On Friday, 5 May 2017 13:55:03 BST James Blake wrote:
> When I've seen similar things done in industrial control networks you
> typically create a software sandbox similar to that described in order to
> define the programmable logic controller commands.
I have experience of using similar systems (as a systems engineer rather than
as a software engineer). The biggest problem that we encountered was
simulating the real world parameters in a realistic way.
For example. Our river system is likely to have a maximum head of water in
the 5 water butts totalling about 1000 litres at a height of around 1-2 metres
above the sump. As the water drops in the river system, then we want to turn
on this supply at the right rate to top-up the river without overdoing it. In
order to simulate that, we need to know how long it will take until the sump
is full when we shift (say) 100 litres of water from the butts. That will
depend on the size of the pipes, the smoothness of the internal bores, the
slope, the depth of water in the butts, the pump capacity and the kinks in
the pipework. We can estimate this, but in the end it will only make sense in
our model when we have some real figures to plug in.
Simulation is an excellent tool for developing control systems but in the real
world you need an injection of reality (literally) to actually do more than
reinforce your preconceptions.
Generally, engineers developing control systems have previous system
parameters to use as a starter for 10. None of us on this team are control
engineers, hydro engineers, environmental engineers or have any experience of
river systems other than falling into them when small. What we have is me (a
retired systems engineer), a retired engineering manager with a background in
electronics and an IT student. We are going to take this slowly.
--
Terry Coles
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