CONTROL ARCHITECTURE

Description of control architectures and its purpose

Control system architecture depicts the architecture of the plant control systems and the
interface among the systems required for overall operation of process plant.

The required Control System is determined by the level of functionality, complexity and safety of a
plant. This may comprise of process control system, safety instrumented system, HIPPS (High
Integrity Pressure Protection System), fire and gas system, package unit control system.

Illustration of robot mapping methods

Robot mapping is concerned with developing techniques that enable a mobile robot to construct
and maintain a model of its environment based on spatial information gathered over time.
Typically, the spatial information stems from directly perceiving the environment through external
sensors. In addition, internal sensors like odometry provide information about change of location
within the environment. There are, however, many more ways of acquiring spatial information,
including external representations such as floor plans, sketches, or written descriptions, as well as
direct communication with other robots or with humans.

"Robotic Mapping and Exploration" is an important contribution in the area of simultaneous

localization and mapping (SLAM) for autonomous robots, which has been receiving a great deal
of attention by the research community in the latest few years. The contents are focused on the
autonomous mapping learning problem. Solutions include uncertainty-driven exploration, active
loop closing, coordination of multiple robots, learning and incorporating background knowledge,
and dealing with dynamic environments. Results are accompanied by a rich set of experiments,
revealing a promising outlook toward the application to a wide range of mobile robots and field
settings, such as search and rescue, transportation tasks, or automated vacuum cleaning.

Simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM for short, is the process of creating a map
using a robot or unmanned vehicle that navigates that environment while using the map it
generates. SLAM is technique behind robot mapping or robotic cartography. The robot or vehicle
plots a course in an area, but at the same time, it also has to figure out where its own self is
located in the place. The process of SLAM uses a complex array of computations, algorithms and
sensory inputs to navigate around a previously unknown environment or to revise a map of a
previously known environment. SLAM enables the remote creation of GIS data in situations where
the environment is too dangerous or small for humans to map.
The Visual Teach and Repeat (abbreviated “VT&R”) enables long-range autonomous operation of
a mobile robot in outdoor environments, using only a stereo camera. This technology opens the
door for many applications that benefit from repeated traversals over constrained paths, such as
orchards, mines and factory floors. Since the software is vision-only, the software can easily
navigate robots in GPS denied environments, which can be a major pitfall for other outdoor
autonomous navigation systems.

Similar to how you would learn to drive in a new area, this navigation method has two phases:
“teach phase” and “repeat phase”. During the teach phase, the robot is manually driven to build a
map or route network. The VT&R processes captured images by extracting features and
estimating records of a persona and attitude of the robot. In a similar way, learning a new area
requires you to drive all over the area and build a sort of “mental map” of the roads.

In the repeat phase, VT&R uses this constructed map to localize and drive the vehicle
autonomously. In this phase, the robot can start at any point on the previously traversed route
and can go in either direction to the other point on the map. Similarly, once you have a “mental
map” of an area, you can start on any road and understand how to navigate to a new destination.

CONTROL METHOD

Description of Deliberate Control

Deliberation is a very active and critical research field in intelligent robotics. It covers a wide
spectrum of problems and techniques at the intersection of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
Deliberation has to closely interact with sensing and actuating. It does not stop at planning and is
not reducible to a single function. It critically requires the coherent integration of several
deliberation functions. It involves numerous open problems ranging from knowledge
representation, acquisition and verification, to scalable reasoning algorithms and architecture
issues.
Deliberation is necessarily confined within bounded computational resources. A meta reasoning
function can be needed for trading off deliberation time for action time, given current constraints
and objectives at stake. Critical activities require careful deliberation, while less important or more
urgent tasks may not need, or allow for, more than fast approximate solutions, at least for a first
reaction.

