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Contemplative stance on automation system
Copyright@IFAC Future Trends in Automation in Mineral and Metal Processing, Finland, 2000
CONTEMPLATIVE STANCE ON AUTOMATION SYSTEM Sangchul Won •
• SPARe, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31 Hyoja-Dong, Pohang 790-784 , Republic of Korea Copyright @20001FAC
1. INTRODUCTION
prepare for the "digital revolution" . Therefore the competition for the automation market is getting tight.
The current level of automation systems is, in general, very mature. Most manufacturing processes of large scale factories are fully automated so that each process of the production line requires only a few operators to inspect normal operations.
2. AUTOMATION SYSTEM CONCEPT
The new trend in automation systems is to build adaptive manufacturing facilities which are flexible enough to deal with various items related to minor software modification-not hardware replacements-and to build high efficiency production lines linking new sensor technology to new network technology, and then eventually to build unmanned factories. The next generation technology of automation systems is a matter of worldwide common interest.
r
Total System
1
-lAN - Network - Real time OS - Database - Multimedia - PC
- Workstation - DCS - DDC - Sensor
The U.S. established a policy to develop manufacturing systems integration technology, through the Advanced Technology Program of National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the French government is funding the research projects "Real time environment" and "Instrumentation, Control and Architecture of Advanced Robots" for the development of Network based control system technology. Singapore supports the "Global Network development" project using the established National broad-band network, "Singapore ONE" . Canada organized four large national research groups and supports the paper mill diagnostic system, integrated real-time optimization, advanced control of continuous manufacturing processes and dynamics and control of collective robotics research project. The Research Institute for Open Communication Systems in Germany makes efforts to implement Y-solution (next generation information system technology) and the Research Institute for Advanced Information Technology in Japan chose five research topics to
- PLC - DATA VO
- Instrument - DATAVO - Robot - Actuator - Unmanned Vehicle - Motor/Pump
- Process - Plant - Product flow and Storage
Fig. 1. Automation Systems Concepts In this section, we describe automation system concept using the hierarchical diagram as shown in Figure 1. It consists of seven levels with each level representing the function of the automation system. From the bottom, the first level represents the target system to be automated. These can be plants or processes within factory, product flow systems or product storage systems. The second level represents the manipulators for automation. These include robots, actuators, cranes, motors, hydraulic pumps and all kinds
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of mechanical manipulators. The third level represents signal sensing and processing devices for data acquisition. The fourth level represents the sequence control system and status monitoring systems. The programmable logic controllers and direct digital controllers usually do this job and they are linked with sensors or devices through the field bus. The fifth level shows the computer control system loaded with various control algorithms, and the operator console for Human Machine Interface. These can be the DCS, PC, or workstations. The sixth level shows the supporting environment which includes LAN for internet, multimedia, various application programs, real time OS, and large databases. The top level represents the integration of the whole automation system. When the concept of automation is extended to the remote diagnostic systems, or remote monitoring systems, through the internet, they belong to the top level.
3.2 Mechanical manipulators a) State of the art Examples are AC motor controlled by IGBT inverters, force controlled intelligent robots, cooperating robots, and anti-swing intelligent cranes used for process automation. b) Future trends Maintenance free, high precision mechanical manipulators are expected for automation.
3.3 Sensors and monitoring systems Sensors and monitoring systems are basic elements in automated systems. The trend of sensor developments moves from mechanical to simple non-contact, low power consuming electric types. a) State of the art Typical state of the art sensors are CCD area sensors, linear encoders, rotary encoders, load cells, flow sensors , pressure sensors, level sensors, temperature sensors, gas sensors, AE sensors, photo diodes, photo couplers, NTC thermistors, proximetor sensors, vibration sensors, bio sensors, flow/level sensors, chemical sensors and ion sensors. With these sensors, state of the art monitoring systems were developed and applied to many automation systems. The examples in steel making process are cold rolled plates, pin hole detection system using light source orientation control, a surface defect detecting system using an area CCD camera, a sheet thickness monitoring system and a plate profile monitoring system.
3. STATE OF THE ART AND FUTURE TRENDS In this section, we discuss the state of the arts and future trends of each component of the automation system through the examples in the steel making industry.
3.1 Taryet systems Target systems for automation could be any plants or processes in the factory. Examples of the state of the art in automation technology which can be seen in steel making processes are the Continuous Annealing Line operated using computer integrated manufacturing technology which has a realtime computing environment with an builtin expert system capability, Unmanned Process Automation of Coke Plants using robot manipulators, Automatic Gauge Control in hot rolling mills using fuzzy, multi-variable control algorithm, Strip Casting Processes with intelligent controller and 3-D Surface Inspection Systems, Steel Plate Automatic Storage Yards using intelligent cranes, and Reclaimer Automatic Systems with the 3-D range finder to sense the shape of the raw material stockpile which has wireless LAN for collision avoidance.
b) Future trends Sensors which are currently being developed for future applications include multiple, feeling (smell, feel or taste) and high precision micro light sensors. Engineers in the steel industry are making efforts to develop, a cold rolled steel sheet internal defect detection system using ultrasonic waves, and a continuous temperature measurement system for molten iron converters.
