Establishment of industrial control laboratory for ... - IEEE Xplore

Establishment of Industrial Control Laboratory for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Curricula Ahmed O. Abdul Salam University of Bradford, Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK Abstract- This paper provides an active proposal for the establishment of an industrial control laboratory at an academic institution level. The laboratory is mainly intended for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students who are majoring in the areas of industrial control and mechatronics programs, respectively. Further services this laboratory could provide are to conduct seminars and workshops for field engineers from local and regional industrial communities. The total costs were suitable since the adopted setups are modular and can be expanded to cover wider range of topics upon the arrival of new devices and equipments. This laboratory was offered to students and their number has been increased ever since with satisfaction. Keywords: Automation and control labs, undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Industrial automation and control systems have witnessed significant advancement and innovation in the recent years. New application trends and technologies have accordingly proliferated in diverse fields that were hardly realized before. Experiences from the real life pointed that such unpredicted steps generated critical challenges to academia to modify their curriculum and hence to provide hands-on skills for their graduates desired to compete in the job market. Such academia involvement would consolidate the relationship with industry and also to expand the undergraduate curriculum via the coverage for various modern topics and hence the gap between them is reduced. Efforts for modernizing industrial control courses and laboratories have well been addressed in the literature and few of many can be enumerated [1-7]. The idea to create an industrial control laboratory has emerged due to the exponentially increasing interest and growth in such applications market and hence the necessity to fill with the essential knowledge requirements at the university level. Two teaching modules were planned and formulated properly to satisfy different objectives for students of diverse levels. The first objective is to target the undergraduate students by having versatile experimental settings to cover the principles of I/O interfacing and data acquisition and PLC programming techniques to achieve different control operations whether for analog or discrete applications. The second objective is to serve the postgraduate students involved in the Mechatronics program to study the concepts of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) principles, DCS (Distributed Control Systems), Industrial Ethernet, and Robotic

systems. The integration among empirical experiments and one design project should accomplish the core material requirement of the aimed course. The number of students in these two tracks doubled since offering this laboratory. The last contribution is to play a fundamental role in the improvement of techniques used by field engineers by having them heavily engaged in an efficient training program utilizing the facilities available in this laboratory. II. LABORATORY IMPLEMENTATION The essential experimental setups and the procedural steps were designed in a modular manner, integrated by a set of optional devices, which can be reconfigured according to the experiment to be made. A fundamental emphasis in the teaching laboratory is related to the fact that these modular components are made up of industrial equipments to ensure the necessary robustness for this use and hence the practitioners, whether students or trainees, are largely attached to systems from real industrial settings. For such modular approach to be practical, it is essential that setups are easy so that a complete experiment can be assembled, run, and disassembled in a typical laboratory period. A proposed approach for teaching different tracks in this automation laboratory is depicted in Fig. 1. The fundamental concepts for ladder programming, dSPACE for speed and position control of a DC motor, and LabVIEW to interrogate different I/O signals are all involved for teaching undergraduate students, as shown in the red color of the same figure. Investigation of various sensors and actuators are also referred by this track. Students entered into the theoretical course will be assigned a class project with emphasis on particular automation techniques. While students enrolled into the laboratory itself are regularly attending practical sessions to fulfill a complete set of experiments as were elaborated in the associated syllabus. The blue color track illustrates the applications aimed at teaching the postgraduate students in the Mechatronics program. Students from different backgrounds are admitted and normally assigned one challenging project to design and construct feasible systems that can be used later for undergraduate teaching or training. Topics of robotics, foundation Fieldbus, PROFIBUS, and industrial Ethernet applications will be given great emphasis in addition to other applications using fuzzy logics and PID control methods for different processes. The last training track usually starts from the end of the last two tracks and making use of the already

978-1-4673-8633-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 10-13 April 2016, Abu Dhabi, UAE 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) Page 714

Fig. 1. A proposed track for teaching and training an industrial control laboratory.

developed experimental setups. Plans could be easily adjusted to meet the requirements of trainees by having fundamental and advanced concepts exercised in a predetermined manner. In all of the above experimentation efforts different processes could be considered such as batch (coupled) tanks, pressure, electro pneumatic and hydraulic, sorting, assembling, and collecting. All the last three processes combined in one equipment as can be obtained from Bytronics™, which is called the ICT (Industrial Control Trainer). III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUPS The laboratory consists of 8 computer workstations connected to the network. These workstations are equipped with S7-300 PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) from Seimens™, PCI6024E and LabVIEW hardware and software components from National Instruments™ (NI), dSPACE™ complete design suite, and a stand-alone robotic system from Kawasaki™. PROFIBUS and Fieldbus modular devices, from Siemens and NI respectively, constitute the main ground for SCADA implementation. Maximum of three students can work together on each separate workstation, which means a total of

