Distributed systems, hardware-in-the-loop simulation, and applications in control systems

Abstract

This thesis entitled "Distributed Systems and Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation and Applications in Control Systems" presents a design and implementation of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation with a software model of a process and a real hardware controller. For this thesis, the process simulation tool that has been selected is HYSYS. This software has the ability to model processes from the most simplest examples to complicated industrial processes. The hardware, or controller, that will be used in this thesis is a Modicon Programmable Logic Controller that is often used in many industrial processes. -- There are two main goals for this thesis. The first goal is to design and implement a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation environment using HYSYS and a PLC that can be used as a verification tool to verify the correctness of the controller and the process. As well, the results of the PLC controller must also be compared with results produced from a third party software controller to show the effectiveness of using a real controller. The simulation environment must also be done using multiple systems that must communicate over a TCP JIP network to enable remote simulation of the PLC. The second goal is to analyze the effect of time latency on the distributed system. -- The work completed in this thesis will further the understanding of the development of Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation environments and understand the effects of time latency in a real time distributed system environment.