MSc dissertation proposal 2019/2020

Wireless Interface for Programmable Logic Controllers

Objectives:

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are the most common devices for integrating and controlling industrial processes. PLCs work 24/7 and many applications do not require more display than the LEDs of the PLCs. However, some applications would benefit of extra display of data. One can consider 7-segments digital displays, serial terminals or ethernet displays. One can consider hand held graphical devices to monitor PLCs using a wireless connection. Many commercial solutions exist but most of them are too expensive.

The main objectives of the work are the following:

- Develop software for ethernet-based communication with the PLC

- Propose one hardware device, based on a Arduino, a touch display and a wireless dongle, to configure a PLC process and display PLC data

- Propose a software solution to send human-input-data to the PLC

- Study security issues that may arise by using the ethernet connection to the PLC

Requirements (grades, required courses, etc):

Interest in development with PLCs. Interest in PLC networking and communications.

Localization:

ISR / IST

Observations:

Previous works provide good starting points for the thesis. Previous works encompass Matlab to PLC MODBUS communication, PLC programming based on Petri-nets and created hardware devices for directly interfacing to the PLC digital inputs and outputs.

The steps foreseen for the work are the following:

- Run an alarm system based on the PLC, as done in [CourseIndAuto18]

- Connect to the PLC using a PC running Matlab, with the MODBUS TCP protocol

- Connect to the PLC using a PC and sockets programming (C/C++)

- Review security procedures in the ethernet connection to the PLC

- Replace the PC by one Arduino complemented with a touch display and a wireless dongle

Note: alternatively, one may consider the more expensive solution of using a Raspberry-pi combined with a LCD display (15-way FPC connector).

References:

[CourseIndAuto19] Course on Industrial Automation, MEEC / IST, 2018 / 2019

http://users.isr.ist.utl.pt/~jag/courses/api18b/api1819.html

More information in:

http://isr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/~jag/msc/msc_2018_2019.html