Open cloud solution for integrating advanced process control in plant operation

This paper presents a model for integrating an advanced process control library in a cloud-based environment. The aim is to lower the development times, to reduce maintenance effort and decrease the complexity of process control applications by adopting a modular approach consisting of generic, reusable control strategies following an IEC 61499 representation. The solution uses open cloud technologies based on Heroku for the deployment in a public cloud structure and Docker for increased portability of the designed solution. The conceptual architecture of the system is presented, as well as the details of the execution module.