A modular computer-controlled fermentation pilot-plant

The characteristics and applications of the system for welding machines based on SCM , based on PLC control system and PC-based industrial control system was introduced. It has certain significance to the design of welding machine control system.

In order to solve the problem that it is difficult to achieve better multi-robot coordination operation using the original control system in multi-robot cooperative systems, this paper conducts system modeling, control framework design and software development and verification experiments for multi-robot cooperative systems. We firstly model the system composed of multiple robots and operated objects. The coordination between any two robots can be divided into two categories: loose coordination and tight coordination according to the constraint relationship between the robots and the objects, based on which the kinematics and dynamics analysis of the multi-robot system is carried out. A multi-robot cooperative control framework is designed, which contains modules for task planning, force and position assignment, sensor information acquisition, position/force control and synchronization clock. On the basis of the multi-robot cooperative control system, the robot cooperative control software is designed and developed, and the software system contains, with excellent characteristics. Finally, an experimental environment containing three large-load EFORT industrial robots was established and experiments were conducted using the developed multi-robot cooperative control software to verify the usability and reliability of the software system.

Low level industrial systems use simple data representation which reflects flat input and output structure of control industrial system. This structure is directly mapped to the flat memory allocation. The structural data organization is used in upper layers of industrial computer system. This article contains compare analysis of tag and object oriented data model used for vertical communication in distributed industrial computer systems. This analysis is based on classical tag approach used in the most of classical visualization systems and object oriented approach introduced in OPC UA architecture.KeywordsLayer DeviceManufacture Execution SystemObject Oriented ApproachIndustrial Control SystemObject Oriented DataThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

With the growing adoption of Industry 4.0 concepts in production systems, new challenges arise in engineering control software. Highly distributed control with tight real-time constraints and safety regulations results in increasingly complex software. Current research focuses on increasing the abstraction with new architectures and modularization of software. The presented PhD research addresses modeling of the interactions between control software components, and of the emergent behavior of these compositions. Such behavior models can support the initial implementation, and facilitate (semi-)automated testing and monitoring of control software. Finally, visualizing behavior in a model can enhance understandability of existing control software, when software developers need not access abstracted hierarchy levels to deduct their functionality. This work aims at optimizing the benefit of behavior models in developing control software: Modeling the expected behavior directly for new software will allow using them throughout the software life-cycle. For legacy software, the initial development effort of behavior models will be minimized by automatically capturing behavior models from the implementation. The approach is evaluated in case studies and user studies to integrate experiences from the industrial domain into this software engineering research.

In today's competitive industry marketplace, the companies face growing demands to improve process efficiencies, comply with environmental regulations, and meet corporate financial objectives. Given the increasing age of many industrial systems and the dynamic industrial manufacturing market, intelligent and low-cost industrial automation systems are required to improve the productivity and efficiency of such systems. The collaborative nature of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) brings several advantages over traditional wired industrial monitoring and control systems, including self-organization, rapid deployment, flexibility, and inherent intelligent-processing capability. In this regard, IWSN plays a vital role in creating a highly reliable and self-healing industrial system that rapidly responds to real-time events with appropriate actions. In this paper, first, technical challenges and design principles are introduced in terms of hardware development, system architectures and protocols, and software development. Specifically, radio technologies, energy-harvesting techniques, and cross-layer design for IWSNs have been discussed. In addition, IWSN standards are presented for the system owners, who plan to utilize new IWSN technologies for industrial automation applications. In this paper, our aim is to provide a contemporary look at the current state of the art in IWSNs and discuss the still-open research issues in this field and, hence, to make the decision-making process more effective and direct.

The calibration of large-diameter flow meters is performed in the calibration station where real flow passes through. The typical calibration process is manipulated by human operators, which is time-consuming and easily affected. Since most of the process parameters are detectable, the smart calibration system was aided by the on-line modeling process and consisted of three parts: the digital twin model, the process controller, and the human-machine interface (HMI). The digital twin model was based on the basic partial differential equations of the gas flow in pipelines and was meant for the flow behavior prediction over short periods and provided decision-making assistance for human operators. The verification of the digital model was based on both the historical process data and the real-time process data. The process controller represented the manipulator meant to replace the human operator. The function of the controller included process control and calibration flow point adjustment. The HMI was designed based on the industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. Since the process control was essential, the scheduling scheme and command sequence feedback to the SCADA system was rechecked by human operators via the HMI. The result of the active control was displayed in the HMI based on the digital twin model. Since smart control was the tendency in the piping system, the automated process verification and control formed the basis of the smart system. By entering the size and range of the flow meters into the HMI, the entire industrial system inside the calibration station was executed automatically.

After investigating the conception and features of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and embedded system, in this paper the conception of a Quasi-PLC is proposed, which combine the advantages of PLC and embedded system. The architecture of Quasi-PLC and a Top-Down design method with collaboration design of software and hardware for Quasi-PLC embedded control system are researched then. Finally, setting the large-scale industrial valve control system as an example, the conception of Quasi-PLC and related technologies are used in industrial valve control system, and a satisfied application effect is obtained, which proves the rationality of the conception of Quasi-PLC and related technologies.

