Industrial Automation Technologies

Book excerpt: The book begins with an overview of automation history and followed by chapters on PLC, DCS, and SCADA –describing how such technologies have become synonymous in process instrumentation and control. The book then introduces the niche of Fieldbuses in process industries. It then goes on to discuss wireless communication in the automation sector and its applications in the industrial arena. The book also discusses theall-pervading IoT and its industrial cousin,IIoT, which is finding increasing applications in process automation and control domain. The last chapter introduces OPC technology which has strongly emerged as a defacto standard for interoperable data exchange between multi-vendor software applications and bridges the divide between heterogeneous automation worlds in a very effective way. Key features: Presents an overall industrial automation scenario as it evolved over the years Discusses the already established PLC, DCS, and SCADA in a thorough and lucid manner and their recent advancements Provides an insight into today’s industrial automation field Reviews Fieldbus communication and WSNs in the context of industrial communication Explores IIoT in process automation and control fields Introduces OPC which has already carved out a niche among industrial communication technologies with its seamless connectivity in a heterogeneous automation world Dr. Chanchal Dey is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Physics, Instrumentation Engineering Section, University of Calcutta. He is a reviewer of IEEE, Elsevier, Springer, Acta Press, Sage, and Taylor & Francis Publishers. He has more than 80 papers in international journals and conference publications. His research interests include intelligent process control using conventional, fuzzy, and neuro-fuzzy techniques. Dr. Sunit Kumar Sen is an ex-professor, Department of Applied Physics, Instrumentation Engineering Section, University of Calcutta. He was a coordinator of two projects sponsored by AICTE and UGC, Government of India. He has published around70 papers in international and national journals and conferences and has published three books – the last one was published by CRC Press in 2014. He is a reviewer of Measurement, Elsevier. His field of interest is new designs of ADCs and DACs.