Service-oriented process control for complex multifunctional plants: Concept and case study

In process control engineering, the multiple forms of the process control functionalities and the technological constraints of the programming languages are a significant obstacle for designing control logic which is integrated and comprehensive throughout the hierarchical control levels. Furthermore, the engineering phase requires a high degree of expert knowledge and effort. This article presents a conceptual approach for an integrated management of the distributed process control functionalities based on service orientation. The main advantage of this approach is that the fixed interconnections of the control logic are extended with a dynamic assignment of services. With a multifunctional Modular Electric Reducing Furnace as case study it is shown, that by using service-orientation, a reliable, flexible and scalable process control structure can be easily constructed.