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on CD-ROM

Part G 63

1129

Control Syste

64. Control System for Automated Feed Plant

Nick A. Ivanescu

Many factories, especially in developing coun-

tries, still use old technology and control systems.

Some of them are forced to replace at least the

control and supervising system in order to in-

crease their productivity. This chapter presents

a modern solution for updating the control system

of a fodder-producing factory without replac-

ing the ﬁeld devices or the infrastructure. The

automation system was chosen in order to al-

low correct control of the whole plant, using

a single programmable logic controller (PLC).

Structure and design of the software project is

described. Also, several interesting software so-

lutions for managing special processes such as

material extraction and weighing machines cali-

bration are presented. Production quality results

and future development are also discussed. In

the last part of the chapter some guidelines

for automation of a chicken-growing plant are

presented.

64.1 Objectives ........................................... 1129

64.2 Problem Description ............................ 1130

64.3 Special Issues To Be Solved ................... 1131

64.4 Choosing the Control System................. 1131

64.5 Calibrating the Weighing Machines ....... 1132

64.6 Management of the Extraction Process .. 1133

64.7 Software Design: Theory and Application1133

64.7.1 Project Structure

and Important Issues................... 1134

64.8 Communication ................................... 1136

64.9 Graphical User Interface on the PLC....... 1136

64.10 Automatic Feeding of Chicken............... 1137

64.11 Environment Control

in the Chicken Plant ............................ 1137

64.12 Results and Conclusions ....................... 1138

64.13 Further Reading .................................. 1138

References ..................................................1138

64.1 Objectives

One of the recent projects we worked on for was

to design and execute a complete control system for

a combined fodder-producing plant. From the start it

must be speciﬁed that we had to ﬁnd solutions to

command and control the existing machines, and the

only things that could be replaced or added were

sensors and transducers. Most other devices, such as

motors, limit sensors, tension transducers, etc., re-

mained in place. Also 90% of the cable system was

retained.

This project had several objectives:

1. Design of the command and control system, taking

into account the electrical characteristics of the ma-

chines, and the number and type of the electrical

signals coming from and going to the system

2. Development of a powerful software system to al-

low manual control of the whole plant, continuous

visualization of all signals and commands, and full

automatic control of the production process

3. Real-time communication with personal computers

in alocal network,enabling managersand other per-

sonnel to supervise the production ﬂow and results

4. Ensuring that the total quantity of the ﬁnal prod-

uct should not exceed or be less than 5% of the

programmed quantity. Also the percentage of every

component of the resulted material should be less

than 5% different from the calculated recipe.

Part G 64

1130 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

64.2 Problem Description

A combined fodder plant produces food for industrial

grown poultry. This food is a mixture of different types

of cereals combined with some concentrated products.

Practically, there are three main areas inside the fac-

tory:

•

The raw material storage area, consisting of several

storage bins

•

The weighing and mixing area, where the ﬁnal prod-

uct is obtained

•

The ﬁnished-productstorage area, consisting of sev-

eral storage bins, where the resulting product is

stored while waiting to be taken to poultry farms.

Part of the plant is presented in Fig.64.1.

Let us take a brief look at the components of the

plant shown in Fig.64.1:

•

There are eight raw-materials storage bins, contain-

ing eight different types of cereals.

•

From these bins material can be extracted to weigh-

ing machine 1, by means of several extractors.

•

Weighing machine 1 is used to weigh speciﬁc

quantities of cereals, with a maximum of 2000kg

supported by the machine. The machine supplies

an analog signal in voltage, which we converted to

a uniﬁed 4–20 mA signal.

Weighing

machine 1

Premix

weighing

machine 3

Oil

weighing

machine 2

Elevators

Inter-

mediate

tank

Transporter

Grinding

machine

Transporter Transporter

Transporter

Mixing machine

Mill

Raw material storage bins

Fig. 64.1 Production part of the plant

•

The intermediate tank between weighing machine 1

and the mill is needed because the speed of the mill

is lower than the evacuation speed from weighing

machine 1.

•

The mill is used for milling the cereals.

•

The grinding machine is used for grinding the

milled cereals.

•

The mixing machine is a large tank where the pro-

cessed cereals are mixed together with some special

oil and another component (premix).

•

The materials circulate between the machines by

means of several transporters and elevators.

