The McTronX research group of the North–West University has over some years established a knowledge base in active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems. In 2009, an AMB system that met industrial standards in being robust, reliable and economical was developed by the research group. The digital control of the AMB system was implemented with the use of a dedicated single–board computer and communication hardware that interface with the motor drive electronics, power amplifiers and sensor drive units of the AMB system. A Xilinx® field programmable gate array (FPGA), connected to the single–board computer, was used to control the AMB system. The AMB system was designed to be used in a helium blower application and to form a basis for AMB and digital control research. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is connected to the controller to operate the AMB system. To establish communication between the PLC and the FPGA, the Fieldbus standard PROFIBUS DP was chosen as being a robust industrial standard communication protocol. To reduce the cost of the entire system, the need arose to implement the PROFIBUS DP protocol on the current FPGA of the system. This project involves the research, design, implementation, verification and validation of the PROFIBUS DP protocol on a Xilinx® Virtex©–5 FPGA. The PROFIBUS DP standard was researched, analyzed and developed in VHDL for the specific Xilinx® Virtex©–5 FPGA. The implemented protocol is used to establish a standardized PROFIBUS DP network between the PLC and the FPGA controller. Through simulation the basic protocol was tested and later implemented in the real–time environment. Intensive verification and validation was done to ensure that the developed protocol conforms to the robust PROFIBUS DP standard and simultaneously meet the requirements and specifications of the AMB control system. This dissertation documents the entire PROFIBUS implementation process, from standard analysis through to verification and validation of the developed protocol. In conclusion, the developed protocol is compared against a commercial off–the–shelf PROFIBUS PMC module. It was found that the VHDL–based PROFIBUS DP protocol not only competes well with the commercial PROFIBUS device, but also outperforms the device in various aspects. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Computer and Electronical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The McTronX research group of the North–West University has over some years established a knowledge base in active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems. In 2009, an AMB system that met industrial standards in being robust, reliable and economical was developed by the research group. The digital control of the AMB system was implemented with the use of a dedicated single–board computer and communication hardware that interface with the motor drive electronics, power amplifiers and sensor drive units of the AMB system. A Xilinx® field programmable gate array (FPGA), connected to the single–board computer, was used to control the AMB system. The AMB system was designed to be used in a helium blower application and to form a basis for AMB and digital control research. A programmable logic controller (PLC) is connected to the controller to operate the AMB system. To establish communication between the PLC and the FPGA, the Fieldbus standard PROFIBUS DP was chosen as being a robust industrial standard communication protocol. To reduce the cost of the entire system, the need arose to implement the PROFIBUS DP protocol on the current FPGA of the system. This project involves the research, design, implementation, verification and validation of the PROFIBUS DP protocol on a Xilinx® Virtex©–5 FPGA. The PROFIBUS DP standard was researched, analyzed and developed in VHDL for the specific Xilinx® Virtex©–5 FPGA. The implemented protocol is used to establish a standardized PROFIBUS DP network between the PLC and the FPGA controller. Through simulation the basic protocol was tested and later implemented in the real–time environment. Intensive verification and validation was done to ensure that the developed protocol conforms to the robust PROFIBUS DP standard and simultaneously meet the requirements and specifications of the AMB control system. This dissertation documents the entire PROFIBUS implementation process, from standard analysis through to verification and validation of the developed protocol. In conclusion, the developed protocol is compared against a commercial off–the–shelf PROFIBUS PMC module. It was found that the VHDL–based PROFIBUS DP protocol not only competes well with the commercial PROFIBUS device, but also outperforms the device in various aspects. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Computer and Electronical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / In this paper, we present a methodology for managing diverse sources of T&E metadata. Central to this methodology is the development of a T&E Metadata Reference Model, which serves as the standard model for T&E metadata types, their proper names, and their relationships to each other. We describe how this reference model can be mapped to a range's own T&E data and process models to provide a standardized view into each organization's custom metadata sources and procedures. Finally, we present an architecture that uses these models and mappings to support cross-system metadata management tasks and makes these capabilities accessible across the network through a single portal interface.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / The telemetry industry must take advantage of the constantly increasing capability and decreasing per unit costs of network technology. The most effective way to do this is to adopt the layered reference model approach that is being used throughout the telecommunications industry. With a layered reference model, the interfaces between the layers are defined. As a layer is changed, the new layer must adhere to the same interfaces as the previous one. This approach easily allows new technology insertion in key areas without affecting the rest of the system. The Navy and the Air Force see this approach as a key component of acquisition reform and have established a comprehensive road map to achieve this goal.

