Paper Title (use style: paper title)

International Journal of Modern Embedded System (IJMES) Volume No.-2, Issue No.-5, October, 2014

ISSN: 2320-9003(Online)

Process Control Using Microcontroller Mohammed Mynuddin 1st

Mohammad Alamgir Hossain 2nd

Lecturer department of EEE Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology Dhaka, Bangladesh E-mail: [email protected]

Lecturer department of CSE Islamic University Kushtia, Bangladesh E-mail: [email protected]

Atiqur Rahman Chowdury 3rd Lecturer department of EEE Southern University of Bangladesh Chittagong, Bangladesh E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This paper we designed and constructed a prototype of an industrial process and used a process control technique to control this process. Industrial process control is a very important issue in the age of industrialization. Various process control techniques can be used to improve the product quality and efficiency of the industrial process control. We studied different control techniques such as Microcontroller, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Distributed Control System (DCS), System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Relay Based Control. We used microcontroller as control technique for this process. The total system has three basic parts these are sensor, controller and actuator. All these sections operate in conjunction. The sensor senses different stages of the process and generates required sensing signals which are input to the microcontroller. Then according to the input signal and the program loaded in the microcontroller, the actuating devices are operated. We also used stepper motor and DC motor as actuator, infrared sensor for sensing purpose. To increase the knowledge about automation this paper would be helpful to us. In paper we built only the prototype of the observed process; however the actual process can also be implemented by making some modification. This paper can be developed any time for more flexibility and facilities. Keywords: Microcontroller, Process Control Technique, Sensor, Actuator, Motor

I.

INTRODUCTION

The importance of automation in the process industries has increased dramatically in recent years. In the highly industrialized countries, process automation serves to enhance product quality, masters the whole range of products, improves process safety and plant availability, and efficiently utilizes resources and lower emissions. Industrial Process Control addressed in [1] plays an increasingly important role in enhancing the betterment of daily experience as well as the global economy. At present, for companies the purpose of automatic process control has shifted from growing productivity and reducing costs to broader issues. Process control ensures that the plant assets continuously operate predictably within the most profitable range, leading to a greater output of consistent products, reliability, yield and quality using less energy in [2]. Any modern industry which wants to face the challenges of increasing globalization [1] and competitiveness in the production processes of their business successfully, should take into account the latest advances on process control as because it has become a factor that spread through the more advanced companies and differentiate them from the rest. The main advantages of automatic process control are replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work, replacing humans in tasks that are to be done in dangerous environments (i.e., fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.), making tasks that are beyond human capabilities, such as, handling too heavy loads, too large objects, too hot or too cold substances or the requirement to make things too fast or RES Publication © 2012 http://ijmes.info

too slow, Improvement of Economy: Sometimes and some kinds of automation implies improvements in economy of enterprises, society or most of the humankind. Some disadvantages of automation are technology limits (Current technology is unable to automate all the desired process), unpredictable development costs (The research and development cost of automating a process is difficult to predict accurately beforehand. Since this cost can have a large impact on profitability, it is possible to finish automating a process only to discover that there is no economic advantage in doing so), relatively high initial costs (The automation of a new process requires a huge initial investment in comparison with the unit cost of product, although cost of automation is spread in many product batches). The automation of an industrial process requires a great initial investment too, although this cost is spread in the products to be produced. Different control techniques such as Microcontroller [3]-[12], Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) [13]-[15], Distributed Control System (DCS) [16], System Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) [18]-[19] and Relay Based Control [20] are used to control the automation system. Karnaphuli Paper Mill was visited to learn about a practical industrial process. Where we observed the pulp refining process in detail, which is actually an elaborate process. We implemented partially the actual process of Karnaphuli Paper Mill using microcontroller. The total system has three basic parts which are sensor, controller and actuator. All these sections operate in conjunction. The sensor senses different stages of the process and generates required sensing signals which are input to the microcontroller. Then Page | 26


according to the input signal and program loaded in the microcontroller, the actuating devices are operated. We used infrared sensor for sensing purpose and stepper motor and DC motor as actuator. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Process Control & Microcontroller based control is discussed in section 2 and 3. Section 3 explains process principles with Block operation, Design & Construction, Electrical system block, Electrical system components, and Mechanical structure. And finally, conclusion is drawn in Section 4.

