A structured, automated design procedure for systems integration sequential logic

In the course of the fourth industrial revolution, companies are facing considerable challenges, such as retrofitting and integrating existing, mission-critical automated production systems (aPS) into new interconnected environments. To integrate the production data from aPS and to make it available for data analysis and plant monitoring, relevant data from the programmable logic controller (PLC) of each aPS needs to be accessed and forwarded. These PLCs, at a first priority, control the production plants and ensure reliable production. Due to the long life-cycles of aPS of around 30 years, a huge number of legacy PLCs with limited processing and communication capabilities exists in the field. Therefore, retrofitting concepts that aim to allow access to PLC data need to account for this special, mission-critical role of PLCs. In the context of PLC retrofitting approaches, research currently addresses two domains: on the one hand, abstract Industrie 4.0 architectures are proposed that lack of implementation details. On the other hand, specific retrofitting concepts are presented, which are usually not transferable to other application purposes. Hence, this work aims to fill this gap by deriving generally applicable retrofitting strategies for legacy PLCs for data collection. Five technology-neutral retrofitting concepts based on industrially relevant use-cases were proposed. Three concepts were substantiated on an exemplary basis and their validity shown within a proof-of-concept. Altogether, this work can act as a guideline for retrofitting automation technology to facilitate the integration of legacy systems in Industrie 4.0 scenarios.

Integration of Networked Control Systems is always an engineering challenge. Heterogeneous hardware and software environments combined with long lifetime of control systems makes this job particularly troublesome. Modern concepts of integration of automation systems are related to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). While its suitability is proven in IT systems, SOA has not been adopted yet in commercial Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), and thus cannot be considered as a solution for integration with already deployed control systems. However, during past years thousands of PLCs with embedded HTTP servers were deployed in the field. These devices, used together with modern PLC that acts as the HTTP client, enable unique opportunity of integration for control systems with soft real-time constraints. In the present study, the performance of PLC-to-PLC communications based on HTTP is evaluated and compared to Modbus TCP.

Current approaches to manufacturing must evolve to respond to increasing demands for short product life cycles and customised products. Adaptive manufacturing systems integrate advanced technologies, automation, and data-driven methodologies to develop adaptable, efficient, and responsive production processes. Central to this concept is the emphasis on human involvement and fostering synergy between human operators and the manufacturing system. Significant changes to the system’s controller are required to achieve adaptivity, with programmable logic controllers (PLCs) being a common controller type. After the necessary changes to the configuration of the manufacturing system, the PLC should be reconfigured to orchestrate the new required behaviour. Automated reconfiguration is vital to rapidly responding to change, but some changes cannot be entirely achieved without human input in collaboration with automated methods. Conventional practices in PLC programming include manual, repetitive coding practices subject to errors. As a result, to ensure operational safety, the changes must be tested before being deployed to operations, ensuring it is error-free. This paper presents a methodology to automatically reconfigure the simulation environment and controller in response to a new product request. We automate the PLC code generation and testing practices to support and free up the operators when performing repetitive manufacturing reconfiguration tasks. The methodology is based on human learning, software automation, customised program development, knowledge graphs, and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). The presented solution is a generic, vendor-agnostic, and interoperable solution that facilitates information exchange among multiple heterogeneous environments. Lastly, we have validated the methodology as a proof of concept at an adaptive assembly cell at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.

Porous asphalt pavements allow designers to introduce more sustainability into projects and lessen their environmental impact. Current design procedures are based primarily on hydrologic considerations; comparatively little attention has been paid to their structural design aspects. As their use grows, a design procedure and representative material structural properties are needed to ensure that porous pavements do not deteriorate excessively under traffic loads. The objective of this project was to develop a simple, easy to apply design procedure for the structural design of porous asphalt pavements. Two methodologies were considered for such a structural design procedure: ( a) the 1993 AASHTO Pavement Design Guide empirical approach, and ( b) the mechanistic–empirical approach employed by the AASHTOWare Pavement ME Design software. A multifactor evaluation indicated the empirical 1993 AASHTO design procedure to be the most appropriate platform at this time. It is noted, however, that both design procedures lack validation of porous asphalt pavements against field performance. AASHTO design parameters and associated material characteristics are recommended, based on an extensive literature review. For “thin” open-graded base structures (12 in. or less), the AASHTO procedure is performed as published in the 1993 Guide. For “thick” base structures (>12 in.), the base/subgrade combination is considered a composite system which supports the porous asphalt layer; an equivalent deflection-based approach is described to estimate the composite resilient modulus of the foundation system, prior to applying the 1993 AASHTO design procedure.

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.

At present, logic controllers use sequential programmable logic controllers (PLC) and industrial computers with scan strategies and special instructions for parallel events detection. Also, nowadays, reconfigurable devices improvement allows the implementation of parallel control strategies in a more natural way. This paper describes an integrated system for logic controller implementation using FPGA. It consists of a hardware card and a design automation environment which improves design performance. The hardware, as well as doing typical automation tasks, contributes to achieving additional characteristics such as simulation and monitoring. To show the integrated system applications, a real industrial project is undertaken.

7 - Troubleshooting control circuits

The state - of - the art of aeronautical structures show that parts are manufactured and subsequently assembled with the use of fasteners and/ or bonding. Adhesive bonding is a key technology to low weight, high fatigue resistance, robustness and an attractive design for cost structures. The paper results resolve significant problems for two groups of end-users: 1) for the aerospace design office: a robust procedure for the design of the hybrid joint structural components; 2) for the aeronautical repair centres: a useful procedure for structural design and analysis with significant cost savings.

The concepts and approach used to develop a mechanistic-empirical structural design procedure for continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP) are presented. Key aspects of the CRCP design procedure— including design overview, design inputs, structural response model, incremental damage analysis, and prediction of CRCP deterioration— are addressed. The mechanism of punch-out development is the foundation of the structural design procedure. Punch-out development is modeled by using mechanistic principles and damage accumulation over the design life. The incremental damage is used to account for changes in many factors throughout the entire design period, including material properties (portland cement concrete strength and modulus, erosion of base), seasonal climatic conditions, traffic loadings, crack load transfer, subgrade support, and others. Each analysis increment represents a specific combination of these factors during a selected period of time. Finally, accumulated damage is correlated with CRCP punchouts by using extensive field data, and a sensitivity analysis is provided to show that the procedure is reasonable.

The problem of constructing a HIL simulation stand for researching a technological process using programmable logic controller (PLC) "Baget" is described in this article. Issues of modeling technological processes are currently extremely relevant, since modeling is a mandatory stage in the automated process control systems development. An adequate model of the technological process allows debugging and verification of automated process control system algorithms without using real equipment, reducing financial costs and the probability of emergency situations. The HIL modeling method involves partial use of real equipment as part of the model. The inclusion of standard components of the original object in the model does not require detailed mathematical model and at the same time provides a more complete correspondence to the original. Due to using a computer from the original object, the stand software operates under conditions close to the real technological process, which improves the quality of the simulation results. The HIL modeling stand includes the following components: control computer of automated process control system; programmable logic controller PLC "Baget"; simulation computer. The stand for the basic element of an automated process control system allows to speed up the process of prototyping and debugging even in the case of complex systems, because it will be easier to build the entire system from correctly functioning elements. Another advantage of this approach is that the stand is not tied to a specific type of technological process or to a narrow area of production — the stand allows the use of ready-made models, the development of new models, and the inclusion of various function libraries. The simplicity of the stand design with this approach is combined with a full range of functionality. By connecting additional software, you can create more complicated and detaild model. This stand is also capable of serving both for debugging PLC algorithms and as a simulator for maintenance personnel of a real control object, because the stand operator can simulate failures and errors of standard equipment, emergency situations at the control object. Using C and JavaScript programming languages for development ensures portability and ease of expanding the capabilities of the modeling software. The development of complex systems based on HIL modeling allows saving resources and effectively solving assigned problems, therefore the proposed approach to building stands will be in demand in the process of developing an automated process control system based on the PLC "Baget".

ABSTRACTThe paper deals with the problems of mechanical properties of structural steels used for load-carrying structures of civil engineering constructions. The attention is mainly paid to the values of yield strength from the viewpoint of the design concept of European Standards, i.e. Eurocode 3 for the design of steel structures, with respect to the structural reliability given by the failure probability. In the case of other materials, concrete or timber for example, characteristic and design values of strength given by the corresponding failure probability are used in the design procedures, where the partial safety factor of material is γM > 1.0. However, in the case of steel, the nominal values instead of characteristic values of steel yield strength are utilized in the structural design procedure, with the partial safety factor for material of γM = 1.0. These values have been derived based on the statistical and probabilistic evaluation of the data sets of actual material properties obtained from various recent steel producers. The paper presents the brief information on the results of the study oriented to the influence of the nominal or characteristic value of yield strength on the design resistance, which is shown on the examples of the member subjected to tension and bending moment, respectively. The influence mentioned is shown using the examples of structural steels used in constructions of the age of about 40 and 100 years.

The integration of perational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) is crucial for enterprise-level decision-making regarding company effectiveness and productivity. This integration is achieved by developing an integrator system in the form of an API service, which facilitates the connection between Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Odoo Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Integration allows IT systems synergize with OT systems to processing data obtained from the performance of industrial machines. Analysis was conducted using the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) method to monitor the company’s production outcomes. A prototype sorting system with PLC for controlling was created as an OEE implementation. The API service acquires data from the plant and performs preliminary analysis in Odoo ERP. The analysis in Odoo ERP is conducted through the development of a manufacturing module that applies the OEE method calculations to monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of production procces. Once the calculation result is obtained, these data are monitored on Grafana in the form of pie charts and graphs. This research yielded insight into the design and implementation of an integration system for the bottle sorting process. The result also could be monitored in real-time using Odoo ERP and Grafana. Furthermore, the OEE analysis was matched with manual calculations in order to ensure its validity. Thus, this research enables the production process to be optimized and provides significant benefits to the company.

NorTRACKTM product tracking system—development and implementation

In this paper, an integrated system to control and manage a state-of-the-art industrial computer numerical control (CNC) machine (Studer S33) using a commercially available tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tablet S2) is presented as a proof of concept (PoC) for the ubiquitous control of industrial machines. As a PoC, the proposed system provides useful insights to support the further development of full-fledged systems for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. The proposed system allows for the quasi-decentralisation of the control architecture of conventional programmable logic controller (PLC)-based industrial control systems (ICSs) through data and information exchange over the transmission control protocol and the internet protocol (TCP/IP) suite using multiple agents. Based on the TCP/IP suite, a network device (Samsung Galaxy Tablet S2) and a process field net (PROFINET) device (Siemens Simatic S7-1200) are interfaced using a single-board computer (Raspberry Pi 4). An override system mainly comprising emergency stop and acknowledge buttons is also configured using the single-board computer. The input signals from the override system are transmitted to the PROFINET device (i.e., the industrial control unit (ICU)) over TCP/IP. A fully functional working prototype is realised as a PoC for an integrated system designated for the wireless and ubiquitous control of the CNC machine. The working prototype as an entity mainly comprises a mobile (handheld) touch-sensitive human-machine interface (HMI), a shielded single-board computer, and an override system, all fitted into a compact case with physical dimensions of 300 mm by 180 mm by 175 mm. To avert potential cyber attacks or threats to a reasonable extent and to guarantee the security of the PoC, a multi-factor authentication (MFA) including an administrative password and an IP address is implemented to control the access to the web-based ubiquitous HMI proffered by the PoC.

Integrating systems are frequently encountered in the oil industry (oil–water–gas separators, distillation columns), power plants, paper-production plants, polymerisation processes, and in storage tanks. Due to the non-self-regulating character of the processes, any disturbance can cause a drift of the process output signal. Therefore, efficient closed-loop control of such processes is required. There are many PI and PID controller tuning methods for integrating processes. However, it is hard to find one requiring only a simple tuning procedure on the process, while the tuning method is based either on time-domain measurements or on a process transfer function of arbitrary order, which are the advantages of the magnitude optimum multiple integration (MOMI) tuning method. In this paper, we propose the extension of the MOMI tuning method to integrating processes. Besides the mentioned advantages, the extension provides efficient closed-loop control, while PI controller parameters calculation is still based on simple algebraic expressions, making it suitable for less-demanding hardware, like simpler programmable logic controllers (PLC). Additionally, the proposed method incorporates reference weighting factor b that allows users to emphasize either the disturbance-rejection or reference-following response. The proposed extension of the MOMI method (time-domain approach) was also tested on a charge-amplifier drift-compensation system, a laboratory hydraulic plant, on an industrial autoclave, and on a solid-oxide fuel-cell temperature control. All closed-loop responses were relatively stable and fast, all in accordance with the magnitude optimum criteria.