Embedded Process Control :
Microcontrollers are versatile for process control instrumentation, The
Instruments need to be small and power efficient, they have to be
immune
to electrically noisy environments.
When such a instrument is mounted closed to big machines, it has to be
resistant to vibration failure due to harmonics. When it is used
in ships or chemical industries, they need to be corrosion resistant.
This makes Industrial Instruments a challenge to design, as the
reliability is next only to Medical and Military instrumentation.
In applications like data loggers, scanners and PID Controllers
Microcontrollers are inevitable. The analog and digital
counterparts that were built years back were difficult to maintain and
very big in size. With a uC a 48*48 1/16 - DIN PID Box is
possible, as shown here Newport
Autotune PID.
Modular Automation like PLC uses many uCs. There are
Multiplexers, Analog and digital modules controlled by uC. Modern
Computer based SCADA have wireless interfaces and transmitters using uC
based intelligent circuits.
Anantha Narayan 06:48 20-Apr-07
|
