UK designed Simplicon</B>e<B> system significantly reduces the overall project costs of centralised control systems

Citation

(2004), "UK designed Simplicon</B>e<B> system significantly reduces the overall project costs of centralised control systems", Assembly Automation, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2004.03324aaf.008

UK designed Simplicon</B>e<B> system significantly reduces the overall project costs of centralised control systems

UK designed Simplicone system significantly reduces the overall project costs of centralised control systems

Keywords: Control systems

British company, IDC, has designed and manufactured Simplicone, a unique modular control system that significantly reduces both the complexity and the overall project cost of modern centralised control systems (Plate 8). Simplicone, standing for “simple to integrate and control”, offers a distributed architecture based on intelligent networked controllers. The system is inherently flexible and scaleable, uses standardised Windows multi-processor software and provides flexible open network connectivity for ease of integration with the technology that best suits an application, including the latest 10 Mbit Ethernet TCP/IP protocol.

Plate 8 Simplicon™

“What makes Simplicon both different to and superior to existing technology is not the obvious advantages of reduced cabling costs, or quicker installation time, but the hidden benefits that extend throughout the whole lifecycle of a project,” says Kevin Buckley, founder and Managing Director of IDC. These fall in eight basic categories.

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  Project tendering and estimating can be much more accurately defined.

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  Bid interpretation, defining an offer and presenting a control solution can be much more easily quantified and qualified.

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  Software complexity and program size are both greatly reduced. Software design is naturally structured into smaller elements of code simplifying programming and creating standard reusable modules.

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  Hardware, mechanical, electrical and control elements can be built and tested independently before shipment.

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  Documentation is standard for each element and definable.

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  Existing installations can be easily upgraded or extended where cabinet space would otherwise prohibit.

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  With Simplicon commissioning is a tuning rather than debugging exercise.

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  After sales support including maintenance and modifications are easier to implement without recourse to the original software designer.

These benefits mean that the Simplicon system provides the ideal solution for such tasks as high and low level conveyor control, materials handling, sortation, palletising, intelligent picking and routing.

In these applications, intelligent Simplicon modules simplify control system design and reduce overall project costs by distributing intelligence throughout a plant rather than by consolidating it at a central point such as a PLC. This methodology overcomes the issue of growing software complexity and program size with centralized control systems, enabling even the most complicated machine sequences to be broken down into simple, separate control tasks, where each task has its own intelligent processor relating to the mechanical subassembly or plant section being controlled. Once this is achieved, each module is networked to provide a true multi-processor system solution, the peer-to- peer system resulting in a more efficient communication network where traffic is reduced as a result of decisions being taken locally.

“There are lots of plc vendors offering distributed control products but they are too expensive considering the separate processor, power and communication modules needed for every section of a conveyor system,” says Kevin Buckley. “There are also alternative brick-type plc's with remote distributed I/O cards. These products would be economically viable but they do not provide peer-to-peer communications, which enable interlocks and sequence signals to be sent between nodes, essential for an intelligent distributed architecture.”

“Then there is the question of software. PLC vendors design their software tools for a wide variety of applications to sell as many units as possible. Furthermore, these software tools are primarily designed for a single processor platform, when what's needed are software tools designed for a multi-processor platform which are also easy to configure and link together, effectively deskilling the whole operation.”

“This is what we have done with the Simplicon system. Working closely with local universities we have decided upon the right technology platform for typical Simplicon applications such as conveyor control. Because most conveyor applications can be broken down into simplistic operations we have opted for using well-proven, high speed, low cost 8 bit processors.”

“In a distributed architecture communications are obviously critical, so we use an RS485 based protocol, which optimises bandwidth between Simplicon micro and pico units. For larger systems employing several micro units, a communications module is fitted which provides high speed Ethernet communication as standard, with Profibus and DeviceNet options to be developed later.”

“The final and probably most important element of the Simplicon system is our IEC61131 compliant, Windows-based, multi- processor software, Simplinet. Simplinet is the synergistic element that actualises the Simplicon distributed control approach. It enables the realisation of single cells associated with individual tasks, naturally breaking down the complexity of a machine and making individual programs easy to maintain. But this approach offers greater advantages than accommodating multitasking. It also provides a framework to generate modular software in a uniform Windows environment. Traditional programming techniques (ladder and function blocks) are used to generate individual task behaviour logic with menu allocations for data, display and interfacing with other modules. Each configured task can be encapsulated and represented by a screen icon, allowing the top- level view of the machine program flow in a clear and concise manner, and providing a navigation aid if individual elements need to be examined or modified.

In addition, configured objects can be copied, or moved in drag and drop fashion to accommodate changes to the machine build or sequence of operation. In this way, a library of standard objects, both large and small, is created which can then be linked together and automatically assigned to target modules, providing the control engineer with the ability to quickly design and configure his control system.”

“Once a system is configured the software is downloaded to the network automatically. In instances where independent equipment assembly testing has taken place, additional configuration may be downloaded (e.g. interface parameters for communication with other equipment assemblies). The parameters of the system during installation and commissioning can then be optimised via the LCD panel and keypad user interface. Alternatively, parameters can also be modified using the configuration host PC.”

For further information, contact: Kevin Buckley, IDC Ltd, Keynes House, Chester Park, Alfreton Road, Derby. DE21 4AS. Tel: +44 (0) 1332 604 030; Fax: +44 (0) 1332 604 031; E-mail: sales@idc.gb.com; Web site: www.idc.gb.com