ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to the various control infrastructures commonly found in industrial environments. Large-scale industrial controls are achieved by systems such as Distributed Control Systems (DCSs), SCADA, and PLCs. DCS supports a wide range of fieldbuses and digital communication buses. The use of DCS enhances the scalability, security, and reliability of plant control processes. Primarily, DCS enables remote supervision and brings the control functions nearer to the plant processes themselves. Industrial processes such as manufacturing plants, chemical plants, and assembly lines rely on PLC-based automation for highly coordinated sequential execution of tasks. PLCs can work with continuous as well as discrete signals. SCADA systems read and control installed devices such as sensors, actuators, pumps, and valves. The data is logged for historical records and visually summarized through an HMI interface. Networked SCADA systems rely on commonly available, vendor-agnostic communication technologies such as Ethernet.