3.4 PLC
When Richard Morley introduced the PLC, decades ago, the major function was a simple sequence control of processes. However it has been improved to perform various complex task control.
The future trends of automatic systems are to build a whole unit of automated factory instead of partial automation for specific processes. Examples are Completely Continuous Finishing Hot Rolling Mills using new weldering technology, Automatic Maintenance Systems in cold rolling mill, and Automatic Defect Inspection Systems.
a) State of the art The softPLC is applied in industry. It is a PLC with PC functions. The recent PLC provides window based programming tools, Human Machine Interface (HMI), a network for global information
80
4. CONCLUSION
exchange, and ultra high speed mathematical operation capabilities. A large scale PLC has distributed control capability.
The future trend of automation systems technology is focused on the development of more accurate sensors, PC based control systems and advanced networks with appropriate security concerning the environmental protection.
b) Future trends Future PLCs, should be user oriented, highly reliable modularized and have downsized scalable multitasking controllers, advanced I/O interfaces, flexible plant-wide communication capability for realtime controls, standardized for portability and connectivity and the IEC 1131 standard for high transplantation.
5. REFERENCES ATP (Advanced Technology Program) Focused Program. http://www. inria.Jr/Equipes/SIGMA2eng.html, U.S.A. Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications(ATP). http://www.atp. nist.gov/atp /focus/iifhc.htm, U.S .A.
3.5 Distributed Control System (DCS) a) State of the Art The DCSs on the market are highly reliable, open architectured real time, multitasking systems and provide MMI graphics development tools and various API tools and powerful databases in a windows environment. They support Ethernet TCP /IP and integrated control software which can collect the data from all devices and control computers including management computers.
EPTR (Real-Time Environment Project) . http:// www.inria.Jr/Equipes/EPATR-eng.html, France. ICARE (Instrumentation, Control and Architecture of Advanced Robots) . http://www.inria.Jr /Equipes/ICARE-eng.html, France. IMAVI - Machines Accessed Via the Internet, http://telemfg.eng.nus.edu.sg /mavidesc.html ,Sinapore.
b) Future trends Future DCS is considered to be the PC based control system. It takes advantages of PC functions such as low cost, flexibility, high speed various application programs, simple intelligent networks, and various I/O support. It is also expected to be a modularized, OPC based, object oriented system with a wireless communication network.
1999-2000 Strategic Project Grants Competition. http://www.nserc.ca/programs/ result/1999 /st/strategic.htm, Canada.
3.6 Network Performance
CATS (The Center of Competence for Advanced Network Technologies and Systems). http://www .fokus.gmd.de/research/ cc/cats/ projects/ content.html, Germany.
Institute for Information Technology, http://www. iit. nrc. ca/english.html, Canada.
FOCUS (Research Institute for Open Communication Systems) . http://www.fokus.gmd.de/fokus. Germany.
Network technology related to automation systems is about performance of the backbone of the network, LAN and real-time OS.
Organization of AITEC. http://www.icot.or.jp /English/ oryanization /oryanization-E.html ,Japan.
a) State of the art The LAN in automated systems adopts 100 Mbps Ethernet using HUB and the backbone uses ATM or FDDI which provides several hundred Mbps. Real-time OS Linux guarantees a real-time mode up to micro seconds and WinNT guarantees up to milli seconds.
Survey and Assessment of R&D of Information Technology and Forecasting of Future Important R&D Topics. http://www.icot.or.jp/English /Homepage-E.html, Japan.
b) Future trends Gbps-supporting network device with switch (Myrinet) may be a reasonable solution. In the future, Current ATM or FDDI technology will be enhanced up to hundreds of Gbps, and for real time data communication, real-time Network of Workstation (NOW) which performs parallel processing without protocol and periodic communication will be developed.
Mechatronics Technology trend and development. Electricity institute magazine, 4 page., May 1999. POSCO (1999).Development Planing of POSCO Technology Research Center.
DC-AC Compact Power Inverter . http: www.antares.co.uk.
81
International Robot FA Center. Korean CIM Research report. PC based PLC system application in the steel making process www.autotech.co.kr Soft Logic Control(SLC). Control Magazine. p.70, August 1997. PC based automation in Network. Automation Technology Magazine p.83 November 1999 Soft-DCS. Control Magazine p.54 June 1998 Post-DCS. Automation Technology Magazine p.34 April 1999.
