Industrial control automation technology is a comprehensive technology that uses control theory, instruments, computers and other information technologies to realize detection, control, optimization, scheduling, management and decision-making of industrial production processes, and achieve the objectives of increasing production, improving quality, reducing consumption, and ensuring safety, mainly including industrial automation software, hardware and systems. As one of the most important technologies in the field of modern manufacturing in the 20th century, industrial control automation technology mainly solves the problems of production efficiency and consistency. Although the automation system itself does not directly create benefits, it can significantly improve the production process of enterprises.

The development path of industrial control automation in China is mostly to digest and absorb the complete set of equipment at the same time, and then carry out secondary development and application. At present, China's industrial control automation technology, industry and application have made great progress, and China's industrial computer system industry has formed. At present, industrial control automation technology is developing towards intelligence, networking and integration.

Industrial control automation mainly consists of three levels, which are basic automation, process automation and management automation from bottom to top. Its core is basic automation and process automation.

The basic automation part of the traditional automation system is basically monopolized by PLC and DCS. The process automation and management automation part is mainly composed of various imported process computers or minicomputers. The high price of its hardware, system software and application software makes many enterprises discouraged.

Since PC-based controllers have been proved to be as reliable as PLC and accepted by operation and maintenance personnel, one manufacturer after another is adopting PC control scheme in at least part of production. The PC-based control system is easy to install and use, and has advanced diagnostic functions, providing system integrators with more flexible options. In the long run, the maintenance cost of the PC control system is low. Since programmable controllers (PLC) are most threatened by PC control, PLC suppliers are very uneasy about the application of PC. In fact, they have also joined the "wave" of PC control.

A few years ago, when "soft PLC" appeared, the industry thought that industrial PC would replace PLC. However, up to now, industrial PC has not replaced PLC for two main reasons: one is system integration; The other reason is the software operating system Windows NT. A successful PC-based control system should have two points: first, all work should be completed by software on one platform; The second is to provide customers with everything they need. It can be predicted that the competition between industrial PC and PLC will be mainly in high-end applications, with complex data and high equipment integration. Industrial PCs cannot compete with low-cost microPLCs, which is also the fastest growing part of the PLC market. From the perspective of development trend, the future of control system is likely to exist between industrial PC and PLC, and these signs of integration have emerged.

PLC is developing towards miniaturization, networking, PC-based and openness

Miniaturization, networking, PC-based and openness are the main development directions of PLC in the future. In the early days of PLC-based automation, PLC was bulky and expensive. However, in recent years, micro PLC (less than 32 I/O) has appeared, with a price of only a few hundred euros. With the further improvement and development of soft PLC control configuration software, the market share installed with soft PLC configuration software and PC-based control will gradually increase.

After 50 years of development, China's instrument and meter industry has a considerable foundation, and a relatively complete production, scientific research and marketing system has been formed. At present, there are more than 6000 instruments and meters enterprises with annual sales of about 100 billion yuan, making it the second largest instrument and meter manufacturer in Asia except Japan. According to customs statistics, excluding the instruments and meters imported along with the complete set of engineering projects, the import of various instruments and meters last year was nearly 6 billion US dollars, accounting for about 50% of the total output value of China's instrument industry. However, at present, most of the instruments and meters in China are at the middle and low level. With the international digital, intelligent, networked and miniaturized products gradually becoming the mainstream, the gap will be further widened. At present, China's high-end and large-scale instruments and equipment mostly rely on imports. For mid-range products and many key components, foreign products account for more than 60% of China's market, while domestic analytical instruments account for less than 2% of the global market.

The "Tenth Five-Year Plan" of the instrument industry has established six high-tech industrialization projects:

1. Fully open distributed control system and intelligent instrument based on fieldbus technology;

2. New sensor;

3. Intelligent industrial control components and actuators;

4. Environmental and pollution source monitoring instruments and automatic monitoring system;

5. The instrument automation control system in the complete set of process equipment for urban sewage treatment and utilization;

6. Instrument automation control system in the complete set of converter gas purification rotary device for steelmaking.

Main development trends of instrument technology in the future:

*The instruments and meters are developing towards intelligence, resulting in intelligent instruments and meters;

*The PC-based measurement and control equipment and virtual instrument technology will develop rapidly;

*The networking of instruments produces network instruments and remote measurement and control systems.

