Industrial Control and Automation SOUD1215 -A01

Task 1
Briefly explain the following terms and how they are used; Ram Vs Rom Read-only memory (ROM) is a form of data storage in computers and other electronic devices that cant be easily altered or reprogrammed. RAM can be referred to as volatile memory and is lost when the power is switched off and ROM is non-volatile and the contents are retained even after the power is switched off. Random Access Memory (RAM) is a form of data storage that can be accessed randomly at any time, in any order and from any physical location in contrast to other storage devices, (such as hard drives), where the physical location of the data determines the time taken to retrieve it. RAM is measured in megabytes and the speed is measured in nanoseconds. RAM chips can read data faster than ROM A simple way of looking at this is to imagine your computers hard drive (ROM) as storage area containing all of the files needed to make it work and imagine that the RAM as a workstation, when you click on a program it moves from storage into the workstation ready for use. Discrete, digital and analog input signals Analog signals are electrical signals that can be varied in amplitude or frequency, they can be used for measuring things such as weight and heat with great accuracy, whereas digital signals are either completely on or completely off and more commonly used in communications or lighting. Digitals signals are widely used in programming. We can obtain a discrete signal by sampling analog signals at discrete moments in time, the magnitude of the discrete signal will stay the same as the analog signal at this moment in time, when the magnitude of the discrete signal is quantised to the nearest

integer, and this is a digital signal. A discrete signal is discrete only in time but continuous in amplitude but a digital signal is discrete in both time and amplitude. This following diagram, taken from projectandseminartopics.blogspot.co.uk, clearly shows the difference between a digital and analogue signal.

Solenoid valves A solenoid valve is made up of a solenoid and a valve, its an electromechanical device commonly used for controlling the rate of flow in water or gas. An electrical current is run through a coil, creating a magnetic field, this causes a plunger to either open or close depending on the type of valve. As soon as any electrical current is removed the valve will return to its original state. Different types of solenoid valve include direct acting, semi-direct acting, pilot operated, pinching type, latching type, normally open and normally closed Solenoid valves can be power by both AC and DC current and are commonly used in household appliances such washing machines and dishwashers. A disadvantage of solenoids is that because they are inductive they give off heat when active, when the coil heats up it allows more current to flow as the resistance in the coil changes, If the solenoid has a continuous voltage applied it, the coil cant de-energise and cool down, This can be countered by using an intermittent duty cycle, this means the coil is switched on and off repeatedly to activate the plunger but not long enough to totally de-energise, this reduces the power consumption and protects from overheating.

The five levels within the Industrial Control Hierarchy We use the term hierarchy here as each level of a list that must be applied in order of effectiveness starting from the top,

Opto-isolators An opto-isolator is also commonly known as an opto-coupler, its an electronical semiconductor device which allows signals to be transferred between systems and circuits whilst keeping them isolated from each other. These are most commonly used in communications and monitoring systems. An opto-isolator contains an LED and a phototransistor, current runs through the LED and switches it on, the phototransistor then detects the light and allows a separate current to flow through it, and the two currents remain isolated. In a PLC an opto-isolator can be used to isolate the input module from the internal electrics, this prevents a live voltage appearing on the input lines when in fault mode. Another application for opto-isolators to be used in is within optical encoders,
where the opto-isolator provides a means of detecting visible edge transitions on an encoder wheel to detect position, etc.

Sourcing/Sinking outputs Sourcing and sinking are terms applied to DC input and output circuits or modules, Sinking provides a path to supply common (-) and sourcing provides a path to source (+). Both are used to connect a PLC to its external environment, they can conduct electrical current in only one direction so is not used in A.C circuits. Output devices are usually used to control the start and stop of equipment and on/off of valves. A solenoid valve would be controlled by a sinking or sourcing output This diagram taken from, www.automationnotebook.com shows the difference between sinking and sourcing outputs.

Task 2
Briefly explain the following switches and sensors with an example of their application; Thermocouples A Thermocouple is a type of sensor which is used for measuring temperature made up of two dissimilar metals, joined together at one end. When the joint is heated or cooled a voltage is then produced, which can then be used to determine the temperature.

Thermocouples can be made very easily; you could make your own using to lengths of wire made from different metals of the same thickness, copper and steel for example. Twist one end of the copper and steel together forming a junction and connect a low voltage multi meter to the disconnected ends of the copper and steel wires, apply heat to the junction and this will produce a voltage, remove the heat and the voltage will slowly decrease. To get a temperature reading you would need to know the temperature reference of the two metals you used in your thermo coupler, this can be found in a thermocouple chart or you could use a Thermistor. Relays (Electric and solid state) A Relay is a simple device made up of four main parts, an electromagnet (coil), an Armature, a spring and a set of electrical contacts. A relay needs to contain two electrical circuits, an energizing circuit and a contact circuit. The electromagnet is on the

energizing circuit and the relay contacts are on the contact side. Picture http://msitechbd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/what-is-electromechanical-relays.html taken from,