82
CONTEMPLATIVE STANCE ON AUTOMATION SYSTEM Sangchul Won •
• SPARe, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31 Hyoja-Dong, Pohang 790-784 , Republic of Korea Copyright @20001FAC
1. INTRODUCTION
prepare for the "digital revolution" . Therefore the competition for the automation market is getting tight.
The current level of automation systems is, in general, very mature. Most manufacturing processes of large scale factories are fully automated so that each process of the production line requires only a few operators to inspect normal operations.
2. AUTOMATION SYSTEM CONCEPT
The new trend in automation systems is to build adaptive manufacturing facilities which are flexible enough to deal with various items related to minor software modification-not hardware replacements-and to build high efficiency production lines linking new sensor technology to new network technology, and then eventually to build unmanned factories. The next generation technology of automation systems is a matter of worldwide common interest.
r
Total System
1
-lAN - Network - Real time OS - Database - Multimedia - PC
- Workstation - DCS - DDC - Sensor
The U.S. established a policy to develop manufacturing systems integration technology, through the Advanced Technology Program of National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the French government is funding the research projects "Real time environment" and "Instrumentation, Control and Architecture of Advanced Robots" for the development of Network based control system technology. Singapore supports the "Global Network development" project using the established National broad-band network, "Singapore ONE" . Canada organized four large national research groups and supports the paper mill diagnostic system, integrated real-time optimization, advanced control of continuous manufacturing processes and dynamics and control of collective robotics research project. The Research Institute for Open Communication Systems in Germany makes efforts to implement Y-solution (next generation information system technology) and the Research Institute for Advanced Information Technology in Japan chose five research topics to
- PLC - DATA VO
- Instrument - DATAVO - Robot - Actuator - Unmanned Vehicle - Motor/Pump
- Process - Plant - Product flow and Storage
Fig. 1. Automation Systems Concepts In this section, we describe automation system concept using the hierarchical diagram as shown in Figure 1. It consists of seven levels with each level representing the function of the automation system. From the bottom, the first level represents the target system to be automated. These can be plants or processes within factory, product flow systems or product storage systems. The second level represents the manipulators for automation. These include robots, actuators, cranes, motors, hydraulic pumps and all kinds
79
of mechanical manipulators. The third level represents signal sensing and processing devices for data acquisition. The fourth level represents the sequence control system and status monitoring systems. The programmable logic controllers and direct digital controllers usually do this job and they are linked with sensors or devices through the field bus. The fifth level shows the computer control system loaded with various control algorithms, and the operator console for Human Machine Interface. These can be the DCS, PC, or workstations. The sixth level shows the supporting environment which includes LAN for internet, multimedia, various application programs, real time OS, and large databases. The top level represents the integration of the whole automation system. When the concept of automation is extended to the remote diagnostic systems, or remote monitoring systems, through the internet, they belong to the top level.
3.2 Mechanical manipulators a) State of the art Examples are AC motor controlled by IGBT inverters, force controlled intelligent robots, cooperating robots, and anti-swing intelligent cranes used for process automation. b) Future trends Maintenance free, high precision mechanical manipulators are expected for automation.
3.3 Sensors and monitoring systems Sensors and monitoring systems are basic elements in automated systems. The trend of sensor developments moves from mechanical to simple non-contact, low power consuming electric types. a) State of the art Typical state of the art sensors are CCD area sensors, linear encoders, rotary encoders, load cells, flow sensors , pressure sensors, level sensors, temperature sensors, gas sensors, AE sensors, photo diodes, photo couplers, NTC thermistors, proximetor sensors, vibration sensors, bio sensors, flow/level sensors, chemical sensors and ion sensors. With these sensors, state of the art monitoring systems were developed and applied to many automation systems. The examples in steel making process are cold rolled plates, pin hole detection system using light source orientation control, a surface defect detecting system using an area CCD camera, a sheet thickness monitoring system and a plate profile monitoring system.
3. STATE OF THE ART AND FUTURE TRENDS In this section, we discuss the state of the arts and future trends of each component of the automation system through the examples in the steel making industry.
3.1 Taryet systems Target systems for automation could be any plants or processes in the factory. Examples of the state of the art in automation technology which can be seen in steel making processes are the Continuous Annealing Line operated using computer integrated manufacturing technology which has a realtime computing environment with an builtin expert system capability, Unmanned Process Automation of Coke Plants using robot manipulators, Automatic Gauge Control in hot rolling mills using fuzzy, multi-variable control algorithm, Strip Casting Processes with intelligent controller and 3-D Surface Inspection Systems, Steel Plate Automatic Storage Yards using intelligent cranes, and Reclaimer Automatic Systems with the 3-D range finder to sense the shape of the raw material stockpile which has wireless LAN for collision avoidance.
b) Future trends Sensors which are currently being developed for future applications include multiple, feeling (smell, feel or taste) and high precision micro light sensors. Engineers in the steel industry are making efforts to develop, a cold rolled steel sheet internal defect detection system using ultrasonic waves, and a continuous temperature measurement system for molten iron converters.
