Hardware-Software
Complex: The Guarantor of Technogenic Safety
The Environment is an integral part of successful living of the mankind. Human impact on the Nature is boundless.
We can’t abandon dangerous industries; yet we can reduce the risks of man-made
accidents to acceptable minimum, and in many cases even prevent them.
Having
on mind desire to make own impact to the
Environmental Protection, Edgewood Services has developed the GTS hardware-software complex performing full cycle embedded systems development.
The
Guarantor of Technogenic Safety Project was implemented for the plant in Ukraine that
produces the polyurethane. Fire and gas leaks constitute a potential hazard for
the public, therefore the plant needed the automated system for proper control,
reducing the possibilities of damage and performing actions according to
emergency response plan in case of the accident.
The
GTS complex acts in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection in Ukraine.
It is said that every hazardous plant
must have a plan of actions to minimize the threat of industrial emergencies by
automating the control of key production parameter sand execution emergency response
plan in case of an accident.
In
brief, this hardware-software complex
consists of three main components:
1) GTS
Server gathers information about
potentially hazardous factors; in case of the accident, it can generate a list
of necessary actions and performs them according to emergency response plan. With the help of GTS client, it reports data
to the operator, receives commands from the operator, and if there is no
response from the operator, independently performs the set of actions. GTS
Server controls external weather station;
records all operator actions, management nodes and system events for further
analysis; and stores data.
2) GTS
client is used for: monitoring the
situation on the plant (Industrial Zone Workspace); displaying detailed
information about each object beyond the plant (Map Workspace); displaying
execution plan and providing the opportunity to control the process of the
emergency response plan in case of an accident (Emergency Response Actions
Workspace); allows to configure of the
GTS System.
3) Industrial zone which includes:
RS-485 network for data exchange between the GTS server and Management Nodes; Management
Node is the autonomous system with its own set of plug-executive mechanisms,
with ability to make its own independent decisions and resolve problems based
on the data received from other Sensors and other Management Nodes. Executive
Mechanisms represent any external system that needs to be managed. This may be
an emergency removal of gas, electric locks on the doors, alarm systems etc.
Technical details
Server side: OS Windows 2008 server, GTS server
service, Firebird database, PSTN device, RS-485 card
Client side: OS Windows 7, GTS Client software
Network side: TCP/IP network, Fieldbus network
based on RS-485
Development platforms: RAD
Studio2010, Microchip MPLAB IDE
Embedded platform: Microchip PIC Microcontrollers
Languages: C/C++, Assembler, SQL
Having implemented this embedded solution for the plant, we can assert that the GTS complex significantly increased the level of
safety and environmental considerations. With this decision remote monitoring
of situation on the plant became possible, that helps to prevent the potential
danger. In future, basing on the existing scheme, the Central System for
Monitoring and Management of hazardous industries may be implemented all around
the country on different factories & industries.
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