Enabling Large IoT Platforms in Industrial Process Automation

Abstract: Internet of Things is envisioned to be a cornerstone in the connected, comfortable, efficient, and productive society of tomorrow. Part of this vision is the Industrial Internet of Things where connected devices all over industrial installations, in addition to performing the duties of the automation systems of today, provide countless opportunities for improvements thanks to dynamic access to systems and information previously obscured. Looking at the history of industrial process control systems it is clear that the development of industrial systems have followed a very different path than that of consumer electronics. Among the foreseen challenges facing the European process industries in the near future are adopting to increased expectations of information availability and upgrading many of the old installations that use control systems that are facing the end of their operational life time. One of the large challenges for enabling Internet of Things in the process industries is how to preserve and improve on that which the traditional Distributed Control Systems provide while changing much or the core infrastructure and architectures from the current hierarchical structure into a flat Service Oriented Architecture. The situation is comparable to financial and other enterprise IT-systems which previously used more specialized hardware but is now comprised of specialized software running mostly on generic client and server hardware. This similarity suggests that there should be experiences from the migration of IT-systems to use as a starting point for the migration of industrial systems towards more open and dynamic solutions. This thesis presents a strategy for migrating large Distributed Control Systems, common at process industrial plants, to a Service Oriented Architecture. The strategy is comprised of four main steps wherein different parts of the system are migrated in a way that is intended to keep the plant operating with minimal disturbance and similar or improved performance throughout the migration process. Part of the first step of this strategy is illustrated with a technical demonstration at the LKAB pelletizing plant in northern Sweden. The proposed strategy is a first step towards allowing the process industry to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the technology that is anticipated to influence our society over the coming decades.