3.4 PLC
When Richard Morley introduced the PLC, decades ago, the major function was a simple sequence control of processes. However it has been improved to perform various complex task control.
The future trends of automatic systems are to build a whole unit of automated factory instead of partial automation for specific processes. Examples are Completely Continuous Finishing Hot Rolling Mills using new weldering technology, Automatic Maintenance Systems in cold rolling mill, and Automatic Defect Inspection Systems.
a) State of the art The softPLC is applied in industry. It is a PLC with PC functions. The recent PLC provides window based programming tools, Human Machine Interface (HMI), a network for global information
80
4. CONCLUSION
exchange, and ultra high speed mathematical operation capabilities. A large scale PLC has distributed control capability.
The future trend of automation systems technology is focused on the development of more accurate sensors, PC based control systems and advanced networks with appropriate security concerning the environmental protection.
b) Future trends Future PLCs, should be user oriented, highly reliable modularized and have downsized scalable multitasking controllers, advanced I/O interfaces, flexible plant-wide communication capability for realtime controls, standardized for portability and connectivity and the IEC 1131 standard for high transplantation.
5. REFERENCES ATP (Advanced Technology Program) Focused Program. http://www. inria.Jr/Equipes/SIGMA2eng.html, U.S.A. Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications(ATP). http://www.atp. nist.gov/atp /focus/iifhc.htm, U.S .A.
3.5 Distributed Control System (DCS) a) State of the Art The DCSs on the market are highly reliable, open architectured real time, multitasking systems and provide MMI graphics development tools and various API tools and powerful databases in a windows environment. They support Ethernet TCP /IP and integrated control software which can collect the data from all devices and control computers including management computers.
EPTR (Real-Time Environment Project) . http:// www.inria.Jr/Equipes/EPATR-eng.html, France. ICARE (Instrumentation, Control and Architecture of Advanced Robots) . http://www.inria.Jr /Equipes/ICARE-eng.html, France. IMAVI - Machines Accessed Via the Internet, http://telemfg.eng.nus.edu.sg /mavidesc.html ,Sinapore.
b) Future trends Future DCS is considered to be the PC based control system. It takes advantages of PC functions such as low cost, flexibility, high speed various application programs, simple intelligent networks, and various I/O support. It is also expected to be a modularized, OPC based, object oriented system with a wireless communication network.
1999-2000 Strategic Project Grants Competition. http://www.nserc.ca/programs/ result/1999 /st/strategic.htm, Canada.
3.6 Network Performance
CATS (The Center of Competence for Advanced Network Technologies and Systems). http://www .fokus.gmd.de/research/ cc/cats/ projects/ content.html, Germany.
Institute for Information Technology, http://www. iit. nrc. ca/english.html, Canada.
FOCUS (Research Institute for Open Communication Systems) . http://www.fokus.gmd.de/fokus. Germany.
Network technology related to automation systems is about performance of the backbone of the network, LAN and real-time OS.
Organization of AITEC. http://www.icot.or.jp /English/ oryanization /oryanization-E.html ,Japan.
a) State of the art The LAN in automated systems adopts 100 Mbps Ethernet using HUB and the backbone uses ATM or FDDI which provides several hundred Mbps. Real-time OS Linux guarantees a real-time mode up to micro seconds and WinNT guarantees up to milli seconds.
Survey and Assessment of R&D of Information Technology and Forecasting of Future Important R&D Topics. http://www.icot.or.jp/English /Homepage-E.html, Japan.
b) Future trends Gbps-supporting network device with switch (Myrinet) may be a reasonable solution. In the future, Current ATM or FDDI technology will be enhanced up to hundreds of Gbps, and for real time data communication, real-time Network of Workstation (NOW) which performs parallel processing without protocol and periodic communication will be developed.
Mechatronics Technology trend and development. Electricity institute magazine, 4 page., May 1999. POSCO (1999).Development Planing of POSCO Technology Research Center.
DC-AC Compact Power Inverter . http: www.antares.co.uk.
81
International Robot FA Center. Korean CIM Research report. PC based PLC system application in the steel making process www.autotech.co.kr Soft Logic Control(SLC). Control Magazine. p.70, August 1997. PC based automation in Network. Automation Technology Magazine p.83 November 1999 Soft-DCS. Control Magazine p.54 June 1998 Post-DCS. Automation Technology Magazine p.34 April 1999.
82