Design of line controller for continuous manufacturing process automation in steel industry

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to the design of a computer control system, line controller, to automate complex manufacturing processes in steel industry. The line controller has multiprocessorbased architecture with shared memory. It is easy to extend and flexible in that the usual PLCs and motor drives can be easily connected with the line controller. Also, we propose a general purpose programming language, a class of function block control languages, which is suitable for line control applications. The line controller is operated by firmwared menu-driven software supporting real-time database management and function-block control language. The proposed control language can simultaneously handle various control functions such as multi-loop and sequential control functions, and it is applicable to other areas of large and complex process control. ？ 1992 IEEE.