A typical steel plant includes iron-making, steel-making and rolling mills from the upstream to the downstream. The rolling mill can be extended and segmented as hot strip mill and cold strip mill in a large scale steel plant. A steel plant contains lots of automation control systems and process information systems to pursuit process efficiency and production optimization. The control systems and information systems are segmented based on physical model in ANSI/ISA-88 standard, and ranged up the enterprise-wide and down to each process. It is impossible to construct only a stand-alone Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to cope with the very complicated Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) environment. An adequate MES should interface information systems in the plant seamlessly, and eliminate the duplicated pattern functions which exist elsewhere. To build up an MES model for a steel plant, it is essential to gather all MES-related structure elements in the information systems as the first step, and conceive additional MES¡¦ structure elements as the second step. The first step makes our approach different from the traditional stand-alone MES system development methodology. In this thesis, the MES is decomposed from the view points of ¡¥Structure View¡¦ and ¡¥Behavior View¡¦ to obtain Structure Elements and Behaviors. The MES can be fully described based on Structure Elements and Behaviors. Our modeling approach defines a ¡¥Steel Plant MES Architecture Description Language¡¦ in the beginning, and fabricates a ¡¥Steel Plant MES Reference Model¡¦ then. ¡¥Steel Plant MES Reference Model¡¦ includes a set of Architecture Hierarchy Diagram, Structure Element Diagram, Structure Element Service Diagram, Structure Element Link Diagram, Structure Behavior Coalescence Diagram, and Sequence Diagram. This reference model has been introduced to set up a companywide integrated MES in a brand new steel plant to validate the model.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 18, 2008). Thesis director: Priscilla Norton. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education. Vita: p. 205-211. Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-204). Also available in print.

Syfte – Studiens syfte är att bidra till kunskap om hur SCOR-modellen kan användas för att identifiera och förbättra en kritisk process i ett orderflöde med avseende att höja pålitligheten i leveranser till kund. För att uppfylla syftet har det brutits ner i tre delmål.Delmål 1: Att kartlägga det nuvarande orderflödets materialflöde och informationsflöde.Delmål 2: Att utvärdera orderflödet med hjälp av SCOR-modellen och identifiera en kritisk process med avseende att höja pålitligheten i leveranser till kund.Delmål 3: Att analysera den kritiska processen utifrån SCOR-modellen och identifiera förbättringspotential med avseende att höja pålitligheten i leveranser till kund.Metod – För att uppfylla studiens syfte genomfördes en fallstudie på Expedit AB. Litteraturstudier utfördes för att skapa ett teoretiskt ramverk. Insamlingen av empirin bestod av intervjuer, dokumentstudier och observationer. För att analysera data användes mönsterpassning samt analysverktygen flödeskartläggning och orsak-verkan-diagram. Vid beräkningar användes SCOR-modellens beräkningsmetoder.Resultat – Genom intervjuer, observationer och flödeskartläggning kunde det första delmålet uppfyllas och illustreras. Utvärderingen resulterade i att inköpsprocessen identifierades som den kritiska processen då 55% av avvikelserna kopplade till pålitlighet i leverans till kund var relaterade till inköpsprocessen. De identifierade problemområdena i den kritiska processen var bristande kommunikation, variationer, bristande standarder, felaktig orderregistrering och externa avvikelser. SCOR-modellens praxis för inköpsprocessen kunde lösa bristande kommunikation, variationer, felaktig orderregistrering samt externa avvikelser. Bristande standarder löstes genom kompletterande teori och därmed kunde syftet uppfyllas.Implikationer – Denna studie har visat hur en kritisk process i ett orderflöde kan identifieras och förbättras med avseende på att höja pålitligheten i leveranser till kund. Studien har bidragit till att stärka nuvarande teori.Begränsningar – Studien innefattar en enfallsstudie men det hade varit önskvärt att använda sig av en flerfallstudie för att höja generaliserbarheten hos studien. De flesta intervjuer bygger mestadels på följdfrågor och detta sänker reliabiliteten hos studien då dessa frågor är beroende av respondentens svar. / Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to develop an understanding on how a crucial process can be identified and how to make it more efficient in order to increase delivery reliability to customer using the SCOR-model. To fulfil the purpose it has been broken down into three parts:Part 1: To map the current order flow with material flow and information flowPart 2: To evaluate the order flow using the SCOR-model and identify a crucial process in order to increase delivery reliability to customerPart 3: To analyze the crucial process using the SCOR-model and identify areas of improvement in order to increase delivery reliability to customerMethod – In order to meet the purpose of thesis, a case study has been conducted on Expedit AB. Literature studies were performed to create a theoretical framework. To gather empirical data, interviews, document studies and observations was conducted. To analyze the empirical findings pattern