Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisor

Pearce, Joshua M.

Abstract

Industrial pilot projects and the automation of experiments often rely on expensive and proprietary electronic hardware, known as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, to control and monitor areas of their processes. The Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) framework was created to address the need for inexpensive SCADA systems. New BREAD Slices were designed and compared to commercial heating, motor, pump, and pH controllers, exceeding all in functionality and cost. In each case, the decreased accuracy of the BREAD controller had little impact on the final products but greatly reduced the cost of the system. The modularity of BREAD was also desirable in situations where control zones were constantly changing, like the heating zones of a pyrolysis reactor. After improving the design to better meet the needs of a SCADA system, BREADv2 was integrated into an enclosure demonstrating its potential as a backbone for pH controllers.

Summary for Lay Audience

When automating experiments or processes, researchers and technicians will choose products like the National Instruments CompactRIO or Opto 22 groov EPIC systems. These devices can be configured to meet a variety of requirements like controlling heating zones, monitoring pH, and actuating pumps. Unfortunately, these devices are also proprietary and incompatible with other systems. By limiting the choices of researchers, companies can then charge a premium to use their equipment which makes these devices inaccessible in low-resource settings. The Broadly Reconfigurable and Expandable Automation Device (BREAD) framework was created to address the need for inexpensive devices for researchers used in conducting experiments. This work improves upon the BREAD framework by designing devices within it to meet new needs like heating control and pH control. These new devices are compared to commercial equivalents in cost and functionality. In each comparison, the BREAD system was both cheaper and provided more functionality than the commercial equivalents without sacrificing performance. Furthermore, because BREAD is an open-source project, its performance and scope will only grow as users improve the design and add additional functionality.

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