SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) is concerned with gathering process information\nfrom industrial control processes found in utilities such as power grids, water networks,\ntransportation, manufacturing, etc., to provide the human operators with the required real-time\naccess to industrial processes to be monitored and controlled either locally (on-site)or remotely\n(i.e., through Internet). Conventional solutions such as custom SCADA packages, custom communication\nprotocols, and centralized architectures are no longer appropriate for engineering this\ntype of systems because of their highly distribution and their uncertain continuously changing\nworking environments. Multi-agent systems (MAS) appeared as a new architectural style for engineering\ncomplex and highly dynamic applications such as SCADA systems. In this paper, we propose\nan approach for simply developing flexible and interoperable SCADA systems based on the\nintegration of MAS and OPC process protocol. The proposed SCADA system has the following advantages:\n1) simple (easier to be implemented); 2) flexible (able to adapt to its environment dynamic\nchanges); and 3) interoperable (relative to the underlying control systems, which belongs\nto diverse of vendors). The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated by a real case\nstudy example carried out in a paper mill.
Loading....