A communication method for an industrial multiple-microcontroller distributed control system

Abstract A group of microcontrollers was used in the real-time control of a cement production process both for their low cost and for their reliability. They are connected with each other and linked up with a central computer to form a multiple microcontroller control system or loosely coupled distributed control system. This paper describes the design method used for the system and its behaviour at the message passing level. Problems relating to data communication are addressed and solutions to these problems are then presented in detail. A comparison between several candidate communication architectures is given.