Industrial control systems are usually categorized into five layers, in order from bottom to top:
1. field device layer: the field device layer refers to the field devices in the production process, such as sensors, actuators, motors, drives, control valves, and so on.
2. controller layer: controller layer refers to the field equipment for control and management of equipment, such as programmable logic controllers (PLC), remote terminal unit (RTU), human-machine interface (HMI), etc..
3. process control layer: process control layer refers to the production process control and optimization of the level, such as process control computer (PC), distributed control system (DCS), industrial robots.
4. enterprise management: enterprise management refers to the entire enterprise micro and macro management level, including planning and scheduling systems, manufacturing execution systems, automated production management systems.
5. Informatization layer: The informatization layer refers to the level of management and optimization of the core business of the enterprise through information technology, such as enterprise resource planning system (ERP), production execution system (MES), production process simulation system, big data analysis platform.
In short, these five levels encompass all aspects of industrial production process equipment and systems, from on-site production equipment to enterprise management system, through the synergy and cooperation of various systems to achieve production automation, intelligence and optimization of control, improve production efficiency and reduce production costs.
What are the industrial control systems
Industrial control system refers to the system used to realize industrial automation control, including a variety of control equipment, sensors, actuators and so on. According to the different control objects and control scope, mainly includes the following categories of industrial control systems:
1. process control system
Process control system is mainly used in the production process of material, energy, information control, such as for the chemical industry, petroleum industry, chemical fiber industry, water treatment, power generation and other fields of control system. Process control system mainly controls the parameters of the industrial process, common control parameters including temperature, pressure, flow, level, etc., in order to make the production process in the specified control range.
2. Manufacturing Execution System
Manufacturing execution system is mainly used in the enterprise ERP system or MES system developed in the production plan and production requirements to achieve, such as for semiconductor, electronics, automotive, food manufacturing and other areas of the control system. Manufacturing execution system mainly controls the production equipment or production line to ensure that the production task is completed according to the time point, according to the specified steps, according to the specified quality.
3. Robot control system
Robot control system is mainly used for motion control and path planning of industrial robots to ensure that the industrial robots complete the specified tasks. Robot control systems can be used for a variety of assembly and disassembly tasks on production lines, chemical reactions, quality testing, etc. They are commonly used in the automotive industry, electronics industry, manufacturing industry and other fields.
4. Power control system
Power control systems are mainly used for the safe and stable operation of power systems, including the control systems of power plants, substations, distribution stations and other plant stations. Power control system mainly controls the regulation, automatic control and protection of power equipment, which guarantees the basic energy source of modern society.
To summarize, industrial control system is one of the key equipments of modern industrial production and plays an important role in various fields.