Wireless Sensor And Actuator Nodes For A Process Control Experiment

Abstract: This report details the work which has been done to redesign an older process control lab setup, in order for it to become fully modular and wirelessly controllable.The process control lab setup of interest was the quadruple water tank process. Asa proof of concept, a single prototype tank module of the quadruple tank setup wasto be redesigned, where this new design would use entirely modular and wirelesslycontrollable sensors and actuators. The design of these wireless devices was donefrom scratch, the end result was that a set of micro-controller based devices whichcommunicate over Xbee radios were manufactured. Control of this wireless tanksystem was achieved through a custom Simulink interface, said interface was alsocreated during this project. The finalized tank prototype system worked as intendedand it fulfilled all of the relevant system requirements regarding the sensor and actuator network design. There was originally a mechanical design component in thisproject which had to be left after the initial research stages due to time constraints,which concerned the construction of a new tank system. This prototype system wasa proof of concept, which proved the feasibility of building larger scale wirelesslycontrollable process control systems, such as the quadruple water tank process.