TECHNICAL RESOURCES IN AUTOMATION AND CONTROL

The world of industrial automation is complex, it is the point where many different technologies are meeting together, while using many specialized and very different techniques. Specific techniques and technologies have been developed especially for automation control and motion control.

The domain of industrial automation is also very closed to other technical domains, and interferes with domains such as industrial instrumentation for signal measurement and detection, industrial robotics, machine vision, digital networking and more.

By the time now, we also strongly have to take care of digital threats, by focusing on digital security. More, new needs and new constraints lead the manufacturers to create new solutions, and sometimes new technologies. And more, the life time of an industrial automated application is about from five years to twenty or thirty years ( following the applications taken in consideration ).

An automation technician must control all the obsolete techniques and all the obsolete devices in usage in addition to the current ones too. So, it is very important for maintenance to get ( and to archive ) some technical documentation.

This file without claim is intended for engineering teams in industrial companies, in order to be used as a basic tool and to facilitate ( or to accelerate ) a search for informations. It is question above all of collecting a non exhaustive list of links to resources available on Internet, concerning by near or by far any professional in relation with industrial automation and control.

Each of these selected web sites shows a set of informations reporting various techniques in one single medium. These techniques are those used in control-command, in instrumentation, in robotics, in electricity, in industrial networking and even in digital security.

• You will discover educational directories offering lessons about industrial automation technologies, or offering technical papers.
• You can refer to a selection of Schneider Electric technical papers which concern automation, motors, electricity, safety and some expert papers such as the fuzzy logic applied to automated industrial usages.
• You will find a list of technical forums specialized in industrial areas ( automation, control, instrumentation and more ).

This set of resources reporting on techniques used to control and to command automated plants in the industry lists educational papers, white papers and other technical documentation talking about factory automation in general, about logic, about electricity and about some control techniques.

• Control and command techniques such as control loop, PID loop and advanced control.
• Automation in general, logic, electro-technology, batch processes ( S88 ) and management executive systems ( MES, S95 ) too.
• Automation software such as the excellent PROVIEW, an open source control system for instance.
• Informations about some useful tools and software.
• Short introductions to some useful forums involved in industrial automation matters where you can ask for specific questions about hardware or techniques.

This folder groups a selection of resources which report on measurement techniques and technologies.

• The « concepts » section reports on a selection of educational papers and technical papers about basics and fundamentals in instrumentation.

  These papers report mainly on data acquisition, data treatment and analogical signals treatment.

• The « measurement technologies » section refers to sensors technologies. It includes level metering, flow metering and temperature metering, and presents some interesting resources on instrumentation and measurement.
• The « interfaces » area lists documents about some instruments interfaces such as ( « FDT » ) or about instruments configuration software ( « Pactware » ).

Networks are more and more important in automated applications. Here are some informations about them.

• You can access papers about basics and fundamentals in networking, about some protocols and about Ethernet and IP protocols.
• You can read documentation about many field networks, about many control buses and about many sensors and actuators networks, including IO link.
• You will find informations about instrumentation networks, about vision system networks dedicated to image transfers ( especially used by machine vision ), you will learn how a HART modem is working, or what is a virtual serial port.
• Finally, you will get matter about wireless networks technologies with a list of some utility software, and you will get informations about a few miscellaneous networks sometime used in the industry ( USB bus for instance ).

Here, you will link towards very well written papers about the concepts used in image processing and machine vision technologies.

• The chapter about digital image processing presents technical papers, courses and resources about computer vision basic knowledge, vision systems and machine vision.
• The chapter about colour-metering carries on colour studies and on colour history.
• The last chapter concerns some well known digital vision standards often used in industrial applications, such as the generic programming interface « Genicam » or the « EMVA 1288 » interface for example.

This folder presents some sources carrying on industrial robotics, robotics software, international robotics projects, robotics associations and robotics economical trends.

• The « robotic technologies » section starts by presenting the basic concepts used in robotics with an introduction to industrial robotics ( including subjects such as geometry, kinematics, trajectories or architectures for instance ).

  Then, you can discover an educational paper about trajectory generation, robot programming and mathematics applied to robotics or what are parallel mechanisms and parallel kinematics for example.

• The « economics » section presents some sources about economical trends related to industrial robotics.
• Other sections presents some interesting robotic projects, either scientific, personal or international projects, such as the « ESMERA » European project or the first ecological robot in the world for example.
• Finally, you can find a short list of associations involved in robotics.

Right now, it is essential for the industry to know how are critical the digital threats and how strategic is the digital security of its control systems.

• Here you can access to vulnerabilities observatories which register worldwide known detected digital vulnerabilities ( found in hardware or software ), including industrial ones.

  Some of these organizations offer technical papers, tutorials and advices to help you securing your systems.

• Then, you can find a list of some useful security utilities for networking usage ( FreeRadius, Open VPN, Open SSL, NMAP … ), followed by a list of some prevention free software ( anti-virus, firewalls, anti-tracking ) for personal security or mobile security usages.

This folder introduces to resources about some technical documentation supplied by manufacturers and providers of industrial automation solutions.

• For programmable controllers, you will access the technical documentation from the following companies : Allen Bradley / Rockwell, Cognex, eWon, Krohne, Lenze, National Instruments, Phoenix Contact, Pro-face, Schneider Electric / Telemecanic, SEW Eurodrive, Siemens or Wago.
• For axes and motion control, you will be able to go through the documentation from the Lenze or SEW Eurodrive manufacturers.
• For measurement instruments, you will find the technical documentation from the Krohne or National Instruments firms.
• For digital vision systems, you will get links to the Cognex technical documentation.