Industrial Control Solutions in Research Laboratories
Michel Rabany
CERN / AT Division, 1211 Geneva 23
Abstract
During the 1970’s, while computer technology was developing under the thrust of the ever increasing need for dataprocessing, large projects in the fields of astronomy and physics were launched. They provided an incentive for thedevelopment of advanced architecture in control engineering. More than twenty years later, industry is producing very
efficient generic control solutions in response to the present competitive situation. Our machines are supplied withelectricity, water, air, helium, vacuum, etc., for which the production and/or the distribution are industrial processes.
Let us use industrial solutions to bring savings in terms of both money and human resources.
There is a natural tendency to be conservative and the progress towards the “don’t make but buy” approach is slowed
down by arguments ranging from misunderstanding in the best of cases to unwillingness in the worst. Let us explain
to those who are confused.

INTRODUCTION
Particle physics relies totally on statistics, as the precision of experimental results is primarily driven by the numberof collected events. This explains why the ever increasing need for number crunching has been one of the major
incentives for the development of computer technology during the 1960’s. Mainframes sizes were continuously
growing to cope with all aspects of scientific work. The need to shorten the time between the production of eventsand their analysis prompted the development of on-line connections, creating the first mesh of today’scommunication networks.
Similarly, computer-based control systems started with a centralized architecture, the equipment being connected bysimple communication lines. During the 1970’s, the large size of the machines being built compelled control
engineers to install computers near the equipment in order to address the cabling problem. Consequently, computercommunication protocols were developed and gave the main control rooms the means of getting the data from andsending the commands to the equipment, via the distributed computers. These developments, originating from ourresearch laboratories, constitute one of their technological spin-offs. Industrial action in this field, driven in the earlydays by our pioneering engineers, is today guided by the strength of the consumer market. Very satisfactory
solutions have been developed in response to the present industrial competitive situation. They can be used for ourneeds and bring savings in terms of both money and human resources.

THE MEANING OF INDUSTRIAL CONTROLSThe engineers’ attitude
The debates concerning industrial control systems show a discrepancy in the different meanings given to this phrase
in the scientific community. Engineers and technicians are influenced by two factors: experience and conservatism.
Those living in isolation as recluses do not follow the external evolution and may or may not understand its true
meaning. Others defending their position and/or their work, in other words their motivation, resist their introduction
with questionable arguments.
The confusion
The word industrial when associated with controls systems can be interpreted in two ways, depending on whether it
qualifies controls manufactured for, or by, industry. The first meaning describes control equipment currently available
on the market and used by the industrial community; the word industrial then bears a connotation of wide acceptance,
optimum design, good quality, extensive tests, large quantities, competitive price, support, long life time, turnkeysolutions, etc.. The second meaning suggests an alternative to the traditional home-made approach and conveys theideas of outside manufacturing, subcontracting, outside procurement, etc.. This last meaning creates some confusion.
Unlike Mr. Jourdain who was ignorant of the fact he was talking in prose in Moliere’s “Le Bourgeois

Gentilhomme”, many control engineers are convinced they are, and have always been, industrial control users since
they are buying industrial components and since industry is building what they design.
Structure and phases of a technical project
Any technical project has a tree structure. At the top level we find the global project. Breaking it into parts provides
a set of objects that may also be regarded as technical projects but of a smaller size, they in turn may be broken
down and so forth. Different factors influence the level at which the decomposition stops: complexity, feasibility,modularity, availability, homogeneity. The smallest objects are elementary projects. The best fit with industry isobtained whenever the elementary projects match its capability at the highest possible level in the tree structure.
The development of a technical project has six phases: specifications, design, prototyping, production, installationand commissioning. The first phase obviously needs the participation of the client at least to define the project, but
its execution is a process with which industry can be entrusted. The specification document contains all therequirements that have to be fulfilled and which will govern the implementation of all the other phases. If thecustomer only provides functional specifications, this results in handing over full responsibility of a project toindustry and thus lead to the “industrial” label, which means based on the manufacturer’s ideas, methods, tools andstandards.
The case for Industrial Control Systems
Industrial control systems are nothing more than technical projects and meet the same criteria as those stated above.
Therefore, industrial controls result from functional specifications. In fact, industrial solutions have been generated
by industry in response to the needs of the market. Control engineers may develop their project in different ways:
1. specify the system functionally and physically, design the system, build a prototype in the laboratory, test,produce, install and commission: a fully home-made approach.
2. specify the system functionally and physically, design the system, build a prototype in the laboratory, test,subcontract the production, install and commission: still a home-made approach.
3. specify the system functionally and physically, design the system; ask industry for a prototype, production,
eventually for installation and commissioning: a partially industrial approach.
4. specify the system functionally with the description of the environment; ask industry for the design of thecomplete system, production, installation and commissioning: an industrial approach.
systemspecific.
clientclientsystemdesignclientclientprotot.

