Analysis of the Development Prospects and Trends of Industrial Control Automation Equipment in the Future

With the continuous in-depth development of social informatization, critical tasks in key industries will increasingly rely on industrial personal computers (IPCs). Meanwhile, low-cost industrial control automation based on IPCs is becoming the mainstream, and local IPC manufacturers are receiving growing attention. As industries such as electric power, metallurgy, petrochemicals, environmental protection, transportation, and construction develop rapidly—ranging from set-top boxes and digital TVs for digital homes to bank ATMs, highway toll collection systems, gas station management, and manufacturing production line control—the informatization needs of sectors like finance, government, and national defense are constantly increasing. This generates significant demand for IPCs, making the IPC market prospect extremely broad.

An industrial personal computer (IPC), also known as an industrial control computer, is a general term for tools that adopt a bus structure to detect and control production processes, electromechanical equipment, and process equipment. IPCs possess important computer attributes and characteristics: they are equipped with computer components such as CPU, hard disk, memory, peripherals, and interfaces, and are supported by operating systems, control networks and protocols, computing capabilities, and user-friendly human-machine interfaces. Products and technologies in the IPC industry are highly specialized; they belong to intermediate products, providing reliable, embedded, and intelligent industrial computers for various other industries.

Analysis of Development Trends

Development Trends of DCS (Distributed Control System)

Although the Fieldbus-based FCS (Fieldbus Control System) is developing rapidly and will replace the traditional DCS (Distributed Control System), the development of FCS still requires a lot of work, such as the unification of standards and the intelligentization of instruments. In addition, the maintenance and transformation of traditional control systems still rely on DCS. Therefore, it will take a relatively long process for FCS to completely replace the traditional DCS.

Currently, industrial personal computers (IPCs) still mainly target large-scale systems, distributed objects, and continuous production processes (e.g., metallurgy, petrochemicals, electric power). The distributed control systems (DCS) adopting a distributed system structure are still under development. Driven by the development of open architectures and integration technologies, the sales volume of large-scale distributed control systems has been promoted to increase.

(1) Development towards Integration

With the advancement of standardized data communication lines and communication networks, various industrial control devices—such as single (multi)-loop regulators, PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), industrial computers, and NC (Numerical Control) systems—are being integrated into large-scale systems. This not only meets the requirements of factory automation but also adapts to the broader trend of openness.

(2) Development towards Intelligence

Driven by the development of database systems, reasoning capabilities, and particularly the application of Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS) and Expert Systems (ES) (e.g., self-learning control, remote diagnosis, and self-optimization), artificial intelligence will be implemented at all levels of DCS. Similar to FF (Foundation Fieldbus) technology, microprocessor-based intelligent devices have emerged one after another, including intelligent I/O (Input/Output) modules, intelligent PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) controllers, intelligent sensors, transmitters, actuators, intelligent human-machine interfaces, and programmable regulators.

(3) Industrial PC Integration

As the integration of PCs into DCS has become a major trend, PCs are now widely used as operator stations or node computers in DCS. Devices such as PC-PLC, PC-S (PC-SCADA), and PC-NC (PC-Numerical Control) are pioneers of PC-DCS integration.

(4) Specialization

To better suit applications in respective fields, DCS needs to further align with the process characteristics and application requirements of specific industries. This will gradually lead to the development of industry-specific DCS solutions, such as nuclear power plant DCS, substation DCS, glass industry DCS, and cement industry DCS.