Project POSCCE-A2-O2.2.1-2013-1- Operation 2.2.1. Development of existing R&D infrastructure and creating new R&D infrastructures
Contract No: 671/09.04.2015
Project: „Integrated Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Advanced Materials, Nanotechnologies, and Distributed Systems for Fabrication and Control” (MANSiD)
Project director: Prof. dr. Adrian GRAUR

Platform for developing distributed applications for monitoring and controlling industrial processes - PDADMCPI

The decentralization of intelligence helps the creation of interconnected smart objects and independent process management as well as the interaction between the virtual and real world and is a crucial new aspect regarding manufacturing and production processes.
Cyber-physical systems represent the next revolutionary step based on existing embedded systems. With the Internet as well as services and data available online, embedded systems join to form cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS provide the basis for creating the Internet of Things, which, along with the Internet of Services, will make Industry 4.0 possible. These systems represent activated technologies which transform multiple applications and innovative technologies into a reality and the boundaries between the virtual and the real world will disappear. As a result, these systems promise to revolutionize our interaction with the physical world just as the Internet has transformed communication and personal interaction.
On the other hand, according to the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, network connectivity is extended to very simple electronic devices to the point where anything can connect to the Internet. Fieldbuses, embedded systems and distributed systems ensure an enhanced support for the implementation of such vision.
Things can be labeled and, by use of scanners, identified, obtaining important information about their position. Similarly, networks for objects with sensors are becoming smaller, integrating into our daily lives, while networks of sensors and transducers act in local environments transmitting states and events to higher level services. Intelligent objects perceive this activity and its state, transmitting this information to the IoT. Distributed systems (middleware-based) validate the development of applications and services that, most often by "living in a cloud" and using data received from things (objects), provide intelligence that determines better services with an impact on the environment. This can be an IoT ecosystem.
IoT applications also offer solutions for improving industrial processes, validating new and efficient ways to operate on production lines, creating new services or means of supervision of industrial plants, provide an optimized structure, reduce operational costs and improve safety in industrial areas. Added value and sustainability are two major issues that will determine the pace at which IoT will be used widely in industry in the coming years.
The European Union, by the working group Cluster of European Research Projects on the Internet of Things (CERP-IoT), has identified a number of areas of application. CERP-IoT sees the applying of the IoT concepts in society, industry and environment related fields. In line with their vision it is important to note that IoT applications and services are intra- and inter- domains – an IoT solution directly improves the industry, but, as a consequence, also has a social impact. Among other interesting applications identified by CERP-IoT are environmental monitoring, smart environments (intelligent energy measurement), retail, logistics and supply management and health.
Advances in nanotechnology have occurred in parallel with the development of Internet technologies and sensors. The emergence of nano devices should not be limited only to peer to peer communications. Nanosensors embedded in objects and devices surrounding users have added a new dimension to IoT: Internet of Nano Things (IoNT). These miniature sensors interconnected by nano networks can gather precise data from objects and areas with difficult access. 
On topic, usually in the process control industry, the typical informational architecture is hierarchically organized. A simplified model contains the following levels: management of processes and business; process control; field devices management. These levels are not clearly delimited and  vertical communication to the process components level is always necessary. This communication requires solving the following requirements: to provide an adequate level of reliability; comply with the time limits for delays; to support a varied range of communication infrastructure; to use manufacturer specific standards to access process data; the communication architecture to use open solutions (independent of manufacturers) for further development; to provide a uniform model for the data.
The equipment proposed to be purchased for the PDADMCPI lab falls in intervention areas defined in the National Innovation Strategy North-East by improving the research & development & innovation capability of the “Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava. This lab will allow the development of research in strategic scientific and technological areas, priority domain of intervention defined under this strategy. This laboratory will enable the development of technologies to increase automation of enterprises in the region, moving towards new visions such as Internet of Things.
This lab provides a framework for researching, designing and developing applications for monitoring and controlling industrial processes. The platform is organized into the following hierarchical levels:

• Fieldbuses for data acquisition from sensors and transducers in industrial processes and transmitting commands to actuators, networking and controlling field devices.
• Real time (application-specific) embedded systems, systems on chip (SoC) and PLC (programmable logic controllers).
• Gateways for data acquisition from fieldbuses on PC.
• Distributed Systems for vertical data integration (intranet, Internet and extranet).

PDADMCPI It contains hardware equipment and software support for research and development:

• Developing new protocols for fieldbuses.
• Developing efficient and secure applications using the ModBus, CanOpen, EtherCat, Profibus, Profinet, LonWork, Foundation Fieldbus, AS-I, Knx, BacNet, ZigBee communication protocols.
• Developing powerful real-time embedded systems using single and multicore ARM microcontrollers.
• Development of CPS (cyber-physical systems).
• Developing real time operating systems for single and multicore microcontrollers.
• FPGA-based Systems on chip (SoC).
• Implementing processors with hardware real-time operating systems using FPGA.
• Interconnection of PLCs in high-performance distributed systems.
• The development of smart gateways for protocols listed in b) allowing real time data acquisition based on an acquisition cycle and networked device description files.
• Implementing distributed systems based on OPC.NET4.0, OPC UA and ACE.
• Integration in IoT, IoNT

Universitatea "Stefan cel Mare" din Suceava
Str. Universitatii 13, 720229 Suceava, Romania
Tel: +40 230 216 147
Fax: +40 0230 520 080
Email: rectorat@usv.ro