Industrial Controls

Barr Group's industrial controls experts provide failure analysis, design/safety reviews, and testimony for litigation relating to control systems and robotics for manufacturing and other industrial processes. Our experts combine industry experience as designers of electronic systems and software with the credentials and composure needed for courtroom success.

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Robotics and Factory Automation

Barr Group's industrial controls expert witnesses are highly qualified software engineers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers who are experienced in the design of robotics and factory automation equipment for a range of industries from food and pharmaceuticals production to fossil fuel and solar energy generation and distribution to automobile and electronics assembly lines. As professional designers of reliable and secure embedded systems, Barr Group is knowledgeable in IEC 61508 and other functional safety standards that apply to industrial controls and automation systems as well as the following technologies:

• Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems
• Programmable Logic Controls (PLCs) a/k/a "ladder logic"
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
• Open Smart Grid Protocol (OGSP) and ISO/IEC 14908
• IEC 61158 "Fieldbus" networks for real-time distributed control
• DeviceNet and CANopen interoperability network software
• Environmental monitoring and remote sensing technologies
• Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) per IEC 61511 (ISA 84)
• Machine Vision (MV) for automated process and quality control
• Computer Numeric Control (CNC) and 3-D printing
• ANSI/RIA R15.06 and other robotics safety considerations
• Electrical interlocks, failsafes, and machine guarding

Barr Group's expert witnesses are familiar with all of the operating systems used in industrial controls, including real-time operating systems like VxWorks and QNX as well as Linux and Windows, and also the languages used to program these systems such as assembly, C/C++, and Labview. And we are just as comfortable with electronic circuit and mechanical design.

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Expert Witness Services

Barr Group's industrial controls experts support plaintiffs and defendants in litigation in U.S. District Courts, at the International Trade Commission (ITC), and before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). Our services include:

• Technical assistance with drafting of discovery requests
• Software source code review and analysis
• Source code comparisons for copyright and trade secret theft
• Analysis of electronics and related design documents
• Review of mechanical designs and safety interlocks
• Comparison to IEC 61508 and other functional safety standards
• Prior art review for patent invalidity
• Reverse engineering, including disassembly of binary code
• Forensic analysis and malfunction reconstruction
• Expert reports, declarations, and witness statements
• Testimony at deposition, oral hearings, and trials

Barr Group has a demonstrated ability to quickly activate one or more code reviewers to match the size, scope, and complexity of any project. And our team includes licensed Professional Engineers (P.E.s).

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The following is a representative subset of Barr Group's experts who have experience designing and/or testifying about these technologies: