Supervisory Control for Process Automation: A New Perspective to CIM

This paper won the # 2 prize at the National Level Paper Presentation Contest held in India on March 4-5, 2000.

Abstract:

Object Oriented Technology is a new way of thinking about problems using models around the real world concepts. The software developed with OO methods supports a higher degree of consistency, understandability, reusability extensibility and productivity. Due to this recently a number of OO software development methodologies have appeared on the scene. This work discusses the fundamentals of OO methods. These methods are used as a basis for the second part of the paper, which provides a case study in the application of PlantScape for automation of a level control system. PlantScape is a technologically advanced Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition ( SCADA ) system designed for process control, open automation application and virtual manufacturing systems. It has a flexible OO client - server architecture. The paper brings forth the advantages of OO over conventional automation systems. Significant cost reduction has been achieved by automating processes like pumping, material handling etc. in diverse work environments like offshore platforms, power distribution systems and remote control. The paper concludes with an overview of current shortcomings in implementation techniques as regards to timing constraints and concurrency, their probable solutions and the possibilities of global scheduling, automatic code generation.