SBIR/STTR Phase II: A Programming Environment to Enable Engineers to Program Distributed Measurement and Control Networks

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a high level graphical programming environment for distributed measurement and control networks used in industry. Using this environment, an industrial control engineer will be able to describe the desired behavior of his/her system at a high level of abstraction (e.g. 'control motor speed', 'monitor bearing', 'monitor pump') and then "click a button" for the executable distributed application to be generated. In addition, the engineer will be able to monitor the behavior of the executing system at the graphical level to help identify problems. This system will automatically partition the graphical description into components targeted at specific processors on the network based upon the resources required by the algorithm. This functionality will greatly benefit the industrial control engineer, who will be able to focus on algorithm and application development rather than details of hardware and networking realizations.

As the commercial potential of distributed approaches are becoming more prevalent in industrial applications, the potential of this software system will grow at a fast rate. For example, 15 network controllers instead of one now manage a Proctor & Gamble diaper manufacturing line. Currently the market for distributed measurement and control is fragmented, with over 60 proprietary process network standards in use. The advent of the IEEE 1451 smart transducer standard creates a huge market opportunity by providing a portable application model that enables development tools, such as those being developed in this project, to be used with the multitude of existing commercial process busses.