II. PROCESS CONTROL The term „Process Control‟ implies the technique of having precise control on any sequential process. Basically any automatic process technique inputs from a process/machine (e.g., input from a sensor) or from switching command (e.g., input from a push switch or toggle switch) and uses outputs to control that process/machine according to the program (instruction) stored in the controller. The controller are capable of storing instructions, such as, sequencing, timing, counting, arithmetic operation, data manipulation and communication to control industrial machines and processes. Figure below illustrates a conceptual diagram of a process control.


more like a digital signal processor (DSP), with higher clock speeds and power consumption. In a microcontroller based control at first the process flow is observed then a microcontroller program is written which maintain the process. Then the program is loaded in the microcontroller IC.

IV. PROCESS PRINCIPLES In the actual process is shown in fig. 2 where the pulp is generated from raw materials like wood or bamboo pieces. At first this raw materials are placed on a conveyer belt. The conveyer carries the wood pieces, and then they are drenched by water. After drenching the materials, these are put into a crasher. The crasher chops the raw materials into small pieces which are termed as “chips”. These chips are then transferred into another conveyer belt and the second conveyer takes the chips under a water stream. This water stream washes the chips to remove dirt. The washed chips then carried by the second conveyer and stored in a storage tank.

Process or Machine

Field inputs

Field Outputs

Switching Inputs

Programmable Controller Figure 1. Basic process control system.

III. MICROCONTROLLER BASED CONTROL It is a small computer which is integrated on small circuit consisting internally of a relatively simple CPU, clock, timers, I/O ports, and memory. A microcontroller is not also called a microcomputer or MCU or µC. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM. Microcontrollers are designed for small or dedicated applications. Thus, in contrast to the microprocessors used in personal computers and other high-performance or general purpose applications, simplicity is emphasized. Some microcontrollers may use four-bit words and operate at clock rate frequencies as low as 4 kHz, as this is adequate for many typical applications, enabling low power consumption (mill watts or microwatts). They will generally have the ability to retain functionality while waiting for an event such as a button press or other interrupt; power consumption while sleeping (CPU clock and most peripherals off) may be just watts, making many of them well suited for long lasting battery applications. Other microcontrollers may serve performance-critical roles, where they may need to act RES Publication © 2012 http://ijmes.info

Figure 2. Flow chart of designed system

A. Block operation At first a material is placed on the conveyer belt, it interrupts the infrared sensor and generates a signal which is input to the microcontroller IC. After receiving the sensing signal from the IR sensor in [21] microcontroller generates command to start the conveyer belt motor that is a 12 volt stepper motor in [22]. The stepper motor is interfaced with the microcontroller (ULN-2003A) in [23]. Then stepper motor starts the conveyer belt to carry the materials. While moving the materials in forward, interrupts the second sensor and thereby generates another sensing signal which is another input to the microcontroller. By receiving the second sensing signal microcontroller starts the crasher motor that is a 24 volt stepper motor. Then materials move and interrupt third sensor. Interrupting the third sensor stops the stepper motor and the Page | 27


pump motor that is a 12 volt DC motor in this case. Finally the materials reach at the end of the conveyer and the process stops. All these operation is shown in fig. 3.


with ULN2003A in [24]. ULN2003A in [24] is a set of 7 transistor array which interface the microcontroller with the output device i.e. the stepper and DC motors. The microcontroller sends control signal for the motors through ULN2003A according to sensor output and loaded program. Thus the total electrical block operates. Interconnection between the electrical block is shown in fig. 5.

