Mechanical Systems

Technological innovations are reshaping the industrial landscape. These innovations include cheap sensors, a high-speed telecom infrastructure that can move huge amounts of data, unprecedented computation power, mobile and touch interfaces, and a standards-based open ecosystem for interoperability. This ecosystem includes web-based technologies, APIs for connectivity, machine learning, and Industrial AI.
 
Industrial organizations are also dealing with high rates of retirement of aging workers who have deep knowledge and expertise. These individuals are being replaced by younger workers who lack the same knowledge but are digital natives with skills and experience with mobile devices and web-based technologies.

A SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system is a computer-based system that gathers and analyzes real-time data to monitor and control equipment, particularly in industrial processes and critical infrastructure. 

This product developed under Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Currently using native 64-bit managed latest VB.NET & MS SQL) for Desktop Windows or internet web browser environment. It lets you rapidly build full-featured Human Machine Interface (HMI) or SCADA systems for any applications to PLCs, IEDs, DCS, Flow Computers, Chromatographs, and/or any system where data needs to be reported in a tabular/graphical format, or a GUI to database system. This development rivals proprietary non-Microsoft 3rd party products like Intouch/Archestra/Citect/Clearscada/Telvent/Oasis/Indusoft from Schnieder, iFix/Proficy/Cimplicity from GE-IP, PlantPax/Factorytalkview/RSView32/Panelview from Rockwell-AB, WinCC from Siemens, GenesisÔ from Iconics, Ignition from Inductive Automation etc. and provides the configurability, scalability, and maintainability so that individuals with minimum exposure to VB can quickly master and build HMI applications.

These screens may simply passively display information, or they may be interactive, allowing an operator to select an object and make a change which will be then be relayed to the actual process. This interface where a person interacts with a display, and consequently the process, is called a Human-Machine Interface, or HMI.

As you can imagine, or may have experienced, the design of theses interfaces can be confusing and difficult, or clear and straightforward. In a situation where the interface is controlling a massive process such as a power generation plant, oil refinery or pulp mill, it is crucial that the HMI be as understandable and straightforward as possible. Mistakes and misunderstandings caused by poorly designed HMIs have been at least partially implicated in some very serious industrial accidents.

While both are used in industrial automation, PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) are primarily hardware devices that control specific processes locally, while SCADA is a software-based system that provides supervisory control and data acquisition for a larger system.