A technique is desired that can output a warning to a user before a buffer of a controller runs out of a free space. A control apparatus includes a buffer for buffering log data sequentially generated, an interface unit connectable with an external storage device, a writing unit for sequentially reading the log data buffered to the buffer and sequentially writing the log data to the external storage device while the external storage device is connected to the interface unit, a monitoring unit for monitoring a free space of the buffer, and a warning unit for outputting a warning upon the free space falling below a prescribed value.

According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a receiver, a processor and a transmitter. The receiver receives a reception signal including a value indicating a physical quantity related to operation of a control target object at a communication destination. The processor determines a state of wireless communication between the electronic apparatus and the communication destination. The processor calculates a target value for instructing operation of the control target object. The processor generates a transmission signal including a value obtained by modifying the target value. The transmitter transmits the transmission signal to the control target object.

A distributed control system includes: a plurality of control devices; a process IO master device shared by the control devices and including an output authority table and an output data memory having areas for storing data outputted from the control devices; and a plurality of process IO modules connected to the process IO master device and each connected to a sensor/actuator, wherein the output authority table provides an authority that determines the control device of which output data is to be adopted, for each of addresses corresponding to the actuators.

An optimal control method for wastewater treatment process (WWTP) based on a self-adjusting multi-task particle swarm optimization (SA-MTPSO) algorithm belongs to the field of WWTP. To balance the relationship between the effluent water quality (EQ) and energy consumption (EC) and achieve optimization online quickly, the invention establishes a data-based multi-task optimization model for WWTP to describe the relationship between the control variables and EQ, EC. Then, the SA-MTPSO algorithm is adopted to solve the optimal set-points of the nitrate nitrogen and dissolved oxygen concentration for WWTP. The PID controller is used to track the optimal set-points, so as to reduce EC while ensuring EQ, and realize the online optimal control of WWTP.

A boom sprayer includes any number of components to treat plants as the boom sprayer travels through a plant field. The components take actions to treat plants or facilitate treating plants. The boom sprayer includes any number of sensors to measure the state of the boom sprayer as the boom sprayer treats plants. The boom sprayer includes a control system to generate actions for the components to treat plants in the field. The control system includes an agent executing a model that functions to improve the performance of the boom sprayer treating plants. Performance improvement can be measured by the sensors of the boom sprayer. The model is an artificial neural network that receives measurements as inputs and generates actions that improve performance as outputs. The artificial neural network is trained using actor-critic reinforcement learning techniques.

A safety instrumented system (SIS) includes safety controllers, and safety input/output (I/O) modules coupled to safety field devices that are coupled in parallel with a process control system's field devices to processing equipment which is configured and controlled to run a process. An I/O mesh network between the safety controllers and the safety I/O modules is configured for selecting any safety controller to become coupled to any safety I/O module to function as a pool of safety I/O modules so that any safety controller is configurable to receive sensor signals from and transmit control signals to any safety field device. The safety field devices are for monitoring process variable(s) for the process so that when one of the safety controllers recognizes a hazardous condition regarding the processing equipment, the SIS independently takes action to keep the processing equipment under control or bring it to a safe state.

The present disclosure provides a method and a system for automatically configuring an I/O port. The method applied to a central processor includes: receiving request information from a controlled device, the request information carrying a type of a signal required by the controlled device, and sending, according to the type of the signal, a configuration instruction to a control device, and instructing the control device to configure the I/O port according to the configuration instruction. The controlled device is connected to the central processing unit, or the controlled device is connected to the central processor by means of the control device.

A support device includes an interface configured to establish connection to a controller, the controller being configured to execute a user program including a function block, a storage unit configured to store a monitoring condition in which a data type of the function block and a name of a monitoring target variable are defined with the data type and the name associated with each other, and a search module configured to search for, among instances of function blocks created for the controller to execute the user program, an instance having a data type matching a data type defined in the monitoring condition and having a value of a monitoring target variable associated with the matching data type indicating a monitoring target event.

The present invention relates to a method for automatic translation of ladder logic to a SMT-based model checker in a network comprising defining (10) the topology of the network as an enriched network topology based on packets exchanged in the network, extracting (20) a program from the packets relating to a PLC in the network and identifying inputs, outputs, variables and a ladder diagram of the PLC, translating (30) the inputs, outputs, variables and ladder diagram into a predefined formal model, wherein the predefined formal model is a circuit-like SMT-based model checker, and wherein the translating (30) comprises translating the set of data types of the program according to a predefined model set of data types of the circuit-like SMT-based model checker, translating the inputs of the PLC as model inputs of the circuit-like SMT-based model checker of the same type, translating the outputs of the PLC as model output latches of the circuit-like SMT-based model checker of the same type, translating the variables of the PLC as model variable latches of the circuit-like SMT-based model checker of the same type, translating comparators and arithmetic operators of the ladder diagram into a plurality of predefined model functions of the circuit-like SMT-based model checker, translating contacts and coils of the ladder diagram according to predefined model recursive procedures relating to the predefined model set of data types, the model inputs, the model output latches, the model variable latches and the plurality of predefined model functions, wherein the contacts are switches that can block or allow the flow of the current in a connection and each of the contacts is controlled by a Boolean input or variable, and wherein the coils are assignments to Boolean variables.

A method including receiving a data packet over a network, the data packet having a size. The method also includes parsing the data packet into a header and a body. The method also includes identifying a protocol type from the header and the size. The method also includes identifying a signal characteristic of signal data in the body. The method also includes identifying a classification of a source sensor which generated the data packet based on the protocol type and the signal characteristic. The method also includes generating a metadata file based on the source sensor. The method also includes labeling the data packet with the metadata file to form a labeled data packet.