A deep delve into Industrial Automation
By: Om Khairate
Tags: Robotics, Technology, Automation, Information, Industrial

Photo by Akhil Yerabati on Unsplash

Hierarchy of Industrial Automation

Industrial automation systems are often very complex in nature, having an outsized number of devices working in synchronization with automation technologies. The figure below describes the hierarchical arrangement of the automation system consisting of various hierarchical levels.

Field Level

It is the rock bottom level of the automation hierarchy which incorporates the sector devices like sensors and actuators. The most task of those field devices is to transfer the info of processes and machines to a subsequent higher level for monitoring and analysis. And also it includes the controlling of process parameters through actuators. As an example, we will describe this level as the eyes and arms of a specific process.

Sensors convert the real-time parameters like temperature, pressure, flow, level, etc into electrical signals. This sensor data further transferred to the controller to watch and analyze the real-time parameters. Several sensors include thermocouples, proximity sensors, RTDs, flow meters, etc.

On the opposite hand, actuators convert the electrical signals (from the controllers) into mechanical means to regulate the processes. Flow control valves, solenoid valves, pneumatic actuators, relays, DC motors, and servo motors are samples of actuators.

Control Level

This level consists of varied automation devices like CNC machines, PLCs, etc., which acquire the method parameters from various sensors. The automated controllers drive the actuators supported the processed sensor signals and program or control technique.

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are the foremost widely used robust industrial controllers that are capable of delivering automatic control functions supported by input from sensors. It consists of varied modules like CPU, analog I/O, digital I/O, and communication modules. It allows the operator to program an impact function or strategy to perform a particular automatic operation on the method.

Supervising and Production Control Level

At this level, automatic devices and monitoring systems facilitate the controlling and intervening functions like Human Machine Interface (HMI), supervising various parameters, setting production targets, historical archiving, setting machine start and shutdown, etc.

Mostly, either the Distribution system (DCS) or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) HMIs are popularly used at this level.

Information or Enterprise Level

This is the highest level of commercial automation which manages the entire automation system. The tasks of this level include production planning, customer and marketing research, orders and sales, etc. So it deals more with commercial activities and fewer with technical aspects.

And also industrial communication networks are most prominent in industrial automation systems which transfer the knowledge from one level to the opposite. So these are altogether the amount of the automation system to supply endless flow of data. This communication network is often different from one level to the opposite. A number of these networks include RS485, CAN, DeviceNet, Foundation Field bus, Profibus, etc.