A new approach to the development and maintenance of industrial sequence logic

This thesis is concerned with sequence logic as found in industrial control systems, with the focus being on process and manufacturing control systems. At its core is the assertion that there is a need for a better approach to the development of industrial sequence logic to satisfy the life-cycle requirements, and that many of the ingredients required to deliver such an approach are now available. The needs are discussed by considering the business case for automation and deficiencies with traditional approaches. A set of requirements is then derived for an integrated development environment to address the business needs throughout the control system life-cycle. The strengths and weaknesses of relevant control system technology and standards are reviewed and their bias towards implementation described. Mathematical models, graphical methods and software tools are then assessed with respect to the requirements for an integrated development environment. A solution to the requirements, called Synect is then introduced. Synect combines a methodology using familiar graphical notations with Petri net modelling supported by a set of software tools. Its key features are justified with reference to the requirements. A set of case studies forms the basis of an evaluation against business needs by comparing the Synect methodology with current approaches. The industrial relevance and exploitation are then briefly described. The thesis ends with a review of the key conclusions along with contributions to knowledge and suggestions for further research

Systems integration using Siemens\u27 PC based automation technology

Manufacturing Systems Integration is the progressive linking and combination of the various components of the system to merge their functional and technical characteristics into a comprehensive interoperable unit. It requires one to work with different hardware and software. There are a number of vendors providing a large number of products. Integrating these varieties of products provides a greater value than the sum of the value provided by the individual products. What hinders the effective integration of these components is the diversity in the design and the use of these products. Systems Integration is eased by well-established standards in data communication, programming languages, application development environments and computer operating systems. Many vendors have attempted to come up with standards that are relatively open. However, when one has to integrate data among multiple vendors\u27 architecture, a new set of challenges emerge. The Siemens\u27 PC-based automation technology is an emerging technology that appears to provide robust architecture for integrating all elements of the manufacturing environment. Applications ranging from simple control to distributed control and full-fledged Manufacturing Execution Systems can be developed using Siemens\u27 architecture. The primary focus of this applied research work is to develop a Manufacturing Execution System to control a flexible manufacturing system using Siemens PC-based automation technology. This technology is implemented in a Flexible Manufacturing cell named the CAMCELL. The CAMCELL consists of two CNC machining centers, assembly robots, and a vision system, all of which are interlinked by a material handling system. The software architecture of the CAMCELL is based on NIST\u27s five level hierarchy, discussed briefly in the report. Specifically it contains functional modules for order entry, scheduling and routing. In addition to these functional modules, there are various support modules such as order entry module, scheduler, router etc, two of which named the Inquire and the Pallet Controller that are implemented in this study. Siemens\u27 Step 7 and WTNCC software are used for the control and monitoring of the cell

High tech automated bottling process for small to medium scale enterprises using PLC, scada and basic industry 4.0 concepts

The automation of industrial processes has been one of the greatest innovations in the industrial sector. It allows faster and accurate operations of production processes while producing more outputs than old manual production techniques. In the beverage industry, this innovation was also well embraced, especially to improve its bottling processes. However it has been proven that a continuous optimization of automation techniques using advanced and current trend of automation is the only way industrial companies will survive in a very competitive market. This becomes more challenging for small to medium scale enterprises (SMEs) which are not always keen in adopting new technologies by fear of overspending their little revenues. By doing so, SMEs are exposing themselves to limited growth and vulnerable lifecycle in this fast growing automation world. The main contribution of this study was to develop practical and affordable applications that will optimize the bottling process of a SME beverage plant by combining its existing production resources to basic principles of the current trend of automation, Industry 4.0 (I40). This research enabled the small beverage industry to achieve higher production rate, better delivery time and easy access of plant information through production forecast using linear regression, predictive maintenance using speed vibration sensor and decentralization of production monitoring via cloud applications. The existing plant Siemens S7-1200 programmable logic controller (PLC) and ZENON supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system were used to program the optimized process with very few additional resources. This study also opened doors for automation in SMEs, in general, to use I40 in their production processes with available means and limited cost.School of ComputingM.Tech (Engineering, Electrical