product.

install.

commis.

clientclientclientindustryclientclientindustryindustryclientclientindustryindustryindustryindustryindustryindustryclientclient orindustryclient orindustryclientindustryclientclient orindustryclient orindustryclientindustry

nature ofcontrols
industrial
industrial
industrial?
industrial
fully industrial

To qualify as being “industrial”, the controls should have been designed by industry. The solutions should either
come from collecting systems and components that are currently available, or to generate new systems orcomponents which will be produced for industrial needs.

THE MANUFACTURERS OF INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMSThe automation of a process, i.e., a machine, a set of machines or more generally industrial equipment, consists ofensuring its correct control by the use of technological devices [1]. The system is intelligent and so knows how toproceed in all operating conditions. An operator is often necessary to provide the global operation and supervision ofthe process. An automatic device has the following typical structure:process

actuators

sensors

control device
informations

settings
Operator

Programmable Logic Controllers were born in the United States in about the year 1969, in response to the demandsof the automotive industry. The goal was to develop automated production lines able to follow the evolution of themanufactured models. The PLCs were substituted for relay cabinets, not only because of their easy implementationand flexibility, but because the costs of cabling were becoming too high. PLCs are built around processors executing
dedicated programs which control actuators according to the values of sensors. Their environment includes:- inputs and outputs which connect to sensors and actuators- programming stations- operating stations- peripherals such as printers, hard disks, etc....
To coordinate different processes, buses and communication networking between the different PLCs are required A
few manufacturers are offering Distributed Control Systems to attach these to their PLCs thus allowing technicians
to operate, supervise, archive, log events, analyze data, display variable trends, manage data, etc. from a central
location. Independent vendors offer the same features in generic supervision systems that may connect to PLCs fromdifferent manufacturers. Mixing different PLCs in the same application is not easy however, as the protocols at thatlevel are still mostly proprietary.
From an economic point of view, the world-wide market for PLCs was estimated at $2.5 billion in 1987 and isapproximately $5.5 billion today. The growth rate for revenue is around 10% per year, Europe and the United States
being the largest PLC markets. Siemens, Allen-Bradley and Schneider are manufacturers number one, two and three
for sales respectively. The Distributed Control System (DCS) was invented by Honeywell in 1975, but ABB andBailey have today joined the DCS heading team. The supervision market is led by the United States with Intellution,
US. Data, Wonderware and Iconics at the forefront.
Their share of the market is given in the chart below.

World PLC market shareOthers
Mitsubishi
AEG Schneider
Allen-Bradley
Siemens
0102030%
source: Control Engineering, January 1995

4050

THE USERS OF INDUSTRIAL CONTROLS
Industrial controls are mostly concerned with automation in the domains of production, processing and distribution.
The sectors that are concerned are:manufacturing industries: metallurgy, machines-tools, motor industry, etc..
PLCs are highly involved in production and on assembly lines, test benches, machines for milling, pressing,grinding, welding, etc.. More than 95% of the most modern machine-tools are under PLC control.
processing industries: chemicals, petroleum, agro-food, etc..
PLCs are used for the proportioning and the mixing of ingredients, purification of effluents, oil-pumping station
control and supervision and the distribution of gas and liquids.
services: energy supply, water supply, gas supply, etc..
Today, domestic and industrial supplies are under the control of PLCs for production and distribution. Nuclear energy
requires safe and secure industrial control systems which are now available.
others: textile, transportation, handling, building, etc..
Warehousing, parking management and building supervision are typical applications for PLCs. Even some ski
resorts use PLCs in the production of artificial snow.

INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS IN RESEARCH LABORATORIESThe needs
Cabling or programming technologies were the alternatives given to the control engineers of the last decade.
Programmable Logic Controllers are today gaining ground because they are simple, reliable, very flexible and are
becoming steadily cheaper. Industrial processes are typically characterized by the rather slow evolution of thevariables that have to be controlled. This is also the case for the services in our research laboratories, which areunquestionable candidates for industrial controls. These services may be either general needs for the laboratory orequipment utilities for the machines. They concern: water, electricity, gas, heating, cooling, ventilation, vacuum,cryogenics, access, etc.. Apart from these services, production test benches and laboratory prototyping are activities
where industrial controls may be useful.
The diversity of these services poses problems of coherence and integration in the domain of controls. The problemof coherence stems from the functional need for a single operating centre from which all the services may besupervised. This coherence is difficult to implement at the level of the PLCs as at that level the standards are nonexistent and the products proprietary. Restricting the supply of PLCs to a single source may not be commercially
viable for large installations, although this restriction might be desirable at the elementary level of the project, andeven more so for small installations. The integration of industrial control systems supporting the operation of one
machine needs a functional control architecture [2], organized around service-specific centres which are the vantagepoints and the nerve centres for each type of service.
Research laboratories facing industrial controls
Research laboratories should definitely lean towards using industrial control systems for their services:
technically, the services make use of industrial processes for which industrial controls have been developed.
Using industrial systems gives the advantage of tried and tested solutions, as they are used a number of times insimilar applications. The different phases being shorter, the development of the project requires much less time.
financially, the design cost is shared by the whole community of customers, and the prime cost decreases
rapidly with the increase of production. The regulating mechanism of the market makes it likely that the price will
be competitive.
politically, fundamental research is suffering from the current economic situation in many countries. The
approval process for the Large Hadron Collider [3] at CERN has been a lengthy and painful one. Support from theMember States is not as strong as it was fifteen years ago. We now have to cope with new boundary conditions
which have a direct impact on the way the project can be developed. The squeeze on human resources poses aquestion on some of the laboratory activities and the need to make savings by limiting them to those that are vital.
In this context, the use of industrial controls is undoubtedly one of the rational answers. Our States would like theirinvestment in fundamental research to give rise to new technologies that generate employment and positive returns.
[4].
The first use by CERN of an industrial control system for equipment in an accelerator was made for LEP in thedomain of cooling and ventilation [5]. The decision in 1990 to control the refrigeration system for the LEP upgradewith an industrial control system launched an increasing interest which is today supported by a large community [6][7].
CONCLUSION
Given the present climate, our Member States’ politicians must find economical justification for the support theygive to our research laboratories. The financial investment must generate an appreciable increase in industrialactivity. The political support we can expect from manufacturers as process control system consumers is certainly
better than as control system designers. To defend our scientific interests it is vital to present our sponsors with goodarguments. It is vital to use industrial controls.

REFERENCES[1] Les A.P.I., Architecture et applications des automates programmables industriels, G. Michel, Dunod edition,
Paris, 1988.
[2] A Proposal to Move from the LEP Topological to an LHC Functional Control System Architecture,
M. Rabany, This conference.
[3] The Large Hadron Collider Accelerator Project, The LHC Study Group, CERN/AC/93-03(LHC), 8 November1993.
[4] Opportunities for industry with CERN, O. Barbalat, CERN/BLIT/94-04, 15 March 1994.
[5] Control Facilities for Commissioning and Operation of the Water Cooling, Air Handling and Fire Detection ofLEP, Ch. Bertuzzi, A. Guiard-Marigny, European Particle Accelerator Conference, Rome, June 1988.
[6] The refrigeration system for the LEP upgrade, M. Barranco-Luque, J.P. Dauvergne, W. Erdt, P. Frandsen,
D. Güsewell, F. Haug, A. Juillerat, G. Passardi, J. Schmidt, G. Winkler, XIIIth International CryogenicEngineering Conference, ICEC13, Beijing, China, 1990.
[7] Interfacing Industrial Process Control Systems to LEP/LHC, M. Rabany, Accelerator and Large Experimental
Physics Control Systems, Tsukuba, Japan, pp 269-273.