Modelling, Synthesis, and Simulation of Supervisory Process Control Systems

Modelling, synthesis, and simulation issues of the supervisory systems in process control are investigated in the paper. Petri nets are used as a basic modelling framework for the supervisory part of the system. It is shown how the final verification effort can be minimised by applying formal synthesis methods. A straightforward approach to the industrial implementation of the developed solutions is suggested by means of sequential function chart representation. A batch process cell case study is used to illustrate the described concepts. Corresponding continuous and discrete event models of the process cell units are developed and a co-ordinating supervisor is designed by the method of place invariants. The system is simulated by the continuous simulation tool Matlab-Simulink, which is enhanced for simulation of the sequential control logic represented by sequential function chart.