What is Industrial automation & how it evolved

What is industrial Automation

Industrial Automation is a technique by which we make hand over human control to machines. In industrial automation machines are programmed to accomplish the tasks which human beings used to achieve. Why it is done? Because of its advantages:

• Through Industrial automation we are able to do mass production with less manpower

• Quality of the product is increased
• Safety of man & equipment is increased
• More accurate process control
• Since human intervention is less so reliability of the system is higher
• Systems operate is low power supply, more electronic control so equipment life is higher
• Changes in process logic becomes easier since logics are changed mostly through software

L & T                                        Schneider  Siemens                                 Allen Bradley Messung                                  Modicon Mitsubishi                                 Asia Automation

Principal Industrial Automation MNCs

	ALSTOM                                 FESTO Fuji Electric                            Toshiba TATA Honeywell                       Omron Fanuc Delta

 

How industrial automation control system Evolved?

Initially automation was achieved through manual control, operators used to control the process at every step. Human intervention was there at every step. Drawbacks were low quality output, errors involved in human involvement affected compromised safety, wastage of raw material, and accuracy of human action.

Then came Pneumatic Control: Industrial automation in this era was achieved through invention of pneumatic controllers in early 1920s. Automation was achieved by controlling air to pneumatic valves, which in turn were actually switched on/off by relays and switches. They were very bulky and changing of the logic was very complex procedure since a lot of rework was required to accomplish change in logic. So time taken to complete task changes was very high  

Hard wired logic control: contactors, relays (for switching), timers and counters (for timing and counting) were used for achieving desired industrial automation. But these systems also resulted into bulky panels. A lot of wiring was involved so time taken to complete task was higher. Defect investigation & troubleshooting was complex.

Electronic Control using Logic Gates: In early 60s electronics dominated the process, electronic logic gates were used for achieving logical operations. they replaced switching devices like relays and contactors in the control circuits. Electronic times & counters replaced mechanical timers & counters. Due to use of electronics space and energy requirements reduced, maintenance requirement reduced & systems were more reliable.

Psychometric study and HVAC design and drafting

Psychometric study is a vast science and an integral part of HVAC design and drafting, MEP (mechanical, electrical and Plumbing). Psychometric means study of air properties. In literal sense of Air conditioning, air is the aspect to deal with. This air can be Supply air (SA), Return air (RA), Fresh air (FA) and Extract air(EA). SA and RA contribute to maintaining the temperature of the room as per the human comfort. FA and EA signify to the ventilation part. The outside air i.e. the ambient air varies from city to city and from variant time zone. The inside temperature or the desired temperature is universally considered to be between 21 deg C to 26 deg C; ideally 23 deg C. This indoor temp is universally accepted temperature range which is considered satisfactory for human comfort. Other factors which influence human comfort in HVAC system include the metabolic rate of the individuals, their physical activity, health conditions, clothing, food and drink etc. Generally speaking it is associated with individual metabolism rate which produces heat.

Psychometric analysis does not only signify to the temperature aspect but also to at Relative humidity ie RH and that means % of moisture content in air. For HVAC design and drafting, basically there are five major aspects:

• Dry Bulb Temp
• Wet Bulb Temp
• Dew Point Temp
• Relative Humidity
• Humidity Ratio

The preparation of psychometric table in HVAC design and drafting leads to the Heat Load Calculation which makes sure how much heat in unit of BTU/Hr needs to be dissipated and against that how much cooling in terms of TR needs to be entertained in the desired location. 

A Psychrometric Chart is very important tool for HVAC engineers which helps them to carry out heat load or cooling load calculations. This also helps HVAC design and drafting engineers find solutions to various air condition related problems. The psychrometric chart in overall shape looks like a shoe.

For more, visit at http://www.sofcontraining.com/hvac-design-and-drafting.htm

JOBS OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE IN VLSI

Being as Electronics/ECE student, we study Digital-Electronics, Micro-Electronics, VLSI as a subject in our Engineering. Digital Electronics tells us how we can make flip-flops, registers, different types of counters etc. and VLSI explains the structure of BJT, MOSFET, how can we reduce the power consumption, what factors should one keep in mind while designing different kinds of gates through BJT or MOSFET etc. Whereas Microelectronics describes the chip formation, how a silicon ingot is converted into useful chips and what are the fabrication steps that take place before tape-out. Tape-out is a process where a final chip is ready to release in market.

We all are aware about I.T. industry. We know on which language they are currently working, what opportunities we have, but can we exactly say about VLSI? Can you tell me what VLSI industry is, on which technologies we are working, what kind of opportunities we have in this field, what the basic tools we must learn. So, here is a brief description about that. If you are interested to make career in this field, you must know 

•      VERILOG/VHDL language ie., hardware description language.

•      Along this, you must have great knowledge of Digital Electronics, FSM Designing etc.

You can do the following with your VLSI knowledge i.e.,

•      Digital Design.

•      ASIC:-Application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

•      Systems- on-a-chip (SoCs).

•      Reconfigurable computing.

Here is a list of job opportunities that are available in VLSI field.

