Object oriented development a logical approach to control system software design

Abstract

Automation is currently being used to an ever increasing degree in industrial plants. However most of these applications require only a few basic control concepts repeated for each piece of equipment. There is often a fair amount of interaction between pieces of equipment in terms of safety interlocking and sequencing. Despite this each piece of software remains an autonomous entity receiving the necessary external data it requires. The principles of OBJECT ORIENTED DESIGN are suited to the development of this type of software. This dissertation will demonstrate that object oriented development has distinct benefits over more classical design techniques. Generalized software for controlling a minerals processing plant will be conceptually designed, using techniques implemented in C++ to demonstrate the basic hypothesis. This will attempt to encompass all the available design techniques of object oriented design into an area that has traditionally developed its own software development paradigm.