Standards-based integration of advanced process control and optimization

Integration of process control with optimization is critical to Smart Manufacturing (SM).  Oftentimes, however, the process control solutions from one vendor do not interoperate with the optimization solutions of another. Incompatibilities among the representation and format used by the vendors can impede interoperability. Without this interoperability, it is impossible to achieve the higher level of decision support essential to SM. We believe that an emerging standard, ISO 15746, can facilitate semantic interoperability and enable the integration of process control with optimization. This paper reports the implementation and validation of ISO 15746, Automation systems and integration – Integration of advanced process control and optimization (APCO) capabilities for manufacturing systems.  Guided by the standard, we modeled major components of a typical APCO system using tools from different vendors, implemented the information models defined in the standard, and integrated key system functions such as process optimization, process control, and user interface.  A chemical process case based on the Tennessee-Eastman problem is used to demonstrate the implementation and validation of the standard. We developed a simulation of the chemical process and integrated it with the APCO system. We discuss the standard validation experience and the findings will be used to guide advance development of the standard.