When electricity is applied to the electromagnet it pulls the armature towards it, the armature itself has three contacts, common, normally closed and normally open, the connections are either open or closed. When the common contact changes from normally open to normally closed, the contacts are being switched, turning the device the relay controls, on or off. When switched off the spring moves the armature back to its original state. The contacts in an Electromechanical relay are known as poles, each pole can be connected together by the energized relay coil, this is known as thrown, there are four contact types, SPST- single pole single throw, SPDT- single pole double throw, DPSTdouble pole single throw and DPDT- double pole double throw. Relays are very cheap to make and buy but are also prone to failure after time, A typical electromechanical relay may be rated for around 1 000 000 operations, or more. Tooley,Dingle(,2004,p281). Although this is a high amount of operations, when being used to close to their full capacity this number of operations can significantly decrease. There are many different types of relay such as Latching relays, reed relays, mercury-wetted relays, polarized relays, machine tool relays, contactor relays, solid state relays. A Solid state relay contains no mechanical parts and is made up of electronical parts, the contacts are made up of transistors, thyristors or triacs which make them more reliable than electromagnetic relays. SSR use an opto-coupler style sensor to separate the electrical current between the input and output signals. Solid state relays are commonly preferred to electromagnetic relays in telecommunications, data communications, PLCs and security systems.

Optical (Photoelectric) Sensors Photoelectric sensors are position sensing devices that use light as a way of sensing the distance or movement of an object. Photoelectric sensors are made up of two main parts, an emitter and a receiver .The emitter contains a light source (Usually an LED) and an oscillator which is used to modulate the light. The receiver contains a phototransistor, which detects light from the LED and converts in into an electrical voltage, the voltage is amplified and the signal is sent to the control action of the machinery the sensor is being operated with. Photoelectric sensors are commonly

found in factory automation systems and provide information needed for machinery to complete the required actions. There are three different types of photoelectric sensor; self-contained, remote and fiber optic. Very recently the first wireless self-contained photoelectric sensor was manufactured, which is said to have a communication distance of up to 1 kilometre, saving on cable runs and containment. This technology is being used more and more in in PLC environments as it is much cheaper than traditional wiring methods and there is a lot less that can go wrong. The picture to the left is the wireless sensor developed by Banner engineering, taken from Findlay Media LTD 2012.

Capacitive sensors Capacitive sensors contain a receiver and a transmitter, the sensor works by measuring changes in capacitance, Capacitance exists between any two conductive materials that are reasonably close together, and any changes between the distance of the materials will change the capacitance. If a voltage is applied to the conductors an electromagnetic field is created and both positive and negative charges will be collected on each conductor. Capacitive sensors use an alternating voltage so the charges can constantly reverse their position; this creates an AC current which is picked up by the sensor. The amount of current is dependent on the size and the material of the conductors and their proximity to each other; it can also be affected by the materiel of any nonconductive materiel between the conductors. In practise the sensor would be activated when someone or something comes within a certain distance or touches the sensor, they are commonly used to measure liquid levels, humidity and the composition of certain materials. Inductive sensors

Inductive sensors use an oscillating current that flows through a sensing coil to form a high frequency electromagnetic field, when a metal object enters the magnetic field eddy currents are induced and as the metal object gets closer to the sensor the eddy currents increase, this makes the electromagnetic field decrease in amplitude, once it has decreased to a certain level the sensor is activated indicating that it has detected the metal object. Inductive sensors are primarily used for position detection, speed sensing, limit switching, pulse generation and distance measurement. Sensor Sensitivity and Linearity A good sensor should be sensitive to the object or property it is set to detect and should be insensitive to any other property, for example a Passive Infrared Sensor (PIR) used commonly in intruder alarm systems, measures changes in energy given off by objects. In a residential environment a PIR sensor would be set to pick up movement of larger objects when active, otherwise a spider or a fly moving past the sensor could trigger the alarm. The sensitivity of sensor would depend on the requirement so that no interference is taken into account when the results of the detection are analysed. An ideal sensor should be linear to a simple mathematic function and the output signal should be linearly proportional to the value of the measured property. This graph shows the linear relationship between the input (Temperature) and the output (Voltage), as the temperature rises the voltage also rises at a constant rate and the ratio at any point on the graph between the two would be the same.
Graph courtesy of Labviewwiki.org

Sometimes a sensor may not be ideal and the sensitivity may differ from the specified value, this is called a Sensitivity error but the sensor is still linear, however if the sensitivity is not constant over the range of the sensor it is called non-linear.