•

Weighing machines 2 and 3 weigh, respectively, oil

and premix extracted from the milling machines.

Details will be given later in the chapter.

The production ﬂow can be brieﬂy described as fol-

lows:

1. The human operator must establish the quantities

for every type of cereal, for oil, and for premix that

must be part of the ﬁnal product. Quantities are de-

termined for only one charge of extraction, because

the capacity of the weighing machines is limited.

Also the number of charges is speciﬁed, in order to

produce the whole amount of material wanted.

Part G 64.2

Control System for Automated Feed Plant 64.4 Choosing the Control System 1131

2. The process starts with extraction of speciﬁed quan-

tities of cereals into weighing machine 1.

3. Weighing machine 1 is emptied into the intermedi-

ate tank, if some speciﬁc conditions are fulﬁlled.

Immediately a new extraction should begin for the

next charge.

4. The milling and grinding processes are done au-

tomatically; some sensors signal when the corre-

sponding tanks are empty.

5. When the grinding is over, material must be trans-

ferred to the mixing machine. After a short time, oil

and premix are also loadedinto the mixing machine.

6. The mixing process lasts several minutes (a con-

ﬁgurable period of time), at the end of which the

machine is opened and the ﬁnished product is trans-

ported to the ﬁnished-product storage bins and the

charge can be considered ended.

It is necessary to say that, in order to obtain high

productivity, another charge must be in course of pro-

cessing, even if the previous one is not ﬁnished. Of

course the detailed process implies several constraints

and internal conditions,some ofwhich willbe discussed

later in the chapter.

64.3 Special Issues To Be Solved

One of the ﬁrst and most difﬁcult parts of the project

was to identify all analog and digital signals that must

come from and go to the installations. Without proper

documentation or an electrical schematic of the plant,

this job proved to be extremely time consuming. After

analysis, 192 digital inputs, 126 digital outputs, and 12

analog signals were identiﬁed, together with the cables

connected to them from the previous control system.

Another issue that had to be taken into account was

the improper grounding of most of the machines inside

the plant, which can cause undesired variation of analog

signals. Most of the work regarding this issue was done

in software because electrical solutions were not feasi-

ble (as they should have been taken into consideration

during the design and build of the factory).

During study of the rest of the machines in the

plant, some special situations were determined regard-

ing weighing machine 3. Firstly, the four tensions

transducers that measuredthe weight insidethe machine

were not of the same type. One transducer had been

replaced in the past but with a different type, and had

a different output electrical tension for the same meas-

ured weight compared with the other three transducers.

This resultedin nonlinear variation of theuniﬁed analog

signal with the weight inside the machine. The solution

to this problem is described later in the chapter.

The other special effect discovered was that, when

weighing machine 3 was opened and premix was trans-

ferred to the mixing machine, an air ﬂow developed and

pushed up the weighing machine, resulting in incorrect

measurement of weight during this process. Stabiliza-

tion of the signal appears many seconds after extraction

stopped. A software solution was chosen for this practi-

cal problem also.

64.4 Choosing the Control System

To choose the main control device for such an indus-

trial system correctly, several factors must be taken into

consideration, including:

•

The number and type of input/output signals

•

The complexity of the software that must be devel-

oped

•

The communication facilities that are requested and

can be fulﬁlled

•

The ease of developing a human–machine interface

for supervising and commanding the processes

•

The budget allocated to this part of the control sys-

tem.

The solution chosen in this case was the ThinkIO

PLC from the German company Kontron. The ThinkIO

device is an innovative concept to integrate high-

performance personal computer (PC) functionality,

ﬁeldbuses, and input/output (I/O) modules. It has

a powerful Pentium processor, two Ethernet interfaces,

universal serial bus (USB) for keyboard and mouse, and

digital visual interface (DVI) for liquid-crystal display

Part G 64.4

1132 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

(LCD) or cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays. For automa-

tion applications it can run programs developed in 3S

Software Codesys package. Also it can handle hundreds

of I/O signals, so it fulﬁlled the system necessities.

Another big advantage of this device is that even the

human–machine interface runs on it, so practically you

do not need a separate PC to supervise the process or

to send manual commands to it. We chose the Linux

operating system for this PLC. An object linking and

embedding (OLE) process control (OPC) server runs on

this PLC so communication with it is easy and reliable.

