{"title":"Security of distributed control systems: the concern increases","authors":"S. Mustard","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050605","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050605","url":null,"abstract":"Process automation systems are key to the organizations behind the UK's critical national infrastructure (CNI) as they both monitor and control critical processes involved with the production and transportation of gas, electricity and water. As these systems become more 'open' - using Ethernet, TCP/IP and Web technologies - they become vulnerable to the same threats that exist for normal IT systems.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"328 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123241584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An alternative to RFID: finding the silver bullet for traceability","authors":"R. Hecker","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050608","url":null,"abstract":"RFID (radio frequency identification) promises to solve such problems by enabling item-level tracking throughout the supply chain, but real world implementation has been tempered by accuracy problems, high costs and environmental limitations when used around metals and liquids. AIDC (automated identification and data capture) solution that combined the best features of barcodes and RFID, achieving multiple-asset scans. The Visidot solution, a system based on digital imaging technology, is capable of capturing hundreds of standard, paper-label 2D data matrix codes in a single read from up to thirty metres away. Developers claim it is a more accurate and significantly less expensive alternative to RFID. At some point in the future, RFID solutions will allow companies to trace their products throughout their entire lifecycle. But RFID is a relatively new technology and has problems in implementation. 2D data matrix codes are a lower cost alternative.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130257063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Moving technical computing applications into distributed computing environments","authors":"S. Grad-Freilich","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050607","url":null,"abstract":"As requirements for technical computing applications become more complex and development time shrinks, engineers and scientists must solve problems of increasing computational intensity, many of which involve huge data sets. These domain experts often find that the key challenge is not only the inherent difficulty of the problem; it is also the fact that the computational intensity of the problem exceeds the capabilities of their computers. One solution is for these domain experts to use high-performance computing environments.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130721982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Packaging's latest trend: embedded robots","authors":"M. Babb","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050603","url":null,"abstract":"In many consumer goods enterprises, finished goods packaging operations are often the greatest bottleneck to new product introduction. Manufacturers spend a lot of money on packaging machinery, but most of the budget goes for specific product lines dedicated to a single purpose. With the ever-shortening cycle of new consumer product introductions, inflexible packaging machinery is now seen as a barrier in the production system. Integral robotics, which is now becoming the most effective means to add agility and flexibility. This offers rapid reconfiguration and expands the operating range of the individual machine. The key to this machine integration is the industrial programming environment provided by the IEC 61131 standard, which has been extended to include robot functionality with ELAU's `Robotic Library'.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126784680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"XML provides extra help for embedded systems","authors":"R. Jones","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050611","url":null,"abstract":"The Extensible Markup Language (XML) has seen widespread adoption in desktop and server environments since it was first standardised in 1998. The flexibility of XML to transfer arbitrary data across any communications mechanism, its terse format and human-readable syntax quickly found favour with systems architects and programmers. Delivery of data across the Internet was a primary design goal for XML, but its benefits apply equally well for more local communication across a private network or even between processes on the same computer. Embedded systems can take advantage of XML's benefits but relatively few actually use the markup language. XML is an option that embedded systems designers should consider. As an example, XML has been used to help a medical device integrate smoothly with a wider network infrastructure.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134132794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Challenges in the detection, diagnosis and visualisation of controller performance data","authors":"Sirish L. Shah, W. Mitchell, D. Shook","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050406","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050406","url":null,"abstract":"Process control performance is a cornerstone of operational excellence in the refining, petrochemical, pulp and paper and the mineral processing industries. The large numbers of assets on these sites - compared to the diminishing number of maintenance and control personnel - has made monitoring and diagnosing control problems a serious challenge. Mainstream control performance assessment and monitoring applications are changing maintenance methodology from predictive to condition-based. The implementation of an advanced control strategy is not an end in itself. Continuous improvement in process performance is ensured by constantly monitoring and assessing the performance of the basic control loops.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116660017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"My view: automation vendors seek pastures new","authors":"A. Bond","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050401","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050401","url":null,"abstract":"Industrial automation is becoming an increasingly commoditised business. With the ever more widespread adoption of COTS (commercial off the shelf) hardware, software and communications technologies - Windows, Intel, and Ethernet to name but three - it's becoming harder than ever for automation vendors to differentiate themselves from their competitors, to identify areas where they can seek genuine competitive advantage and, most important, to make serious money. That's not to deny that opportunities still exist to innovate in the mainstream automation business, but the fact still remains that advances in technology tend to offer only marginal improvements in performance, both over a particular vendor's previous generation of equipment and over the current offerings of its competitors. Time was when factory and process automation vendors sold instruments and control systems. They still do, but an increasing proportion of their revenues are coming from outside their traditional areas of interest.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129886119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can software be patented","authors":"S. Juden","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050403","url":null,"abstract":"The European parliament's rejection of the software patents directive is welcome news to independent contractors. Its stated aims were to harmonise the patenting of hi-tech inventions across the EU and in so doing to define the boundary between software and inventions that happen to have a non-fundamental software element, leaving the former unpatentable. The context for the project involved a trend in the European Patent Office to categorise software as an invention and grant patents for it; software becoming openly patentable in the USA in the mid-90s; and the European Patent Convention and World Trade Organisation's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement explicitly stating that software, business methods and works of literature should be protected by copyright, not by patents. While they are certainly persuasive if not subjected to technical scrutiny, these arguments are clearly not all mutually compatible. There was much controversy over exactly what each version of the directive would do. Those in favour argued both that software patents were desirable and, somewhat confusingly, that they would not be introduced.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130596037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How do you know which control loops are the most important","authors":"A. Trenchard, H. Boder","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050405","url":null,"abstract":"PID control loops are implemented to control a process variable (PV) to a setpoint (SP) by manipulation of an output (OP). The relationship between these variables should depend on the key role of the loop or a trade-off between the key roles. With hundreds of control loops active in typical process plants, it is essential for operators to know which ones are the most important and therefore the ones that should get the most attention.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123556933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New directions in control loop assessment and diagnosis","authors":"N. Thornhill, S. Shah","doi":"10.1049/CCE:20050404","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1049/CCE:20050404","url":null,"abstract":"Process control performance is a cornerstone of operational excellence in the refining, petrochemicals, pulp and paper and the mineral processing industry. Control performance assessment and monitoring applications have become mainstream in these industries and are changing the maintenance methodology surrounding control assets from predictive to condition based. There are many benefits from using controller performance assessment and monitoring, and more to come in the future as new methods for diagnosis and loop tuning advisors start to be included in the tools. The discussions at the IEE seminar on control loop assessment and diagnosis suggest it is a valuable technology in the process industries.","PeriodicalId":401124,"journal":{"name":"Computing & Control Engineering Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132711880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}