Absolute Position Encoders An encoder is a device that converts information from one format to another; Encoders can be either absolute or incremental. Absolute positioning encoders use optical, mechanical or magnetic indexing for angular measurement, they interpret a system of coded tracks to create positional information where no two positions are identical. An absolute encoder contains a non-volatile memory so the unique value for each position is stored, they can be either single turn or multi turn, single turn encoders are used for small or short applications, normally a single turn encoder gives a 12 bit parallel output, which is just over 4 different codes per revolution of a coded disk, a multi turn encoder uses the same single turn disk but is also joined to another disk in a gear box with a 16:1 ratio so the smaller disk turns once for every 16 turns of the larger disk. The most common types of encoding that absolute encoders are used for are binary and gray codes, in gray codes only one bit changes at a time whilst in binary more than one bit may change. This is shown in the chart, taken from Warren -Smith 2002, Gray coding is on the left and Binary is on the right.

Task 3
Explain what is meant by Closed loop control Closed loop control is a type of control system commonly used to control motors and other mechanical systems, closed loop control would be used on an action that is performed gradually as opposed to an action that takes place instantly, this would be open loop. As the action takes place gradually, feedback can be taken and changes can be made to the process. In close loop control the output of the system is measured by a sensor and the results are compared against a reference signal, this is known as the desired state. If the output is measured higher or lower than the reference signal then an error term is generated and fed to a controller and converted to a system input value. A simple example of this in practise is the cruise control system used in modern cars, the sensor would be the speedometer and the reference would be the speed the cruise control was set to activate at; the desired speed and the speed the vehicle is traveling at would be the output measurement. If the desired speed is set at 60mph and the car is travelling at the same speed so the speedometer is reading 60mph then the error term would be 0, then if the car starts to move uphill and the speed reduces to 50mph the measured speed would be lower than the reference speed by 10mph, the error code would read positive and signal the controller to speed the car up by 10mph. If the car were to move downhill and speed up, the error code would become negative and the controller would be told to slow the car down. The block diagrams below taken from touch it weblog show the difference between closed loop and open loop control systems.

Closed loop

Open loop

Explain the major differences between unitary, modular and rack mounted programmable logic controllers and typical selection criteria. A Programmable logic controller (PLC) is a miniature computer designed specifically for industrial applications, there are three main types of PLC, Unitary, modular and rack mounted. A unitary PLC is the smallest and the cheapest of the three and is used for small machinery such as door controls, it contains just one or two input and output (I/O) channels, it is a single unit and contains a fixed amount of I/O. Modular PLCs contain a processor with few or no built in I/O and an internal power supply, individual modules are usually fixed to the back of a cabinet onto din rail and connected into the processor. The standard modules are made up of the processor, power supply plus the separate I/O, extra I/O can be added but to a limited amount. Modular PLCs are used when higher amounts of I/O are needed or with special inputs such as thermocouples. Rack mounted PLCs are usually more expensive, powerful and expandable than modular, the modules are on cards that slot into a standard rack in a cabinet, they are very flexible and allow a huge amount of expansion. Rack mounted PLCs provide a power and communications backplane that increase the communication rate between the processor and the modules and have a very high number of I/O. One rack mounted PLC could be used to control a whole factory floor using remote I/O.

Task 4
The industrial control system I have chosen to look at is an automatic door control, Automatic doors can be found in most buildings and come in many styles and designs. They work by a using a closed loop control system, a sensor sends a signal to a controller when something moves into the designated zone, the controller then actuates the motor which turns and opens the door. This process requires a unitary microcontroller which contains a power supply unit (PSU), a Central processing unit (CPU), an input which in this case is a sensor and an output which is the motor. The PSU transforms, rectifies and regulates the supply voltage of 240v down to 24v, it has current overload protection and an automatic reset function. A sensor commonly used in this system is the OAM-xzone, air and microwave sensor, a high safety sensor used in airports, hospitals and shopping malls. The sensor is programmed with an approach area which is the distance covered by the sensor, when a person or object enters the approach area the sensor tells the CPU to open the door, as long as there is someone in the detection zone the doors will stay open, once cleared the doors will close, the sensor contains Intelligent noise cancelling logic which stops any outside interference from rain, snow, vibration and insects, the sensor can be adjusted to ignore traffic moving away from the sensor and to reset quicker, this helps to reduce air flow between environmentally controlled areas and reduces power consumption. After the sensor sends the activation signal to the CPU, the CPU then powers up the motor, which is told to move in the desired direction, A BLDC motor is a high torque motor usually used in automatic door, the XR series BLDC motor is very compact and powerful, supplying up to 2900 r/m, gives off very little noise, has a simple configuration and is easily maintained. The motor is programmed to turn a specific amount of revolutions, which opens the door the desired point once the sensor tells the CPU the detection zone is clear the motor runs in reverse and the door returns to its original position.

All automatic door systems have some sort of human interface, the first interface is a key switch which can override the power supply to the controller and the doors can be opened manually, other human interfaces include push button controllers which are commonly used for disabled access, Remote control systems that are often used on garage doors and gates and timer controlled doors which can be set to open and close at specified times. There are also pressure pad systems which are activated when a person steps on a pad under a mat and then deactivates when the pressure is taken off.