Figure 5. Electrical System Block

D. Electrical system components Figure 3. Block diagram representation of this process.

B. Block operation In order to implement the desired system, at first we design an electrical system block then build the mechanical structure. The entire electrical system contains sensor, actuator and controller as shown in fig.4. The mechanical system comprises of a conveyer belt and some gear mechanisms. We write microcontroller program for the desired process. Then we interconnect the electrical system with the mechanical structure.

The electrical system includes the following components a) Sensor- 4 set of IR sensor is used each consisting of an IR LED and a photodiode b) Stepper motor- 1. One 12 volt stepper motor is used for the conveyer belt, 2. One 24 volt stepper motor is used for the crasher. c) DC motor – One 12 volt DC motor in [24] is used as the pump motor. d) Microcontroller- PIC16F628A in [26] is used as microcontroller IC. e) Resistor, Capacitor and Power supply

Figure 6. Electrical system components

E. Mechanical structure

Figure 4. Basic building blocks

C. Electrical system block In Electrical System Block, the electrical control structure is designed and the interconnection between the sensor, controller and the actuator are shown in fig.5. We use 4 set of infrared sensor in our system. Each set comprises of an infrared LED in [22] and an infrared photodiode. At normal state the infrared light continuously falls on the IR photodiode, and the photodiode is at low impedance state, but when an object is placed in between IR LED and IR photodiode, then the continuation of IR LED is interrupted by object, then diode goes to high impedance state and a high signal is send to the input of the microcontroller. Thus the sensor operates with the microcontroller. Again 5 pin of microcontroller is connected RES Publication © 2012 http://ijmes.info

Mechanical structure includes a conveyer belt and a gear mechanism. The conveyer belt is made of cloth. It actually demonstrates the operation of an actual conveyer. We used a gear mechanism with the conveyer motor. The gear is used to rotate the conveyer at desired speed. We also attached a piece of thin metal plate to demonstrate the crasher blade.

Figure 7. Mechanical system components

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International Journal of Modern Embedded System (IJMES) Volume No.-2, Issue No.-5, October, 2014 [9]

[10]

Figure 8. Complete Prototype [11]

V.

CONCLUSION

The main purpose of this paper is to build up an automation of an industrial process. To complete this process and to run it properly we face lot of difficulties. We make lot of consideration to find out the proper devices from the market. Sometime the electronic devices are not same rating as we expected and also these electronic equipments have very low reliability. We face certain difficulties for making the mechanical structure specially the conveyer. To face the challenge of automation in the industrial field we need vast knowledge. To increase the knowledge about automation this paper would be helpful. In this paper, we build only the prototype (fig. 8) of the observed process; however the actual process can also be implemented by making some modification. This paper can be developed any time for more flexibility and facilities. Automation facilities are still not available in many of industries because of high cost. Although there are some limited industries have automatic control system but problems cannot be handled by local engineers in case of malfunctioning. To overcome this problem our engineers should have good knowledge about the automatic control system.

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AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHIES Mohammed Mynuddin has received his B.Sc degree with Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chittagong-4349, Bangladesh.in 2011.Currently he is a Lecturer dept. of EEE at Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh .He is a member of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) His membership ID is M-32776. His current research interest is in the area of OFDM, Cognitive Radio, Wireless

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Communication, Industrial Automation, Power System Analysis and Electrical Machine, Renewable Energy. Mohammad Alamgir Hossain has received his B.SC degree with honors in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from Islamic University (IU), Kushtia-7003, Bangladesh, in 2009 and his M.SC degree in same department, in 2010.Currently he is a Lecturer dept. of CSE at Islamic University (IU), Kushtia-7003. His current research interest is in the area of OFDM, Cognitive Radio, Wireless Communication and Mobile Communication. Atiqur Rahman Chowdury has received his B.Sc degree with Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) from Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology (CUET), Chittagong-4349, Bangladesh, in 2011.Currently he is a Lecturer dept. of EEE at Southern University of Bangladesh, Chittagong, Bangladesh.


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