Automation Laboratory Development Focusing on Industrial Hands-on Experience, Simulation Software, and Application Research Projects

This paper describes the development of an Automation Control Lab in the Department of Engineering Technology at the University. The lab facility includes pneumatic actuators/sensors, electrical relays/switches, and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). The major goal of the development is to help students gain hands-on industrial experience by conducting simple projects during the lecture hours and more advanced projects during the lab hours. Simulation software is also applied to reduce implementation time when developing complicated pneumatic circuits and PLC programs. In addition, three examples of industrial automation projects using PLC from the Technology Application Center (TAC) are also introduced to students to enhance their knowledge of automation controls. Performance assessment is conducted for this development

Development of an Industry 4.0 Demonstrator Using Sequence Planner and ROS2

In many modern automation solutions, manual off-line programming is being replaced by online algorithms that dynamically perform tasks based on the state of the environment. Complexities of such systems are pushed even further with collaboration among robots and humans, where intelligent machines and learning algorithms are replacing more traditional automation solutions. This chapter describes the development of an industrial demonstrator using a control infrastructure called Sequence Planner (SP), and presents some lessons learned during development. SP is based on ROS2 and it is designed to aid in handling the increased complexity of these new systems using formal models and online planning algorithms to coordinate the actions of robots and other devices. During development, SP can auto generate ROS nodes and message types as well as support continuous validation and testing. SP is also designed with the aim to handle traditional challenges of automation software development such as safety, reliability and efficiency. In this chapter, it is argued that ROS2 together with SP could be an enabler of intelligent automation for the next industrial revolution

Honeywell Experion System: Configuration, simulation and process control software interoperability

The use of automated distributed control systems has become a widely discussed topic as industry attempts to maximise efficiency. An increase in automation technology has resulted in demand for “industry ready” graduate engineers with knowledge and experience with such technologies. Murdoch University (Murdoch) provides students with exposure to industry standard automation systems such as Honeywell’s Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS), a Distributed Control System (DCS) designed for the control and optimisation of industrial plants. Presently, Murdoch uses Experion to monitor and control its pilot plant, exposing instrumentation and control students to the configuration and control of an industrial plant. Additionally, Murdoch holds a second Experion simulation license providing the ability to program and simulate process and control strategies. This project scope was to explore several key areas of the Experion simulation system followed by the development of a series of learning materials to facilitate the teaching of the Experion system to students for a new unit to be introduced at Murdoch University in 2017. The methodology adopted to achieve the project outcome involved developing a comprehensive understanding of Experion and its associated applications, before building a series of example simulation programs for the purpose of implementing and testing a variety of Experion’s control strategies. Additionally, real-time control of the Experion simulation programs, using third party process control software, was achieved. The successful interoperability of MATLAB, Simulink, and LabVIEW with Experion provides an avenue for implementing advanced control strategies both in simulation and on Murdoch’s pilot plant. At the conclusion of the project, an extensive list of learning materials was produced, providing comprehensive procedures to enact tasks within the Experion system. This includes initial setup and configuration, development of simulated programs and associated Human Machine Interface (HMI) displays, the implementation of control strategies, and third party process control software interoperability. These learning materials provide students with an enhanced learning experience, giving them the skills and exposure required to thrive in the automation engineering industry as a Murdoch University graduate

Three essays on major trends in a slow clockspeed industry : the case of industrial automation