CNC technology is developing towards intelligence, openness, networking and informatization

The "Tenth Five-Year Plan" of the instrument industry has established six high-tech industrialization projects:

1. Fully open distributed control system and intelligent instrument based on fieldbus technology;

2. New sensor;

3. Intelligent industrial control components and actuators;

4. Environmental and pollution source monitoring instruments and automatic monitoring system;

5. The instrument automation control system in the complete set of process equipment for urban sewage treatment and utilization;

6. Instrument automation control system in the complete set of converter gas purification rotary device for steelmaking.

Main development trends of instrument technology in the future:

*The instruments and meters are developing towards intelligence, resulting in intelligent instruments and meters;

*The PC-based measurement and control equipment and virtual instrument technology will develop rapidly;

*The networking of instruments produces network instruments and remote measurement and control systems.

It has been 70 years since the first experimental CNC system was developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1952. In the past 10 years, with the rapid development of computer technology, various levels of open CNC systems have emerged and developed rapidly. At present, it is moving towards a standardized open architecture. In terms of structure, today's CNC systems in the world can be roughly divided into four types:

1. Traditional CNC system;

2. Open CNC system with "PC embedded in NC" structure;

3. Open CNC system with "NC embedded in PC" structure;

4. SOFT-type open CNC system.

Through the introduction, digestion and absorption of the "7th Five-Year Plan", the "8th Five-Year Plan" and the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" industrialization, China has made great progress in the development and production of CNC systems. It has basically mastered key technologies, established CNC development and production bases, trained a number of CNC talents, initially formed its own CNC industry, and also led to the development of electromechanical control and transmission control technology. At the same time, the economic CNC system with Chinese characteristics has been greatly improved in performance and reliability through the development of these years, and is gradually recognized by users.

At the industrial site, some industrial environments prohibit or restrict the use of cables or it is difficult to use cables, and wired LAN is difficult to play its role, so wireless LAN technology has been developed and applied. With the continuous development of microelectronics technology, wireless LAN technology will play an increasingly important role in industrial control network.

Wireless local area network (WLAN) technology can be very convenient to connect network devices wirelessly. People can access network resources at any time, anywhere and at will. It is an important direction of the development of modern data communication systems. Wireless LAN can provide Ethernet interconnection function without using network cables. While promoting the development of network technology, wireless LAN is also changing people's lifestyle. The wireless network communication protocol usually adopts IEEE802.3 and 802.11. 802.3 is used for point-to-point mode, and 802.11 is used for point-to-point mode. Wireless LAN can be realized through wireless hub, wireless access station (AP), wireless bridge, wireless modem and wireless network card on the basis of ordinary LAN, and wireless network card is the most widely used. The future research direction of WLAN mainly focuses on security, mobile roaming, network management and the relationship with other mobile communication systems such as 3G.

In the field of industrial automation, there are thousands of sensors, detectors, computers, PLC, card readers and other devices that need to be connected to form a control network. Usually, the communication interface provided by these devices is RS-232 or RS-485. The wireless LAN equipment uses isolated signal converter to convert the RS-232 serial port signal of industrial equipment to the wireless LAN and Ethernet signals. It conforms to the wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b and Ethernet IEEE 802.3 standards, supports the standard TCP/IP network communication protocol, and effectively expands the networking communication capability of industrial equipment.

The combination of computer network technology, wireless technology and intelligent sensor technology has created a new concept of "networked intelligent sensor based on wireless technology". This kind of networked intelligent sensor based on wireless technology enables the data of industrial sites to be directly transmitted, released and shared on the network through wireless links. Wireless LAN technology can provide high-bandwidth wireless data link and flexible network topology for the communication between various intelligent field devices, mobile robots and various automation devices in the factory environment, effectively making up for the shortcomings of wired network in some special environments, and further improving the communication performance of industrial control network.

Industrial control software is developing towards advanced control

As an important part of industrial control software, the development of human-computer interface configuration software in China has made great progress in recent years. The combination of software and hardware provides a relatively complete solution for the integration of enterprise measurement, control and management. On this basis, industrial control software will develop from human-computer interface and basic strategy configuration to advanced control.

Because advanced control and optimization software can create huge economic benefits, the value of these software has also doubled. Dozens of companies in the world have launched hundreds of advanced control and optimization software products, forming a strong process industry application software industry around the world. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop China's advanced control and optimization software with independent intellectual property rights, break the monopoly of foreign products and replace imports.

In the future, industrial control software will continue to be standardized, networked, intelligent and open.

Since vigorously developing industrial automation is an effective way and means to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, improve the overall quality of enterprises, improve the overall national strength of the country, adjust the industrial structure, and rapidly invigorate large and medium-sized enterprises, the country will continue to implement a series of high-tech industrialization projects for industrial process automation, use information to drive industrialization, promote the further development of industrial automation technology, strengthen technological innovation, and realize industrialization, Solve the deep problems faced by the development of the national economy, further improve the overall quality and comprehensive national strength of the national economy, and achieve leapfrog development.