Definition of planning
Planning is a core deliberation function for an autonomous robot. It can be viewed as the coupling
of a prediction problem and a search problem. The former refers to the capability to predict the
effects of an action in some context. The latter searches through all possibilities in order to choose
feasible actions and to organize them into a plan, which is foreseen, at planning time, to be
feasible and to achieve a desired goal or optimize a performance criterion. 9 Predictive models
specific to a particular type of action can be quite precise. For example, physics models with good
parameter identification and state observation systems can predict precisely the effects of an
action. Conversely, abstract models of the form “precondition–effect” are general enough to
represent a variety of tasks but quite shallow in their predictive capabilities. Usually, abstract
models are easily specified and developed, while specific models demand significant engineering
efforts. This is the issue of domain-specific versus domain-independent planning, for which there
is no final tradeoff. 1 The realistic option is to integrate both: domain-specific planning for the
essential actions of a robot, i.e., mobility and manipulation, and domain-independent task
planning to handle adaptation to a variety of tasks at a more abstract level. A few approaches,
surveyed next, have been proposed to make this integration.

Planning synthesizes a trajectory in an abstract action space predicted to achieve (part of) the
mission. Acting further refines each abstract action into one or several steps, called skills. Skills are
plans with possibly concurrent steps whose primitives are commands. Planning requires
descriptive models giving the requirements and possible effects of actions (know-what). Acting
requires operational models: how to refine actions, which skill to choose and when, how to react to
events (know-how).

A balanced decomposition should supply predictive capabilities to planning as well as to

acting. Both may perform look-ahead operations, with various planning techniques. It is important
to keep in mind that planning and acting may work in distinct state spaces and action spaces.
However, they may both use the same representation and possibly a unified model.

Description of Reactive Control

Reactive architectures are composed of input/output automata implementing loops from sensors
to effectors. These automata can be organized hierarchically and can inhibit or weight each other.
Initial instances of reactive architectures, e.g., the subsumption architecture were mostly at the
platform level without much concern for deliberation. More recent extensions have added
deliberation functions

Description of action selection

Action Selection describes the task of choosing “what to do next”. More formally, given an agent
with a repertoire of available actions, some knowledge of its internal state, and some sensory
information concerning environmental context, the task is to decide what action (or action
sequence) to perform in order for that agent to best achieve its goals.

Action selection (AS) is defined as the process where an action is selected among a number of
alternatives.

Description of subsumption architecture

Subsumption architecture is a methodology for developing artificial intelligence that is heavily

associated with behavior-based robotics. This architecture is a way of decomposing complicated
intelligent behavior into many "simple" behavior modules, which are in turn organized into layers.
Each layer implements a particular goal of the software agent (i.e. system as a whole), and higher
layers are increasingly more abstract. Each layer's goal subsumes that of the underlying layers,
e.g. the decision to move forward by the eat-food layer takes into account the decision of the
lowest obstacle-avoidance layer. Behavior need not be planned by a superior layer, rather
behaviors may be triggered by sensory inputs and so are only active under circumstances where
they might be appropriate.

Subsumption architecture is a control architecture that was proposed in opposition to traditional

AI, or GOFAI (Good Old Fashion Artificial Intelligence). Instead of guiding behavior by
symbolic mental representations of the world, subsumption architecture couples’ sensory
information to action selection in an intimate and bottom-up fashion.

Subsumption architectures are a relatively new and simple approach to the control of robot
systems. The technique has been applied to the control of experimental mobile robots. Some of
the potential benefits of subsumption control over classical robot control techniques may prove
useful in the context of industrial robotics. With subsumption control the robot is not controlled by
a powerful reasoning system, but rather by a set of simple processes. Each of these processes is
designed to provide the robot with a simple competence, for example, the ability to move away
from an obstacle, to move around an area in a random fashion, or to explore the robot's
environment. The processes compete for control of the robot at any given time, according to a
varying priority scheme which is mediated, inter alia, by external sensor input. The subsumption
approach to robot control represents an interesting alternative to classical artificial intelligence
techniques, but remains unproven at this time
Description of Centralized control

Centralized Control. In a centralized control model, one component is designated as the controller
and is responsible for managing the execution of other components. A process is a component or
module that can execute in parallel with other processes.

In centralized control, the robots communicate with a central computer. The central computer
distributes assignments, goals, etc., to the remote robots. The robots are essentially semi-
autonomous, with the centralized computer playing the role of a teleoperator in a teleoperated
system. In distributed control, each robot makes its own decisions and acts independently. Of
course, there is a range of regimes between fully centralized and fully distributed; the robots can
interact with a central controller to receive new goals, then operate for the duration of the mission
in a distributed manner.

