Design of SCADA based wireless monitoring and control system using ZigBee

Monitoring and control of critical parameters is of paramount importance for most of the industrial processes. But laying cables from various sensors and actuators to monitoring stations increases cost and complexity. This problem calls for wireless implementations for monitoring and control applications. This paper presents a low cost wireless temperature monitoring and control system based on ZigBee wireless communication protocol. The system uses Microchip´s PIC18F458 microcontroller as the field unit and NI LabVIEW interface as the monitoring unit. It utilizes a precision temperature sensor IC, which being a low cost sensor provides a reliable output within its operating range. The system follows a request-response methodology, where the field unit responds to the requests made by the monitoring unit.