BONE UP ON IEC-1131
IEC-1131 is the first international standard for process control software. Programmers can develop a control algorithm for a particular brand of controller, and import that same program to another brand with minimum modifications.Programmers can use any combination of five control languages: Instruction List, Structured Text, Ladder Diagram, Function Block Diagram, and Sequential Function Chart. The standard includes a library of preprogrammed functions and function blocks that any IEC-compliant supports as a firmware library. For more, go here.
Automation.com
Download our beginner's guide to differential pressure level transmitters
READ AN OPEN BOOK
The University of Michigan Chemical Engineering Process Dynamics and Controls Open Textbook is a student-contributed, open-source electronic resource covering the materials used at the university’s senior level controls course. Topics include control background and design methodology, DCS control system hardware, current significance, applying process control thinking to everyday situations, and failures in process control: Bhopal, Three Mile Island. Find the text here.
University of Michigan
GET PRACTICAL ABOUT PID
This online resource focuses on industrial application of the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller and other related process control architectures to streams of gases, liquids, powders, slurries and melts. It covers a range of proven methods and best practices for establishing and maintaining safe, efficient and profitable control. Find it here.
Control Guru
PID WITHOUT A PHD
“But where do you go if you want to understand PID without a PhD?” asks Jim Hogenson. “Finn Peacock has written some very good material about PID which simplifies understanding. What follows here is an excerpt from his Idiots Guide to PID Algorithms, reprinted with his permission. I don’t make a dime off this endorsement. I simply provide this introduction because I found Finn’s material to be an excellent simplified discussion of PID.” Find Peacock’s guide to PID here.
Control Solutions
OPEN-SOURCE ADVANCED CONTROL
OpenAPC is an open-source advanced process control (APC) solution that is highly flexible and configurable, and covers a wide range of automation, visualization and process control tasks from home control up to industrial automation. It consists of several subcomponents that are specialized for different tasks. Here, the ControlRoom software package covers the visualization and process control part of the OpenAPC package. Depending on how the application is configured, the integrated ControlRoom editors visual interface can perform tasks including HMI, process control and SCADA.
Open Advaanced Process Control
HOW TO TUNE PID
This guide offers a best-practices approach to PID controller tuning—a simplified and repeatable procedure for analyzing the dynamics of a process and for determining appropriate model and tuning parameters. The techniques covered are used by leading companies across the process industries, enabling those companies to consistently maintain effective and safe production environments. Find the guide here.
Control Station
UNDERSTAND FUZZY LOGIC
This brief paper outlines some background of standard PID control and how implementing fuzzy logic can improve single-feedback control systems. Fuzzy logic is a particular area of concentration in the study of artificial intelligence, based on the value of information that is neither definitely true nor false. The information humans use in their everyday lives to support intuitive decisions and apply general rules of thumb can and should be applied to those control situations that demand them. Acquired knowledge can be a powerful weapon to combat undesired effects of system response. Learn more here.
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