Description of Distributed Control

A Distributed Control System (DCS) is a computerized control system for a process or plant usually
with many control loops, in which autonomous controllers are distributed throughout the system,
but there is no central operator supervisory control. This is in contrast to systems that use
centralized controllers; either discrete controllers located at a central control room or within a
central computer. The DCS concept increases reliability and reduces installation costs by
localizing control functions near the process plant, with remote monitoring and supervision.

Distributed control systems first emerged in large, high value, safety critical process industries,
and were attractive because the DCS manufacturer would supply both the local control level and
central supervisory equipment as an integrated package, thus reducing design integration risk.
Today the functionality of SCADA (Supervisory control and data acquisition) and DCS systems are
very similar, but DCS tends to be used on large continuous process plants where high reliability
and security is important, and the control room is not geographically remote.

The key attribute of a DCS is its reliability due to the distribution of the control processing around
nodes in the system. This mitigates a single processor failure. If a processor fails, it will only affect
one section of the plant process, as opposed to a failure of a central computer which would affect
the whole process. This distribution of computing power local to the field Input/Output (I/O)
connection racks also ensures fast controller processing times by removing possible network and
central processing delays.

Description of Control Hierarchies

A hierarchical control system (HCS) is a form of control system in which a set of devices and
governing software is arranged in a hierarchical tree. When the links in the tree are implemented
by a computer network, then that hierarchical control system is also a form of networked control
system.

What is Arduino?

Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and

software. Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a
Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing
something online. You can tell your board what to do by sending a set of instructions to the
microcontroller on the board. To do so you use the Arduino programming language (based
on Wiring), and the Arduino Software (IDE), based on Processing.

Over the years Arduino has been the brain of thousands of projects, from everyday objects to
complex scientific instruments. A worldwide community of makers - students, hobbyists, artists,
programmers, and professionals - has gathered around this open-source platform, their
contributions have added up to an incredible amount of accessible knowledge that can be of
great help to novices and experts alike.

Arduino was born at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute as an easy tool for fast prototyping,
aimed at students without a background in electronics and programming. As soon as it reached a
wider community, the Arduino board started changing to adapt to new needs and challenges,
differentiating its offer from simple 8-bit boards to products for IoT applications, wearable, 3D
printing, and embedded environments. All Arduino boards are completely open-source,
empowering users to build them independently and eventually adapt them to their particular
needs. The software, too, is open-source, and it is growing through the contributions of users
worldwide.

Why Arduino?

Thanks to its simple and accessible user experience, Arduino has been used in thousands of
different projects and applications. The Arduino software is easy-to-use for beginners, yet flexible
enough for advanced users. It runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Teachers and students use it to
build low cost scientific instruments, to prove chemistry and physics principles, or to get started
with programming and robotics. Designers and architects build interactive prototypes, musicians
and artists use it for installations and to experiment with new musical instruments. Makers, of
course, use it to build many of the projects exhibited at the Maker Faire, for example. Arduino is a
key tool to learn new things. Anyone - children, hobbyists, artists, programmers - can start
tinkering just following the step by step instructions of a kit, or sharing ideas online with other
members of the Arduino community.

There are many other microcontrollers and microcontroller platforms available for physical
computing. Parallax Basic Stamp, Netmedia's BX-24, Phidgets, MIT's Handyboard, and many others
offer similar functionality. All of these tools take the messy details of microcontroller programming
and wrap it up in an easy-to-use package. Arduino also simplifies the process of working with
microcontrollers, but it offers some advantage for teachers, students, and interested amateurs
over other systems:

