HELMSMANFACTORY AUTOMATION

The soft PLC you program by describing the machine. The agent writes standard IEC 61131-3 Structured Text from your spec, and you check it on a live diagram before it runs.

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Early release Running on the bench today. The source is open.

RobustBuilt on a minimal set of dependencies. Every change passes more than 1,300 automated tests and interoperability tests before it ships.

SimpleOne controller, one service, its own web screen. No cloud needed to run the machine, no database server, no stack of microservices.

SafeWritten in a memory-safe language. Changes need an engineer's approval, every change is audited, and the safeguards stay out of your way.

ReliableCompiled, native performance on a fixed scan. A watchdog bounds every scan, and a faulted program stops alone with its outputs safe.

Agentic programming

Write specs, not code

Tell Helmsman what the machine should do, in plain language. Drop in a P&ID, an electrical drawing or a photo of the panel and it reads them. The agent drafts the program and you check how it behaves.

DescribeState the sequence, the interlocks and the alarms the way you would to a colleague. Attach the drawings.
ValidateSee the draft as a live diagram and run it against a simulation of your I/O. Tap any output to see exactly what drives it.
ApproveAn engineer signs off with a PIN. The change goes live between scans; every version is kept and can be rolled back.

Why there is no ladder

Ladder was built so electricians could read relay circuits. Here the agent writes the program, so Helmsman shows it as a live function-block diagram with values on the wires. Underneath is standard IEC 61131-3 Structured Text that you can read, compare between versions and move to another controller.

PROGRAM line
VAR
  s1, s2 : station;
  jam_1 AT %IX0.0 : BOOL;
  alarm AT %QX0.2 : BOOL;
END_VAR
s1(enable := TRUE, jam := jam_1);
s2(enable := TRUE, jam := FALSE);
alarm := s1.alarm OR s2.alarm;
END_PROGRAM

Standards and interoperability

A pure soft PLC on your network.

Helmsman is only the controller. Field I/O stays in junction boxes and remote I/O modules such as the Moxa ioLogik, on industrial Ethernet. The controller talks to them, to drives and to the PLCs you already run, over open protocols.

IEC 61131-3Structured Text, the proven standard, plus PLCopen XML import from other tools.
EtherNet/IP (CIP)Appears to your existing PLCs as a standard adapter, and reads their tags without ever writing to them.
Modbus TCPDrives remote I/O blocks and devices directly, through a named I/O map.

Ethernet protocols today; others as customers need them.

Status

What has been tested

Each result below comes from a passing test or a capture. The suite runs on every change against an open-source EtherNet/IP device in a container.

Device	Role	Status
OpENer reference adapter	EtherNet/IP device under continuous test	verified
Helmsman's own adapter	Same interoperability suite	verified
Moxa ioLogik E1213	Remote I/O over Modbus TCP	bench pending
Rockwell CompactLogix	Existing PLC, read without writing	bench pending

Run a program in your browser, with nothing to install.

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