matching was used and also analyze tools such as flow mapping and cause-and-effect-diagram. The supply chain operations reference model calculations methods were used to make calculations.Findings – The first part of the purpose was accomplished through interviews, observations and was illustrated in a flow map. As a result of the evaluation of the order flow the purchasing process was identified as the crucial process. This conclusion was made since 55% of the deviations was related to the purchasing process. Five areas of improvement were identified within the crucial process was lack of communication, variations, lack of standards, incorrect order registration and external deviations. In order to handle problems related to lack of communication, variations, incorrect order registration and external deviations the SCOR-models purchasing practices were used. In order to handle problems related to lack of standards additional theories where used and by doing so the purpose could be fulfilled.Implications – This study has shown how a crucial process in an order flow can be identified and how to make it more efficient in order to increase delivery reliability to customer. The study has contributed to strengthening existing theories.Limitations – This case study only consist one case instead of several which would have increased the generalizability of the study. A majority of the conducted interviews are mostly based on supplementaries, this lower the reliability of the study since these questions are based on the respondents answers.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / There are many network standards in the commercial market today. The layered concept works so well, a developer can implement exactly the capability they desire through careful selection of standards and protocols. This brings up an interesting question of where we draw the line between standardizing on a single implementation and allowing the flexibility of all there is to offer? There are valid arguments for both sides. The telemetry community cannot afford to let this question fall through the cracks. We have the chance to identify what we need to do and how we should do it for both the specific application and the overall system.

Master of Science / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Mitchell Neilsen / The Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI) facility at Kansas State University is a huge biocontainment facility to conduct research on infectious diseases that pose a threat to plant, animal and human health. The BRI Training and Education Program is currently offline; i.e., classroom sessions are taken to provide this training and education. The objective behind taking up this project was to move the entire training and education module of Biosecurity Research Institute online, instead of having a classroom session for each training course, with an subject matter expert (SME) to come and take the training session. The aim is to develop an online training system which is synchronized with the information in the BRI Research Project Database. The employees will only have to login to the website, scroll through the list of courses they are enrolled in, take the courses, write the assignments/quizzes assigned to the course and then submit the quizzes. They can also self-enroll themselves into courses, if they are given the permission to do so. The SME’s of the courses can create new courses, upload the course materials, enroll users into the courses, and assign deadlines to course completion. Once the student submits the course quiz or assignments, the SME’s can grade the quiz, assign a final grade to the students, and give feedback on their performance. They can even reassign the course in case of poor performance by the student. The administrators of the website can assign roles to different personnel, give permissions according to need and requirement, add/delete courses, and change the appearance of the website. The project is to be done using a Learning Management System called Moodle. Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is an online learning management system designed to allow interaction between teachers and students. The back-end database used is SQL Server 2008 R2 and additional tools used are Adobe Presenter (with Microsoft Power Point 2010) to create the courses in SCORM format.

[pt] Este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar um estudo de modelagem dos processos e identificação das melhores práticas utilizadas nas refinarias da empresa Sigma sugerindo adaptações e melhorias nos processos da Transferência e Estocagem. A pesquisa apresenta a construção do Modelo de Referência de alto desempenho para a Transferência e Estocagem bem como sua implementação para a empresa em estudo, focando um modelo padronizado que contenha as boas práticas defendidas pela organização e aprovadas por todas as partes interessadas. / [en] This dissertation aims to develop a study of processes modelling and the identification of the best practices held by the oil refineries of Sigma Co. in order to analyze the performance of their activities and suggesting adaptations and improvements in Oil Transfer and Stockpiling processes. This work presents the high performance reference model construction for Oil Transfer and Stockpiling and its implementation for use in the case studied company, focusing a standard model which contains the whole practices supported by the organization and the sponsors departments.