Industrial data acquisition and control system using two PLCs' networked over MPI network

Prior to the development of data acquisition and control system, collecting data from remote field devices, distributed throughout the plant in large manufacturing industries, was a quite challenging and complex task. The development of industrial data acquisition and control systems equipped these industries with facilities to gather and process data, and perform control actions right from a centralized location, i.e. control room, without actually going to the plant. The introduction of programmable logic controllers (PLC) as a data acquisition and control hardware in these systems increased its reliability and robustness. This paper highlights the design work carried out to develop a cost effective, simple, robust and intelligent industrial standard data acquisition and control system for two physical field models (plants) that are 50 meters apart from the control room. This work highlights process control application and indeed is an application of industrial electronics engineering. The work carried out for this data acquisition and control system is in correlation with SCADA, DCS and totally integrated automation, which is meant to optimize processes and manufacturing procedures at the same time.