Although the PLC has been with us for more than forty years, its role in the industrial environment is widely accepted. For many of its early years, its role was confined to simple sequence control and interlocking. Later, however, with the advance of increasingly sophisticated microprocessor technology, analog capability – particularly PID control –, and communications, it became an integral part of the PLC functionality. However, the PLC was essentially blind and it was really only with the advent of the current generation of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that the PLC/SCADA took on a new life – competing directly with advanced DCS systems and other advanced automation systems.
This workshop, SCADA and Telemetry Systems, is designed to provide engineers and technicians with the basic theoretical and practical understanding of SCADA systems together with an overview of modern digital communication standards and networks – starting at the basic RS232 standard right through to Modbus over TCP/IP and how this can be applied to optimize their systems in terms of safety, flexibility and costs. The workshop also discusses modern radio links, ranging from application through to troubleshooting, and the use and selection of wireless link devices.