Isomatic Plus - Low Cost Distributed Control System

Abstract In this article the implementation of a low cost DCS based on the Intel Bitbus specification, named ISOMATIC PLUS is discussed. This system uses programmable controllers based on INTEL and MOTOROLA microprocessors. A case with redundant master is considered and some results for system performance are obtained. The design of described system is one approach to connect existing control equipment with newly developed one using low cost manufacturing network. Analyses of system requirements and hierarchical structure of manufacturing control system shows that Bitbus is appropriate. It is very important system to be able to connect different types of control devices. In Isomatic Plus some of services defined in MMS are implemented, and by using bridge or simply changing physical and link communication layers can easily move to another type of network. Performance tests show that future work have to be directed towards decreasing switching times.