A Truly Distributed Process Control System with Online Configuration and Expansion Capabilities
Steinar Sælid · Modeling Identification and Control A Norwegian Research Bulletin · 1987
The process control system described in this paper, is a very flexible system equipped with a range of computer-aided configuration tools. These are tools for the configuration and reconfiguration of control loops, computing blocks, logic control modules, i/o connections or graphics, and presentation elements such as reports, trend curves, flowsheets, free graphical pictures etc., while the system is operational and in control. Documentation of system topology, system parametrization and the i/o configuration/connection etc., can be extracted from the system at any time. The system can also be configured for training and simulation applications as well as for process control. The paper describes the system hardware architecture, the distributed database and the configuration and operation tools.