ASIC frontend designer FPGA frontend designer ASIC physical design engineer AMS (Analog Mixed Signal) designer Library developer IP design engineer Verification Engineers Front-end verification engineer FPGA Back-end verification engineer Application Engineer Technical Support Tech Support Engineer Product Application Engineer (PAE) Reliability Engineer  Fab/Foundry Engineer

Physical design verification engineer AMS verification engineer EDA tool validation engineer IP verification engineer Board validation engineer EDA/CAD Engineers Software Development Engineer Software Test Engineer Regression and Automation Engineer  Build and Release Engineer Application Engineers Field Application Engineer (FAE) Corporate Application Engineer (CAE)

PROJECT IDEAS ON EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Embedded systems have a vast variety of application realm that varies from low cost to high, consumer electronics to industrial equipments, entertainment devices to academic equipments, medical instrumentation to defence, avionics, and aerospace control systems. Embedded systems also include global positioning system (GPS), ATMs, equipments related to networking, digital vision systems, mobile communication, aerospace applications, telecom applications, etc and in different embedded systems projects. Embedded C language is used in projects, 8051/AVR/PIC microcontroller.

1. EmbeddedSystem for Detecting Reckless Driving on Highways: The main aim of this project is to design a speed checking device that identifies hasty driving on highways and informs the traffic authorities if anyone finds vehicle violating the set speed limits on highways.

2. Embedded System for Street Light Control: The main objective of this project is to detect the movement of vehicles on highways. It switches on the street lights before the vehicle enters a predefined area and switches the lights off when vehicles passes by in order conserve energy.

3. Embedded System for Vehicle Tracking: The main purpose of this project is to find the exact location of a vehicle by using a GPS modem in order to reduce vehicle robbery. The GSM modem sends an SMS to a mobile and an LCD display is used to display the location information in terms of latitude and longitude values.

4. Embedded System for Home Automation System: The aim of this project is controlling home appliances like fan, light or AC using GSM message service.

5. Embedded System for Industrial Temperature Control: The purpose of this temperature controller project is to control the temperature of any device using temperature sensors like LM35/LM34 etc. An LCD display is used to display the temperature.

Some More Embedded System Project Ideas

We at Sofcon India Private Limited, Noida offer various courses: Embedded Training, Embedded system design course, AVR Microcontroller training, ARM Microcontroller training, RTOS Training, and Embedded Robotics training, where students can upgrade their embedded system knowledge and enhance skills for growth opportunities.

SMS Based home automation using Arduino Microcontroller

Today GSM networks are widely used, either for making calls or sending SMSes. Let us discuss a project of controlling home appliances by sending sms.

There are many types of home automation systems available in the market. Some are DTMF controlled home appliances, IR remote controlled home appliances and RF based. This system executes accurate control according to the message sent by the mobile phone. Just by sending a message to the GSM modem interfaced to a Arduino microcontroller (MCU) on/off operations can be performed. Present status of the equipment is also verified through a LCD display.

Arduino Microcontroller based home automation system works off 12v power supply. Arduino microcontroller (MCU) requires only 5v but GSM modem requires 12V. A LCD display is used for receiving and displaying the messages. Here LCD is used in 4-bit mode, which means only four lines are required to display data. When you want to control equipment and show its status information, you need to send an SMS to GSM Modem. Arduino Uno reads the messaged received by the GSM modem and sends commands to control the equipments and displays its status on LCD. GSM modem sends the commands in the text mode to Arduino Uno using RS232 interface.

AT command is sent from Arduino Uno to the GSM modem as the program starts up, and the response is received from the GSM modem after a very short period of time. After receiving the command to turn on loads, the relay set performs the switching operation.

The home automation market is growing very fast and there is a need a vast range of developments is carried out. Arduino Uno along with GSM provides smart automated home system with desired buad rate of 9600 bps.

For more, visit at http://www.sofcontraining.com 

Vocational training

Current era is of knowledge economy. Talents and skills of employees form the most critical competitive advantage for any company. 15 million job seekers enter into job market each year. On the other side companies do not get sufficiently skilled manpower. Hiring, training the right talent and retaining them with the company is huge cost. So its not possible for every employers to skill & build their talent continuously. 

Now the question arises how would the companies get trained skilled manpower for their jobs? The answer is skill training providers.

We at Sofcon India Pvt LTD has aligned our training programs on Industrial automation, PLC SCADA, Embedded systems AVR Microcontrollers HVAC control, HVAC Design and drafting, VLSI, Building automation, Electronics surveillance, Hydraulics & Pneumatics trainings with industry requirements. Our training programs are also aligned with QPNOS (Qualification pack National occupation standards). QPNOS are set of standards set by NSDC for variety of job roles for different industries.

Where there is high attrition rate, employers are unwilling to pay for training for the candidates. Although they are willing to re-train and pay for already trained candidates. Now it becomes necessary for fresher entering into job-market to acquire the necessary skills mandatory for entry into a job role.

Engineers trained on PLC SCADA systems are given practical experience on hardware & software design. They know about different types of sensors and final control elements. These engineers are suitable for project engineer, design engineer & commissioning engineers job. A week time on job is enough for them to do justice to their assigned job role. Consumption of electronics tabs, mobile, pcs have increased many-fold which has pushed promising technology job opportunities for embedded system engineers, AVR/ARM Microcontroller training, VLSI, System verilog, VHDL trained engineers.

Industry is showing signs of recovery. India is going to be world leader in automotives. Hydraulics training, pneumatics training plays very important role in filling skill gaps of automotive and other industries. We are fastest developing country in the world. Our infrastructure sector is going to have huge growth potential. HVAC control & HVAC Design & drafting are key skills needed for mechanical engineers wanting to enter this segment.

Be it designing of air conditioning system, ducting, load calculation, HVAC control system, Building automation system. Learning of engineer’s undergone practical training is much faster and they can be assigned independent project design, project execution jobs.