The motivation for this research initiated from the abrupt rise and fall of minicomputers which were initially used both for industrial automation and business applications due to their significantly lower cost than their predecessors, the mainframes. Later industrial automation developed its own vertically integrated hardware and software to address the application needs of uninterrupted operations, real-time control and resilience to harsh environmental conditions. This has led to the creation of an independent industry, namely industrial automation used in PLC, DCS, SCADA and robot control systems. This industry employs today over 200'000 people in a profitable slow clockspeed context in contrast to the two mainstream computing industries of information technology (IT) focused on business applications and telecommunications focused on communications networks and hand-held devices. Already in 1990s it was foreseen that IT and communication would merge into one Information and communication industry (ICT). The fundamental question of the thesis is: Could industrial automation leverage a common technology platform with the newly formed ICT industry? Computer systems dominated by complex instruction set computers (CISC) were challenged during 1990s with higher performance reduced instruction set computers (RISC). RISC started to evolve parallel to the constant advancement of Moore's law. These developments created the high performance and low energy consumption System-on-Chip architecture (SoC). Unlike to the CISC processors RISC processor architecture is a separate industry from the RISC chip manufacturing industry. It also has several hardware independent software platforms consisting of integrated operating system, development environment, user interface and application market which enables customers to have more choices due to hardware independent real time capable software applications. An architecture disruption merged and the smartphone and tablet market were formed with new rules and new key players in the ICT industry. Today there are more RISC computer systems running Linux (or other Unix variants) than any other computer system. The astonishing rise of SoC based technologies and related software platforms in smartphones created in unit terms the largest installed base ever seen in the history of computers and is now being further extended by tablets. An underlying additional element of this transition is the increasing role of open source technologies both in software and hardware. This has driven the microprocessor based personal computer industry with few dominating closed operating system platforms into a steep decline. A significant factor in this process has been the separation of processor architecture and processor chip production and operating systems and application development platforms merger into integrated software platforms with proprietary application markets. Furthermore the pay-by-click marketing has changed the way applications development is compensated: Three essays on major trends in a slow clockspeed industry: The case of industrial automation 2014 freeware, ad based or licensed - all at a lower price and used by a wider customer base than ever before. Moreover, the concept of software maintenance contract is very remote in the app world. However, as a slow clockspeed industry, industrial automation has remained intact during the disruptions based on SoC and related software platforms in the ICT industries. Industrial automation incumbents continue to supply systems based on vertically integrated systems consisting of proprietary software and proprietary mainly microprocessor based hardware. They enjoy admirable profitability levels on a very narrow customer base due to strong technology-enabled customer lock-in and customers' high risk leverage as their production is dependent on fault-free operation of the industrial automation systems. When will this balance of power be disrupted? The thesis suggests how industrial automation could join the mainstream ICT industry and create an information, communication and automation (ICAT) industry. Lately the Internet of Things (loT) and weightless networks, a new standard leveraging frequency channels earlier occupied by TV broadcasting, have gradually started to change the rigid world of Machine to Machine (M2M) interaction. It is foreseeable that enough momentum will be created that the industrial automation market will in due course face an architecture disruption empowered by these new trends. This thesis examines the current state of industrial automation subject to the competition between the incumbents firstly through a research on cost competitiveness efforts in captive outsourcing of engineering, research and development and secondly researching process re- engineering in the case of complex system global software support. Thirdly we investigate the industry actors', namely customers, incumbents and newcomers, views on the future direction of industrial automation and conclude with our assessments of the possible routes industrial automation could advance taking into account the looming rise of the Internet of Things (loT) and weightless networks. Industrial automation is an industry dominated by a handful of global players each of them focusing on maintaining their own proprietary solutions. The rise of de facto standards like IBM PC, Unix and Linux and SoC leveraged by IBM, Compaq, Dell, HP, ARM, Apple, Google, Samsung and others have created new markets of personal computers, smartphone and tablets and will eventually also impact industrial automation through game changing commoditization and related control point and business model changes. This trend will inevitably continue, but the transition to a commoditized industrial automation will not happen in the near future

Implementation of Distributed Control System for Rice Mill Using C#

The paper presents the distributed control system for rice mill using C# language. The real-time manufacturing system can be implemented by utilizing the signal from the real time control units that is more operative than other old-fashioned control systems in the extent of modern industrial days. The software-based Distributed Control System (DCS) is novel fashionable than any other conventional control systems in the state-ofthe-art manufacturing developments. This research study emphasizes on the implementation of the DCS-based rice mill using visual C#.net. The Industrial Ethernet (IE) is realized between the top level controller for the operator and the controlled station for the remote devices. The model of client-server approach is more appropriate for the automation and manufacturing research purposes. In this study, the computer graphical simulation of the complete control development is depicted in real-time status quo by visual C# language under Visual Studio 2008 software. The parallel ports in the computers of remote terminal level and the master terminal level controllers have been interconnected with port interface coding by visual C# program

Pattern-design software of automated control systems

© 2016 IEEE.The method of pattern design of industrial control system (ICS) software has been developed. As objects of lower hierarchy level, the elements of automation were selected. The unified algorithms of data processing and computing control actions were applied for these elements. The data types, data storage and functionality were defined for these objects. In the software of human-machine interface and controller, the correlated structure types were applied. The data blocks in the form of one-dimensional array user-defined type were used for storage. The correspondence of the structure tag to element of array in data block was defined. The data exchange over control system network is independent on the number of sensors and actuators. The template projects for development of software with Siemens hardware and software were created on the basis of proposed method. The structure of the template projects makes it easy to adapt them to the requirements of a particular control system. The template projects greatly reduce time needed for ICS software development and require less programming skills. A universal approach of the proposed method allows using the pattern-design on the automation of various industrial processes

Measuring the Overall Complexity of Graphical and Textual IEC 61131-3 Control Software

Software implements a significant proportion of functionality in factory automation. Thus, efficient development and the reuse of software parts, so-called units, enhance competitiveness. Thereby, complex control software units are more difficult to understand, leading to increased development, testing and maintenance costs. However, measuring complexity is challenging due to many different, subjective views on the topic. This paper compares different complexity definitions from literature and considers with a qualitative questionnaire study the complexity perception of domain experts, who confirm the importance of objective measures to compare complexity. The paper proposes a set of metrics that measure various classes of software complexity to identify the most complex software units as a prerequisite for refactoring. The metrics include complexity caused by size, data structure, control flow, information flow and lexical structure. Unlike most literature approaches, the metrics are compliant with graphical and textual languages from the IEC 61131-3 standard. Further, a concept for interpreting the metric results is presented. A comprehensive evaluation with industrial software from two German plant manufacturers validates the metrics' suitability to measure complexity.Comment: 8 pages, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9444196