24 students can be accommodated in one single session. Rotational setups for various experiments were developed and the main concepts of which are briefly outlined in the following context. A. Introduction to LabVIEW In this experiment the students will learn the basic components of virtual instrument programming tools and environments. The emphasis is concentrated around the functional and control elements that can be constructed in the front panel interface and the underlying connectivity among components. Simulation modes of different simple application programs are to be implemented and to examine the generated results and graphics. B. Analog and Digital I/O using NI-DAQ This experiment focuses on the interrogation and processing of real analog and digital signals that can be extracted through the associated NI-DAQ PCI6024E terminal box. The students will construct simple and medium level device and channel configurations in the main panel interface and block diagram and then to examine the related signals being communicated externally. LabVIEW and NI-DAQ has been the subject of


numerous proposals for real-time signal applications due to their rich library components and the built-in web server [3, 4].

under this application like counters, basic logic, and shifting memory words left or right.

C. PLC Control of Electro-Pneumatic Systems The aim here is to recognize the different electro-pneumatic components and identify their functions and connectivity style. The modular panel from Mechatronics™ manufacturer is easy to build using various fundamental electro-pneumatic components and devices. Solenoids, actuators, single and double acting cylinders are to be verified and operated by proper wiring to a PLC. The PLC is CPU314IFM that has 16digital I/O module and can be accessed and programmed using the Simatic™ S-7 manager. An example from the real life like stamping process is to be developed by using two cylinders and solenoids. Fig. 2 shows this experimental setup.

Fig. 3. The electro-hydraulic and PLC experimental setup.

Fig. 2. The electro-pneumatic and PLC experimental setup.

D. PLC Control of Electro-Hydraulic Systems The same applies here as for the above system where the students are to receive suitable level of acknowledgment about electro-hydraulic components and their operation, see Fig. 3. Another PLC of the same kind as above is utilized to serve this application. Two-level lifting process is to be examined and constructed by manipulating the proper devices and completing the electrical and the hydraulic circuits. In this application and the aforementioned one the students will get an equal opportunity to learn about ladder programming methods and the underlying components, like timers, normally-switched ON or OFF switches and how to maintain on-line connectivity and downloading programs to the PLC through the MPI (MultiPoint Interface) adaptor. E. PLC Control of ICT The subject trainer was obtained from Bytronics™ and it has rich definition of multiple processes, see Fig. 4. This system can be utilized to investigate sorting, assembling, and collection processes. Different sensors are well installed in this system, for instance infrared detectors, inductive sensors, and capacitive sensor. Solenoids are also attached to prepare for particular actions relying on the status being verified through the sequence of events obtained from the sensors through production path. This system is to be interfaced to another type of PLC, which is the CPU314C-DP and DP here refers to decentralized point that can also be adopted for PROFIBUS applications. Additional ladder objects will be investigated

Fig. 4. The ICT and PLC experimental setup.

F. Foundation Fieldbus This is a primarily dedicated to evaluate the concept of SCADA application using basic field components. Different analog and digital I/O and the main FP3000 network modules were installed. The relevant software drive is called NI-FBUS network configuration and Lookout HMI (Human Machine Interface) are to be established via AT-FBUS hardware interface. H1 and H2 Filedbus levels are well developed and operated using this scheme and hence adding or removing desirable items ensures scalability. This structure is designed as an industrial network specifically for DCS applications that still receive considerable attention since the seventies [5]. Remote operation via networked PCs is also applicable. Fig. 5 shows the Fieldbus modules from NI.

Fig.5. The Fieldbus modules from NI.


