Web-based control experiments on a foundation Fieldbus pilot plant

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a Web-based remote access system to a Foundation Fieldbus pilot plant. The main goal of the developed system consists in providing a platform for control and automation education which can be remotely accessed by students. In this sense, the plant operation is fully configurable and programmable via a supervisory application executed on a Web server. Among other features, the supervisory interface allows the remote on-line configuration of fieldbus parameters, elucidation of main fieldbus concepts - such as function blocks structuring - and a real-time graphical visualization of all relevant plant variables. These features allows students to execute open and closed-loop control experiments that illustrates control concepts and techniques as well as concepts concerning the Foundation Fieldbus protocol.