Web-Based Distributed Control using GPRS Enabled Embedded Devices

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is a field of constant development and worth billions of dollars around the world as it is used in many types of industries. Existing SCADA systems are divisible into two groups -cheap and inflexible control and expensive but flexible control. This project attempts to take a step towards the best of both worlds -cheap and flexible SCADA i.e. creating an extremely low cost device which can be adapted to many different SCADA applications via some very basic programming and plugging in relevant peripherals. Much of the price in some expensive SCADA applications is a result of using specialized communication infrastructure. By using existing infrastructure, in this case, the mobile GSM network, not only can price be kept down, but scalability and generic nature of the device is maintained. This project deals with the creation of an inexpensive, yet adaptable and easy to use SCADA device and infrastructure using mobile telephone network, in particular, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). The hardware components making up the device are relatively unsophisticated, yet the custom written software makes it re-programmable over the air, and able to provide a given SCADA application with the ability to send and receive control and data signals at any non predetermined time.