After completing connection of it to the ﬁeld devices,

the next step was to design and develop the software.

However, before designing the software solution, there

was an important job to do, essential for correct results

of the production process.

64.5 Calibrating the Weighing Machines

All three weighing machines have some tension sen-

sors that output an electric signal that is (theoretically)

proportional to the weight in the machine. Weighing

machines 1 and 3 have four sensors, mounted at the

four corners of the weighing tank, that output a voltage

(0–100mV) proportional to the force on each sensor.

The sum of the four tensions is converted to a current

in the range of 0–20mA and connected to an analogue

input of the PLC.

A potential problem could appear if the sensors are

not of the same type (different output tension range) or

are not mounted perfectly symmetrical. As already de-

scribed, such a situationoccurs for weighingmachine 3.

The output of one of the sensors had a different tension

range to those of the other three sensors.

The standardization procedure implies the deter-

mination of the relation between the weight of the

weighing machines and the output current of the mea-

surement sensors, practically beingthe relation between

the weight and the engineering units resulting from the

analog-to-digital conversion inside the PLC.

Cereals

Premix

Oil

2000 6000 10000 14000 18000 22000 26000 30000

Weight (kg)

DAC units

2000

1500

1000

500

Fig. 64.2 Characteristic of the three weighing machines, for cere-

als, premix, and oil

To determine this relation, we used 100 standard

20kg units. Weighing machines 1 and 3 can support up

to 2000kg load. To determine the speciﬁed relation, we

loaded the machines with consecutive 200 kg weights,

until 2000kg was reached. After that, the weights were

removed, 200kg at a time, until there was no load onthe

machine. Fortunately, the hysteresis phenomenon was

very small and practically did not matter. The charac-

teristic of the machines is shown in Fig.64.2.

Machine 1 proved to be linear so we adopted (64.1)

for calculating the instantaneous weight value

weight1 :=(adc

value−init value1)/scale 1 ,

(64.1)

where:

•

weight1 is the instant value of the weight (in kg).

•

adc value is the numerical value obtained by con-

verting the analogue signal (0–20 mA) to 12bits.

•

init value1 is the numerical value obtained from

sensors when machine 1 is empty (because the

weighing machines have their own weight).

•

scale 1 is the approximated slope of the line, cal-

culated using the arithmetic average of all DAC

units/kg ratios at all the measured points (Fig. 64.2).

Machine 3 had a different behavior because one of

the sensors is of a different type to the other three,

outputting a tension in a smaller range than the oth-

ers. The result is that the resulting graph is more

of parabolic type. Anyway because determination of

the parabolic equation is very difﬁcult, we chose to

piecewise-linearize the graph on ten portions. So the

formula for one portion reads

weight3 :=(adc

value−init value3)/scale 3i ,

(64.2)

Part G 64.5

Control System for Automated Feed Plant 64.7 Software Design: Theory and Application 1133

where:

•

weight3 is the instantaneous value of the weight (in

kg).

•

adc value is the numerical value obtained by con-

verting the analogue signal (0–20 mA) on 12bits.

•

init value3 is the numerical value obtained from

sensors when machine 1 is empty (because the

weighing machines have their own weight).

•

scale 3i is the approximated slope of the approxi-

mation line on portion i, calculated from the values

of start point and end point of the corresponding

portion (Fig.64.2).

Weighing machine 2 has only one tension sensor

so the relation between the weight value and the out-

put tension is linear, so the same formula was used for

the whole weighing range (0–120kg)

weight

oil :=(can value−init oil)/scale oil , (64.3)

where the elements of (64.3) have the same meaning as

in previous equations.

64.6 Management of the Extraction Process

Another delicate process that had to be correctly con-

trolled is the cereals extraction and premix unloading.

The cereals are transported from the storage bins with

a system of conveyors and elevators and are loaded into

weighing machine 1 using several extractors. However,

because the end of the extractors is some distance above

the weighing machine, there is still some material in the

air that will fall into the weighing machine even after

the extractor’s motor is stopped.

The quantity falling down in the machine after stop-

ping the extractor depends on various factors:

•

Type of cereal

•

Quantity desired to be extracted

•

Distance from the end of extractor to the weighing

machine.