Model Reference Adaptive Control of an Industrial Phosphate Drying Furnace

Automatic control has become one of the standard engineering fields and is inherently part of electrical engineering. Industrial controllers in any form are only a part of the hardware necessary for the control of industrial processes in, e.g., the process industry or manufacturing. The design of an industrial control system is greatly facilitated by an auto-tuning system, if it is available as part of the controller. Since the majority of control hardware for industry is of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) type, most of the patents relating to auto-tuning are also about this type of control, though other patented methods and systems for control are available. In this paper, a survey of patents for autotuning methods and systems for industrial control is given. The patents are grouped into methods and systems based on model-based tuning with non-parametric and parametric models, relay tuning, multiple controllers for nonlinear processes, and other approaches. More stress is put on recent patents, but a wider survey of auto-tuning patents published in the past two decades is also given in the paper. The methods being patented are becoming more sophisticated and more universal and consequently they provide better assistance to the work of control-design engineers. Keywords: Auto-tuning system, industrial controllers, process control, PID control, controller tuning

Information technology can either replace human effort and skill or it can complement and enhance it. Computer systems introduced into industry reflect both of these capabilities. In general, the skills replaced by computer systems in industry are mechanical/repetitive skills, although some middle managers are now being by‐passed as large centralised computer systems and networks have made communications between the centre and the periphery more direct and reduced the need for intervening filtering and interpretation. Many computer systems also complement managerial skills by aiding decision making. In the future it is possible that expert systems may replace some managerial skills, but the intuitive and experiential nature of much managerial work makes it unlikely that this replacement will be widespread.

In the pharmaceutical industry, process validation tasks are based on the raw data and its derived analytical results generated from the process. Process validation failure affects both patient safety and the economic success of the manufacturing company. Hence, data integrity is highly critical in this area. Regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reacted to past data integrity breaches by publishing new guidelines on data integrity for the correct handling of data in the pharmaceutical context.In this contribution, we want to show how data integrity can be improved on a technological level, removing the need for trusted third parties and centralized systems for this task. Therefore, we implemented an approach that uses existing tools, currently mostly used by software developers, and combined them with a new smart contract built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. In a case study, we test how data manipulation or backdating of results can be easily detected and how regulatory agencies can audit the complete data flow from the regulatory report back to the original raw data.The results of this contribution outline a possible road map for the development of production-ready tools, such as versioned database systems that natively interoperate with distributed ledgers. This will improve the trustworthiness of pharmaceutical manufacturing data by both protecting the intellectual property of the industrial company and improving the safety of the patients.LAY ABSTRACT: In the pharmaceutical industry, economically driven manufacturing companies are regulated and controlled by regulatory agencies. The pharmaceutical manufacturing companies need to produce large amounts of process and analytical data to show that their products are safe for patients. As the decisions of the regulatory agencies rely on this data, manufacturing companies need to prove how their generated data can be protected from technical breaches or data manipulation.As of today, the available technical solutions to provide data integrity are not working well enough. Regulatory agencies have published multiple documents highlighting the current data integrity issues.In this contribution, we show how blockchain, a technology that multiple cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin rely on, can help to improve the integrity of manufacturing data and data science analysis procedures. Therefore, we combined a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain with tools currently mostly used by software developers. The presented workflow shows how data integrity can be guaranteed on a technological level without the need for trusted third parties.

Industrial control computers can be connected to the Internet, and equipped with a Web interface. This enables access to process data from any computer with a set of common web-related software applications. This paper deals with laboratory exercises performed as a part of courses regarding process control computers, which include tasks dealing with this topic. Integration of Java and HTML technologies is described, and an example of a simple process and its Web interface is given. PLC computers equipped with an advanced communication modules are connected to a personal computer (PC) via Ethernet. Alongside implementation of Java applets in Web environment, human machine interface design is regarded.

Copper clad insulated metal substrate materials are used by manufacturers of a variety of power modules for industrial motor control, computer, and automotive engine control applications. Copper clad insulated metal designs allow high waste heat densities. Process chemical residuals and uncontrolled test procedures can reduce the product durability advantage associated with copper clad insulated metal's thermal management advantage. Copper clad insulated metal designs rely on relatively thin (75-150 /spl mu/m) ceramic filled electrical isolation to achieve minimum thermal resistance between waste heat generating components and the metal thermal management base layer. Product durability is often estimated by exposing an assembly to bias voltage at elevated temperature. This exposure is followed by dielectric stress testing to safety agency standards. Bias aging and dielectric testing is carried out at stress levels significantly higher than those used with normal printed wiring designs. Previously published data suggests that surface cleanliness levels better than 1 /spl mu/m gm NaCl equivalent per cm/sup 2/ allow the production of assemblies resistant to the effects of aging at elevated temperature with or without voltage bias stress. This test program focuses on the sources of and analysis for assembly process related ionic contaminants. This test program used samples of industrial motor control panels, aged at elevated temperature.

A development framework for supervisory control software of automated manufacturing systems

This chapter studies decision-making behaviour of independent regulatory agencies. Theoretical accounts of delegation to regulatory agencies emphasise that losses of political accountability of regulators are traded off against potential gains in regulatory efficiency. The theory of credible commitment suggests that independent (non-majoritarian) regulatory agencies are more effective in regulating markets than organisations under direct political control. However, independent regulatory agencies operate in a political context and need to demonstrate their benefit to a diverse set of stakeholders, including elected politicians. We are hence confronted with a ‘paradox of autonomisation’ according to which more autonomous public organisations have to take into consideration external demands to a greater degree than less autonomous organisations. Independent regulatory agencies will thus be subjected to high accountability demands. We use the analytical lens of bureaucratic reputation theory to analyse how different types of external demands affect regulatory agencies’ attention to stakeholders. The chapter argues that reputation-sensitive regulatory agencies will exhibit differential response patterns to negative public judgements, depending on the kind of negative judgements and the type of actor criticising the regulator. In this chapter we use data from a systematic media analysis of public judgements and regulators’ communicative response, with the financial regulator and the utility regulator (electricity, railways, etc.) in Germany as empirical cases. We find that regulatory agencies respond differently to negative public judgements yet are not more (or less) responsive to political actors’ criticism compared to other types of actors. This finding questions independent regulatory agencies’ democratic accountability, yet the chapter also suggests that public criticism and debate is only one channel, among many others, through which regulators are held democratically accountable.