program and troubleshoot their control systems using plain English, no PLC software required. Key topics in this episode: Why 80% of Australian manufacturers struggle with automation support How JasperNode's "atomic and unambiguous logic" keeps AI reliable The shift from prompt engineering to context engineering in control systems Building a SoftPLC from scratch instead of patching AI onto existing platforms Why human-in-the-loop safety is non-negotiable for production environments
This episode is proudly made possible by PLCnext Technology PLCnext Technology is the ecosystem for industrial automation consisting of open hardware, modular engineering software, a global community, and a digital software marketplace.
Learn more at: https://www.plcnext-community.net/news/synergy-edge-cloud/
----- Connect with Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-sharikov/ Connect with Phil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-seboa/
Connect with Ed on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ed-fuentes-2046121a/
Learn more about JasperX: https://jasperx.com.au
----- About Industry Sage Media: Industry Sage Media is the content creation company behind Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast. We help automation brands grow their reach, influence, and pipeline through expert-driven content. Learn more at: http://www.industrysagemedia.com
More from Unplugged: An IIoT Podcast
This episode is brought to you by Canary Labs, and Cirrus Link Solutions.
This episode is brought to you by Cirrus Link Solutions and Canary Labs. Cirrus Link: https://unpluggediiot.com/go/cirrus-link Canary Labs: https://unpluggediiot.com/go/canary-labs
Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes sit down with David Ariens (Analytics For Industry / AVEVA) and Willem van Lammeren (Syensqo) to explore why IT/OT convergence fails — and what organisations actually get right when convergence works.
What changes when the assets you operate stop being centralised and predictable, and start being distributed, intermittent and weather-dependent? The old operations playbook breaks — and most digital programmes are still designed for the old one. Dr Hema Wadhwa, Associate, Data & Analytics | Asset Management and Performance at Aurecon, joins Phil Seboa and Ed Fuentes to talk about building digital asset intelligence for the energy transition. Hema's career is a live map of that transition: she started as a Floating Systems Engineer in global oil and gas, moved through subsea engineering and power generation operations, and now leads digital strategy and analytics for mixed energy asset fleets. Key topics in this episode: - The unplanned career arc — floating production systems and subsea engineering into renewable operations - "Are you here to take my job?" — what digital transformation actually feels like from inside the control room - Why the solution providers have to evolve, not the operators - One gas turbine versus a hundred wind turbines: why renewable fleets break the old operations model - No standard across vendor SCADA screens and UIs, and what that inconsistency costs - Why there is no AI magic without the data groundwork first — and why selling it that way isn't ethical - Cognitive load: lean frontline teams, PDF report fatigue, and tools that land as a burden - OT/IT convergence and the cybersecurity questions that come with opening it up - OEM warranties and whether asset owners really have access to their own asset data - Recording data when it changes, not on a fixed scan rate - One source of truth, different views per role — data presented so it guides a decision - Predicting failures months ahead: cranes, spares, and turning downtime into planned work - BESS as a trading platform, not just another renewable asset - Why the real cost driver is people, and why it only stacks up if it scales across assets