G. Introduction to Profibus PROFIBUS industrial standard constitutes the main factor for achieving DCS application. The DP approach is considered a well-supported natural method of external connectivity is established in the laboratory using the master PLC CPU314CDP and the slave CPU313C-DP. Other smart and intelligent terminals and devices such as ET200S, Micromaster420, and SIMICODE protection relay were also added to gain further skills in this manner. The hardware configuration is to be developed properly and the relevant addressing mode for all devices is to be set. Certain sequence of user control actions through the PP07 interface terminal can be achieved in the same manner. A three-phase squirrel cage induction motor could be connected to the Micromaster device for the purpose of speed and direction control. The whole structure affords an efficient example of SCADA system available in real industry. H. Industrial Ethernet WinCC and SIMATIC.NET are trademarks of Siemens dominating the world of industrial communication standards [6, 7]. The first component is of software type offers a wide range of flexibility in designing the relevant web pages that correspond to the automated application. Various graphical, visualization, and control dynamic objects and components can be readily developed and implemented to provide local and remote user interface. Proper association to the addresses of these objects in ladder is essential to maintain successful operation through the web screens or other monitoring environments. All machines parameters can be manipulated to provide a clear graphical representation of their behavior while performance particular functions and hence to be available for the operator or user to work out technical or physical calculations as convenient. Fig. 6 depicts a typical web page for the above ICT process.

of each other and separated by valves. Other valves and level detectors for each tank and also for the main reservoir can all be operated manually or automatically using PLC methods. Students can design filling and emptying mechanism for the tanks as could probably mimic practical examples from the real life, see Fig. 7 J.

Fuzzy Controller of Level Process Fuzzy logic control represents a fundamental tool for recent industrial control techniques. The equipment from PLINT™ combines temperature, flow, level, and pressure processes under one cover. The students will learn how to perform fuzzification, rule evaluation, and defuzzification by assigning different membership functions for the level process inputs and outputs. The fuzzy functions can be altered while the control system is running to investigate their effects, observe Fig. 8.

Fig. 7. Fuzzy controller.

Fig. 6. A web page for the ICT process control. Fig. 8. Coupled tanks process using PLC.

I.

PLC Control of Coupled Tanks This process is important in studying batch processes in chemical engineering applications or other engineering disciplines. The equipment mainly consists of two tanks on top

K. PID Controller using PLC The FM355-C module from Siemens plays a vital role in interfacing the existing PLC to analog environment using PID methods. This functional module FM355-2C is a continuous


control with four analog outputs and four analog inputs to interface with various kinds of sensors like thermocouples, resistance temperature detectors (RTDs), voltage and current sensors. Students rely on these devices to design and implement PID controllers for processes in the laboratory by using ladder with the insertion of the associated PID functional blocks. L.

PID Control of Pressure Process This system offers the complete closed-loop unit of a pressure control system through PC. Students can design and experiment most of the important problems in control technology using PID techniques. All control parameters can be visualized on a PC screen and hence the air pressure can be controlled as desirable. Two pressure vessels are equipped and interconnected by an additional valve to sample the air alternately between them. Manual operation and chart recorder are also facilitated in this equipment, refer to Fig. 9.

freely rotate using 6-degrees joints and can be programmed using an especially dedicated language called AS via the teach pendant. Besides that the controller system can be connected externally to the user PC and hence can be programmed in any desirable manner using special development environment. Among many applications the students can exercise on material handling, palletizing, machine loading, packaging, dispensing, assembly, and water jet cutting. All hardware and wiring and connection accessories are hidden in the arm and controller casing to prevent unwanted external exposure. IV. CONCLUSIONS This paper presented an effective proposal for the development and establishment of an industrial control laboratory at affordable costs of a university level. The main outcome behind this effort is to reduce the gap between academia and real world industry by having modern equipments and technologies introduced into this facility. Students of undergraduate and postgraduate programs will feature this laboratory when admitted either to the corresponding theoretical or practical courses. The students showed their interest in the given assignments and experimental undertakens since the beginning of offering this laboratory. This laboratory is also projected to accommodate workshops for staff from industry to provide training on particular concepts and technologies that are hardly found in one single place. Still during the implementation phase of this laboratory some Fieldbus and PROFIBUS setups were investigated and developed, as well as some pilot processes and some individual experiments related to robotics and CNC machines. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Part of this work was conducted by the author at other institutes. REFERENCES [1] [2]

Fig. 9. PID controller.

M. Speed and Position Control using dSPACE Adequate information will be gained and exercised by students to build a PID controller for DC motor using Matlab and Simulink development tools. dSPACE component will be studied extensively to achieve desirable control action applied for the incoming feedback signals from the motor for speed and position. Different tachometers will be introduced to the students and the corresponding signals will be connected to the dSPACE input termination box and eventually certain control signals will be generated for the motor at the output. N. Introduction to Robotic System A Kawasaki robot arm JS-5/10 series and controller are installed in the laboratory. The arm of this robotic system can

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