title: An integration architecture for the automation of a continuous production complex.
abstract: The development of integrated automation systems for continuous production plants is a very complicated process. A variety of factors must be taken into account, such as their different components (e.g., production units control systems, planning systems, financial systems, etc.), the interaction among them, and their different behavior (continuous or discrete). Moreover, the difficulty of this process is increased by the fact that each component can be viewed in a different way depending on the kind of decisions to be made, and its specific behavior. Modeling continuous production complexes as a composition of components, where, in turn, each component may also be a composite, appears to be the simplest and safest way to develop integrated automation systems. In order to provide the most versatile way to develop this kind of system, this work proposes a new approach for designing and building them, where process behavior, operation conditions and equipment conditions are integrated into a hierarchical automation architecture.
authors.affiliation: LaSDAI, Departamento de Computación, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela. echacon@ing.ula.ve
authors.forename: Edgar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chacón
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Besembel
authors.forename: Flor
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Narciso
authors.forename: Jonás
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Montilva
authors.forename: Eliezer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Colina
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003657:Decision Making; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018511:Systems Integration