From the 50s to the 70s of the 20th century, with the rapid development of industrial production, the demand for the control of the production process is also increasing. To meet this need, single-loop instrumentation control systems have emerged. Single-loop instrument control system is a system that uses a single instrument as the basic unit to monitor and control the production process through manual or automatic means. Although the single-loop instrumentation control system met the needs of industrial production at that time to a certain extent, its limitations were also becoming increasingly apparent.
Limited control performance: Since there is only one instrument in the single-loop instrument control system, its control performance is limited by the instrument itself, and it is difficult to achieve accurate control of the production process.
Difficult to scale: As the production process becomes more complex, it is difficult for single-loop instrumentation control systems to meet the demands of large-scale production, and system expansion becomes difficult.
High maintenance costs: Due to the small number of devices in a single-loop instrumentation control system, maintenance costs are relatively high in the event of a failure.
In order to overcome the limitations of the single-loop instrument control system, the distributed control system came into being. A distributed control system is a system that brings together multiple instruments, controllers, actuators and other equipment to exchange and control information through computer networks. Compared with single-loop instrumentation control systems, distributed control systems have the following advantages:
Superior control performance: The distributed control system uses a computer for control logic operation, which can realize accurate control of the production process and improve production efficiency.
Strong system scalability: The distributed control system adopts a distributed structure, which can easily expand the scale of the system to meet the production needs of different scales.
Low maintenance cost: Due to the large number of equipment in the distributed control system, once a failure occurs, it can be repaired through software upgrades and other ways to reduce maintenance costs.
Improve production efficiency: The distributed control system can realize real-time monitoring and optimal scheduling of the production process to improve production efficiency.
Since the 80s of the 20th century, the distributed control system has been widely used in many fields such as petroleum, chemical industry, electric power, and metallurgy. With the continuous progress of science and technology, the functions of the distributed control system are also constantly expanding, such as adding advanced control algorithms, artificial intelligence technology, etc., making the distributed control system play an increasingly important role in the modern industrial production process.
With Industry 40. With the concept of intelligent manufacturing, the distributed control system will face more challenges and opportunities in the future development. The following are the possible future development trends of distributed control systems:
Internet+: By combining the distributed control system with the Internet, remote monitoring, diagnosis and maintenance can be realized, and the availability and reliability of the system can be improved.
Artificial intelligence and big data: using artificial intelligence technology and big data analysis methods, the distributed control system is intelligently optimized and maintained, and the control performance and operation efficiency of the system are improved.
Safety and reliability: With the increasingly serious network security problems, the distributed control system needs to strengthen security protection measures to ensure the safe and stable operation of the system.
Green environmental protection: Through the use of energy-saving technology and environmentally friendly materials, the energy consumption and environmental pollution of the distributed control system are reduced.
As an important support in the process of modern industrial production, the development process of the distributed control system fully reflects the progress of science and technology and the needs of industrial production. In the future development, the distributed control system will continue to play its advantages and bring higher efficiency and better benefits to industrial production.