● Inexpensive - Arduino boards are relatively inexpensive compared to other microcontroller

platforms. The least expensive version of the Arduino module can be assembled by hand,
and even the pre-assembled Arduino modules cost less than $50
● Cross-platform - The Arduino Software (IDE) runs on Windows, Macintosh OSX, and Linux
operating systems. Most microcontroller systems are limited to Windows.
● Simple, clear programming environment - The Arduino Software (IDE) is easy-to-use for
beginners, yet flexible enough for advanced users to take advantage of as well. For
teachers, it's conveniently based on the Processing programming environment, so students
learning to program in that environment will be familiar with how the Arduino IDE works.
● Open source and extensible software - The Arduino software is published as open-source
tools, available for extension by experienced programmers. The language can be
expanded through C++ libraries, and people wanting to understand the technical details
can make the leap from Arduino to the AVR C programming language on which it's based.
Similarly, you can add AVR-C code directly into your Arduino programs if you want to.
● Open source and extensible hardware - The plans of the Arduino boards are published
under a Creative Commons license, so experienced circuit designers can make their own
version of the module, extending it and improving it. Even relatively inexperienced users can
build the breadboard version of the module in order to understand how it works and save
money.

Microcontrollers
A microcontroller is basically a computer which is placed on a single integrated circuit chip. It
consists of memory, a processor, as well as input-output interfaces. Microcontrollers are
programmed to run a certain task, which means, if there is a need to change or enhance its
functionality, one must install a new program on the chip. Features that differentiate
microcontrollers from other computers (PC, laptop, server, etc.)

Embedded control systems

An embedded system is a microprocessor-based computer hardware system with software that

is designed to perform a dedicated function, either as an independent system or as a part of a
large system. At the core is an integrated circuit designed to carry out computation for real-time
operations.

Embedded systems are managed by microcontrollers or digital signal processors (DSP),

application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), GPU
technology, and gate arrays. These processing systems are integrated with components
dedicated to handling electric and/or mechanical interfacing.

serial peripheral interface

Serial peripheral interface (SPI) is one of the most widely used interfaces between
microcontroller and peripheral ICs such as sensors, ADCs, DACs, shift registers, SRAM, and
others. This article provides a brief description of the SPI interface followed by an introduction
to Analog Devices’ SPI enabled switches and mixes, and how they help reduce the number of
digital GPIOs in system board design.

SPI is a synchronous, full duplex master-slave-based interface. The data from the master or
the slave is synchronized on the rising or falling clock edge. Both master and slave can
transmit data at the same time. The SPI interface can be either 3-wire or 4-wire. This article
focuses on the popular 4-wire SPI interface.

Computer communications describes a process in which two or more computers or devices

transfer data, instructions, and information. Figure 8-1 shows a sample communications
system. Some communications involve cables and wires; others are sent wirelessly through
the air. As illustrated in this figure, communications systems contain all types of computers
and computing devices. For successful communications, you need the following:

A sending device that initiates an instruction to transmit data, instructions, or information.

A communications device that connects the sending device to a communications channel.

A communications channel, or transmission media on which the data, instructions, or
information travel.

A communications device that connects the communications channel to a receiving device.

A receiving device that accepts the transmission of data, instructions, or information.

Code integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice where developers integrate code into
a shared repository frequently, preferably several times a day. Each integration can then be
verified by an automated build and automated tests. While automated testing is not strictly
part of CI it is typically implied.

Boolean algebra

Boolean algebra is a division of mathematics that deals with operations on logical values
and incorporates binary variables. Boolean algebra traces its origins to an 1854 book by
mathematician George Boole.

TTL

Digital logic gates can have more than one input, for example, inputs A, B, C, D etc., but
generally only have one digital output, (Q). Individual logic gates can be connected or
cascaded together to form a logic gate function with any desired number of inputs, or to form
combinational and sequential type circuits, or to produce differnt logic gate functions from
standard gates.

Standard commercially available digital logic gates are available in two basic families or
forms, TTL which stands for Transistor-Transistor Logic such as the 7400 series,
and CMOS which stands for Complementary Metal-Oxide-Silicon which is the 4000 series of
chips. This notation of TTL or CMOS refers to the logic technology used to manufacture the
integrated circuit, (IC) or a “chip” as it is more commonly called.

Generally speaking, TTL logic IC’s use NPN and PNP type Bipolar Junction Transistors
while CMOS logic IC’s use complementary MOSFET or JFET type Field Effect Transistors for both
their input and output circuitry.