The same considerations apply for unloading the pre-

mix in the mixing machine, but the quantity falling

after the unloading lid is closed is small. The solu-

tion adopted in order to minimize extraction errors

was to use some estimated in-air quantity to antic-

ipate the quantity loaded into the machine after the

extractor is stopped. In this case the extractor should be

stopped before the weighing machine measures the de-

sired quantity. So the estimation (for one material) has

an initial value but is adjusted at every extraction with

the simple formula

new

estimation =old estimation

+0.5(last

extracted quantity−wanted quantity) ,

(64.4)

where:

•

new estimation is the (in-air) estimated quantity

that will be used to determine the moment when the

extractor must be stopped for the current extraction.

•

old estimation is the estimation used for the previ-

ous extraction.

•

last extracted quantity is the concrete quantity pre-

viously extracted.

•

wanted quantity is the ideal quantity that should be

extracted.

In this way in three or four extractions the error

practically drops below 1kg. Taking into account that

a complete production cycle has tens of extractions, the

total extraction error is very small, less than 5%.

After weighing machine 1 is loaded with all types

of cereals needed for the current charge, the machine

is unloaded completely, when several conditions are

fulﬁlled. Premix and oil quantities are measured some-

how differently, i.e., when they are unloaded from the

weighing machines into the mixing machine, but the

procedure is similar.

64.7 Software Design: Theory and Application

The Codesys logical software package was used to de-

velop the control programs. The software project should

have had different functions:

•

Graphical user interfaces, for conﬁguring the pro-

cess, for monitoring all the production stages and

Part G 64.7

1134 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

all the factory areas, and for manual command of

the installations in the factory

•

Automatic accomplishment of planned production

•

Implementation of constraints and conditions be-

tween different machines

•

Sorting and mediation of analogue signals

•

Network communication with PCs.

First let us brieﬂy discuss some theoretical approaches

regarding the conception of an automation software

project. The easiest and most natural type of program-

ming language that should be used for the control part

of a program is the sequential function chart. This pro-

gramming language is supported by the large majority

of PLCs producers. Even if this language is not imple-

mented in a PLC and other languages, such as ladder

diagrams, must be used, there are algorithms that help

theprogrammertoconvert a logical diagram in a ladder

diagram. On the other hand, other types of jobs, such

as implementation of synchronization and conditioning

of events can be done more easily in a ladder diagram

type of program. Some examples are shown later in the

chapter.

When several industrial processes are be controlled

by a single PLC, the best idea is to control every exe-

cution device (such as motors, actuators, valves, and so

on) separately in a separate logical diagram. If related

events for several devices are somehow connected, it is

better to develop a single logical diagram for their con-

trol. Relationship or synchronization between logical

diagrams is achieved by global variables.

64.7.1 Project Structure

and Important Issues

The structure of the software project is shown in

Fig.64.3.

The idea was to separately control almost every

subprocess that takes place during the production ﬂow

(extractions, mixing, unloading and so on) [64.1]. Most

of the programs are written in sequential function chart

(SFC) programming language, the interblocking pro-

gram iswritten in the ladder diagram (LD) language and

other smaller programs are written in structure text (ST)

language. All of these programs run simultaneously in

the PLC memory.

Brieﬂy described, the programs have the following

functions:

•

Extraction programs take care of the extraction of

each type of cereal, with one program for each type

of cereal (written in SFC).

Fig. 64.3 Structure of the software project

•

The interblocking program takes care of all con-

ditioning between different installations together

with automaticallystopping some motors whenthey

reach their limits (Fig.64.4); for example, one el-

evator cannot be started if a connected transporter

was not previously started. The program is writ-

ten in LD language because it must check all the

conditions at every PLC cycle.

•

Loadxxx programs manage the communication be-

tween the PLC and PC (written in SFC).

•

The mixing program controls the necessary timing

needed for the mixing process of the materials.

•

The extraction supervisor program supervises the

extractions programs. It decides if and when an ex-

traction should start.

Other programs manage the loading and unloading of

oil and premix, calculate the average values of ana-

logue signals, and so on. The project can work in two

modes:

•

Manual mode, where only speciﬁc commands can

be given to some of the machines

•

Automatic mode, where the production process is

automatically managed by the PLC.

Part G 64.7