Hybrid System of Distributed Automation

One of the most important tendencies in the development of the industrial automation is the application of intelligent control systems within factories, which focuses heavily on networked architectures. Following this line of thinking, the goal of this dissertation resumes itself in the implementation of a distributed system that controls two physical processes, where the system components not only trade information between each other, but also have that same information be accessible remotely and within HMI equipment. The controllers were conceptualized to offer different functional modes with high customization available. This system also takes resource of an OPC server, so it allows, not only the communication between different manufacturer PLC controllers but also the connection with remotes clients The implemented remote clients hold the intent of demonstrating the versatility of this architecture and are, namely, an operational historian that registers information and a data viewer, which allows the use of more advanced methods of monitoring

STUDY OF PARTIAL STROKE TEST FOR METSO NELES EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN VALVE

This report essentially discusses the basic understanding and details of the project entitled "A Study of Partial Stroke Test for Metso Neles Emergency Shutdown (ESD) Valve". Since this project is a collaboration between Univcrsiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) and PETRONAS Improvement Working Group (IWG) of Skill Group 14 (SKG14), discussion session is conducted once in a few months to compare the latest update of valves performance from three vendors, namely, FISHER, METSO NELES. and MESONEILAN that may be used in PETRONAS plants if satisfies the required standard

Effectiveness of OPC for systems integration in the process control information architecture

A Process is defined as the progression to some particular end or objective through a logical and orderly sequence of events. Various devices (e.g., actuators, limit switches, motors, sensors, etc.) play a significant role in making sure that the process attains its objective (e.g., maintaining the furnace temperature within an acceptable limit). To do these things effectively, manufacturers need to access data from the plant floor or devices and integrate those into their control applications, which maybe one of the off the shelf tools such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Distributed Control System (DCS), or Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). A number of vendors have devised their own Data Acquisition Networks or Process Control Architectures (e.g., PROFIBUS, DEVICENET, INTERBUS, ETHERNET I/P, etc.) that claim to be open to or interoperable with a number of third party devices or products that make process data available to the Process or Business Management level. In reality this is far from what it is claimed to be. Due to the problem of interoperability, a manufacturer is forced to be bound, either with the solutions provided by a single vendor or with the writing of a driver for each hardware device that is accessed by a process application. Today\u27s manufacturers are looking for advanced distributed object technologies that allow for seamless exchange of information across plant networks as a means of integrating the islands of automation that exist in their manufacturing operations. OLE for Process Control (OPC) works to significantly reduce the time, cost, and effort required in writing custom interfaces for hundreds of different intelligent devices and networks in use today. The objective of this thesis is to explore the OLE for Process Control (OPC) technology in depth by highlighting its need in industry and by using the OPC technology in an application in which data from a process controlled by Siemens Simatic S7 PLC are shared with a client application running in LabVTEW6i

Engineering Method and Tool for the Complete Virtual Commissioning of Robotic Cells

Intelligent robotic manufacturing cells must adapt to ever-varying operating conditions, developing autonomously optimal manufacturing strategies to achieve the best quality and overall productivity. Intelligent and cognitive behaviors are realized by using distributed controllers, in which complex control logics must interact and process a wide variety of input/output signals. In particular, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and robot controllers must be coordinated and integrated. Then, there is the need to simulate the robotic cells’ behavior for performance verification and optimization by evaluating the effects of both PLC and robot control codes. In this context, this work proposes a method, and its implementation into an integrated tool, to exploit the potential of ABB RobotStudio software as a virtual prototyping platform for robotic cells, in which real robots control codes are executed on a virtual controller and integrated with Beckhoff PLC environment. For this purpose, a PLC Smart Component was conceived as an extension of RobotStudio functionalities to exchange signals with a TwinCAT instance. The new module allows the virtual commissioning of a complete robotic cell to be performed, assessing the control logics effects on the overall productivity. The solution is demonstrated on a robotic assembly cell, showing its feasibility and effectiveness in optimizing the final performance