As well as TTL and CMOS technology, simple digital logic gates can also be made by
connecting together diodes, transistors and resistors to produce RTL, Resistor-Transistor logic
gates, DTL, Diode-Transistor logic gates or ECL, Emitter-Coupled logic gates but these are less
common now compared to the popular CMOS family.
Integrated Circuits or IC’s as they are more commonly called, can be grouped together into
families according to the number of transistors or “gates” that they contain. For example, a
simple AND gate my contain only a few individual transistors, were as a more complex
microprocessor may contain many thousands of individual transistor gates. Integrated
circuits are categorised according to the number of logic gates or the complexity of the
circuits within a single chip with the general classification for the number of individual gates
given as.

RAM (pronounced ram) is an acronym for random access memory, a type

of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be
accessed without touching the preceding bytes. RAM is found in servers, PCs, tablets,
smartphones and other devices, such as printers

ROM

Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of storage medium that permanently stores data on
personal computers (PCs) and other electronic devices. It contains the programming needed
to start a PC, which is essential for boot-up; it performs major input/output tasks and holds
programs or software instructions.

Because ROM is read-only, it cannot be changed; it is permanent and non-volatile, meaning it

also holds its memory even when power is removed. By contrast, random access memory
(RAM) is volatile; it is lost when power is removed

PROM

Read Only Memory ROM is a memory device, which stores the binary information
permanently. That means, we can’t change that stored information by any means later. If the
ROM has programmable feature, then it is called as Programmable ROM, PROM. The user has
the flexibility to program the binary information electrically once by using PROM programmer.

PROM is a programmable logic device that has fixed AND array & Programmable OR array.

EPROM

EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory) is programmable read-only memory

(programmable ROM) that can be erased and re-used. Erasure is caused by shining an
intense ultraviolet light through a window that is designed into the memory chip.

A microprocessor is an electronic component that is used by a computer to do its work. It is a

central processing unit on a single integrated circuit chip containing millions of very small
components including transistors, resistors, and diodes that work together.
The input-output (I/O) devices or peripherals provide the necessary data communications
link between the microprocessor and its environment. Typically, information is accepted from
the input devices, it is processed and the results of the data processing are then sent to one
or more output devices.

APF

Artificial Potential Field (APF) is a nature inspired technique. The basic idea of APF is to fill the
robot environment with the artificial potential field in which obstacles are repelled using
repulsive force and robot is attracted toward the goal using attractive force. The potential
field depends on two forces, that is, attractive and repulsive force. The goal produces the
attractive force towards robot and obstacles produce repulsive force, which is inversely
proportional to the distance from robot to the obstacles and directing toward obstacles. In
APF field, robot travels from high potential to low potential.

Dijkstra

The graph searching method is considered as the simplest method for finding a path for
robot. It is considered as a well-defined, effective, and efficient method with less time and
computational complexity in identifying a nonobstructive path. Environment is constructed for
robot and the path is connected by line through robot easily reaches to target. The process
continues until a better and optimal solution is achieved from one node to another. When the
robot reaches the desired target, the robot is allowed to proceed to new location. Dijkstra
algorithm is considered as graph searching method that solves the optimal path problem
with non-negative edge path costs producing shortest path. It is used to find path cost from
single point to single destination. This algorithm has great importance in traffic information
system where tracking of source and destination can be done via tracking the source and
destination.

A star

A* is a search algorithm that can also be used to find path-finding. The algorithm
continuously searches for unexplored location in graph. All the locations are searched in
graph when the target location is reached, the algorithm stops. And if target is not achieved
then it sets all the neighbors for exploration to search for the shortest path.

LIDAR

In local navigation techniques, sensors are usually employed to control the orientation and
position of robot. For such use, LIDAR sensor is frequently used for automation purpose. LIDAR
works independently as compared to GPS system; therefore, it has the capability of mapping
the environment. LIDAR can be used independently but when coupled with other sensors like
GPS, Inertial navigation system, and camera, it gives improved results.
Input and Output devices

I/O devices are the pieces of hardware used by a human (or other system) to communicate
with a computer. For instance, a keyboard or computer mouse is an input device for a
computer, while monitors and printers are output devices.