SBIR Phase II: A Programming Environment to Enable Engineers to Program Distributed Measurement and Control Networks

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将为工业中使用的分布式测量和控制网络开发一个高级图形编程环境。使用这种环境，工业控制工程师将能够在一个高层次的抽象(例如。“控制电机转速”、“监控轴承”、“监控泵”)，然后“点击一个按钮”，即可生成可执行的分布式应用程序。此外，工程师将能够在图形级别监视执行系统的行为，以帮助识别问题。该系统将根据算法所需的资源自动将图形描述划分为针对网络上特定处理器的组件。这种功能将极大地有利于工业控制工程师，他们将能够专注于算法和应用程序开发，而不是硬件和网络实现的细节。随着分布式方法的商业潜力在工业应用中变得越来越普遍，该软件系统的潜力将以快速的速度增长。例如，现在宝洁公司（Proctor & Gamble）的尿布生产线由15个网络控制器管理，而不是1个。目前，分布式测量和控制市场是分散的，有超过60个专有的过程网络标准在使用。IEEE 1451智能传感器标准的出现创造了一个巨大的市场机会，它提供了一个可移植的应用模型，使开发工具，例如在这个项目中开发的那些，能够与众多现有的商业流程总线一起使用。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a high level graphical programming environment for distributed measurement and control networks used in industry. Using this environment, an industrial control engineer will be able to describe the desired behavior of his/her system at a high level of abstraction (e.g. 'control motor speed', 'monitor bearing', 'monitor pump') and then "click a button" for the executable distributed application to be generated. In addition, the engineer will be able to monitor the behavior of the executing system at the graphical level to help identify problems. This system will automatically partition the graphical description into components targeted at specific processors on the network based upon the resources required by the algorithm. This functionality will greatly benefit the industrial control engineer, who will be able to focus on algorithm and application development rather than details of hardware and networking realizations.As the commercial potential of distributed approaches are becoming more prevalent in industrial applications, the potential of this software system will grow at a fast rate. For example, 15 network controllers instead of one now manage a Proctor & Gamble diaper manufacturing line. Currently the market for distributed measurement and control is fragmented, with over 60 proprietary process network standards in use. The advent of the IEEE 1451 smart transducer standard creates a huge market opportunity by providing a portable application model that enables development tools, such as those being developed in this project, to be used with the multitude of existing commercial process busses.