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PLC Based Real Time Process Control Using SCADA and MATLAB

Conference Paper · August 2018

DOI: 10.1109/ICCUBEA.2018.8697491

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 PLC Based Real Time Process Control using
SCADA and MATLAB
[Link] [Link]
[Link] Department of Instrumentation & Control Department of Instrumentation & Control
Department of Instrumentation Pravara Rural Engg. College. Pravara Rural Engg. College.
VES Polytechnic Loni, Ahmednagar, India. Loni, Ahmednagar, India.
Chembur, Mumbai, India. chandrakant_kadu@[Link] pratapvikhe@[Link]
[Link]@[Link]
[Link]
Department of Instrumentation & Control
Pravara Rural Engg. College.
Loni, Ahmednagar, India.
pbhagsen@[Link]

Abstract— This paper presents real time control of process applications. One of the most efficient and easiest ways of
through Programmable Logic Controller using SCADA and exchanging real time data between Matlab and other
MATLAB OPC Toolbox. It uses KEPServerEX.V4 from automation product is using Matlab OPC toolbox integrated
Kepware technologies as OPC DA Server that works on server with OPC DA server. The Matlab OPC toolbox can be used
client architecture. In this SCADA and MATLAB are acting as with Matlab code (command prompt) or Simulink model. To
clients. The design and implementation is carried in three communicate with OPC DA server connected to PLC or
phases. In the first phase PLC based application has been other automation controllers. OPC DA Server is a software
designed, and then SCADA application were developed and tool that works on client server architecture, offers benefit of
integrated with process through OPC server. Finally,
integrating more than one client accessing data from the
MATLAB SIMULINK model is designed for accessing real
time process data. The realization of the test system has been
server in real time [2]. This feature of OPC enables us to
validated using Mitsubishi FX2N 32MR PLC, CitectSCADAv2 have Matlab as one client and other automation product like
and MATLAB. The control of process and results of test SCADA as another client accessing the process data
system show efficient and reliable exchange of real time data simultaneously.
between PLC, MATLAB and SCADA.
II. RELATED WORK
Keywords— PLC, MATLAB, OPC DA Server, SCADA,
Simulink, Real time Process control, Server – Client. In recent studies, a method of implementing remote real
time communication based on OPC between MATLAB and
PLC using Ethernet were developed by Z. lieping et al [3].
I. INTRODUCTION
In this method authors realised a real time data exchange
In many industrial automation applications, control between Matlab and S7-300 PLC by configuring PLC
system are employed to operate particular application that hardware, OPC server Matlab OPC Toolbox. In similar
involves controllers like Proportional Integral Derivative approach a method for full integration of Matlab and
(PID) controllers, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Simulink with control application development using OPC
Distributed Control system (DCS), Supervisory Control and unified architecture (UA) is proposed by H. Elfaham et al
Data Acquisition system (SCADA) etc. According to
[2].
predefined program or sequence these controllers achieves
control of a specific system in a real time. The industrial
process operations are controlled automatically and run The realization of three tank system which includes
continuously without any shutdown for months. If any nonlinear multiple input multiple output with two actuator
changes are to be made in the operation, then it requires and digital controller were demonstrated by Q. Huang and
shutting down or stopping the entire operation or specific S. sang of Guangxi university [4]. In this research work, a
section of the plant [1]. This results into significant loss of communication based on OPC technology between
time, manpower, production and cost. To avoid this problem, MATLAB and PCAuto (a popular SCADA) is presented
proposed changes can be tested into the design laboratory to and a real time improved single neuron adaptive PID level
obtain desired results, and can be implemented in real plant control system is realised. Similar research is carried out by
operation. Stojan Persin, a faculty of electrical engineering and
computer science, university of Maribor, Slovenia. In his
The industrial automation equipment such as PLC,
SCADA, DCS or PAS does not allow online testing of work author tested data transfer rate from a physical device
changes (although online programming is possible) that are into MATLAB, established communication reliability by
made in the application. This is nothing but the limitation of rating the relationship between successful and unsuccessful
these products. Therefore, the platform like MATLAB plays transfer of data and experimented the alternative method for
significant role in designing, testing, or simulating changes transferring data into MATLAB i.e. data transfers from
to be made in the industrial automation application. The Microsoft excel to MATLAB through OPC. He also has
appropriate results obtained in Matlab can be implemented suggested the use of this method in teaching the
on the manufacturing process through industrial automation undergraduate engineering students.
products like PLCs. The major difficulty is limited
connectivity of Matlab to other real time systems and

978-1-5386-5257-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 This paper is organised as in, section I covers introduction.
In section II, related work carried out by various researchers
has been described. Principle of OPC based communication
is explained in Section III, whereas in Section IV, the idea
about components of test system is given. Stages involved
in designing and implementation of real time process control
with Matlab and SCADA using PLC is discussed along with
the results in Section V. Finally conclusions are derived in
section VI. Fig. 2. Components of the test system.

PLC is interfaced with OPC DA server.

III. OPC COMMUNICATION PRINCIPLE KEPServerEX.V4 is used as an OPC DA server [6]. This is
installed on the PC, with GX Developer. The various PLC
In Industrial automation field, to achieve the intended
parameters are acquired in real time in OPC server by
progress, industrially tested and robust automation products
configuring OPC with device, channel and groups. Several
such as sensors, actuators, PLCs, SCADA, PAS and DCS tags are defined to indicate PLC input and output parameters.
are required. These products involve acquisition and control
of large quantities of data. These automation products MATLAB/Simulink is connected to OPC server through
require the cooperation between different engineering MATLAB OPC Toolbox. Simulink blocks such as OPC
disciplines. It involves devices from different manufactures read, OPC write and OPC configuration are used to acquire
integrated altogether to achieve the process automation. In data from OPC DA server to MATLAB/Simulink.
such situations a common communication platform can be MATLAB acts as client 1 whereas; simultaneously the data
used to integrate the devices from different manufacturers, is accessed using SCADA application which acts as client 2
along with their standards and operating conditions. An for OPC server. SCADA application is developed in Citect
SCADA 7.2, allows reading and writing data to and from
Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control (OPC)
SCADA to OPC DA server in real time.
technology is better solution and is set of standard that
defines real time communication of data between devices
from different manufactures. V. DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
For simplicity of operation entire test system has been
Fig. 1 shows OPC connection hierarchy [3, 4]. OPC DA divided into three phases.
server which works on the server-client mechanism provides
access to the live and historic data of process variables. OLE A. Developing PLC based process application:
for process control (OPC) is a standard that provides The design of speed control of DC motor consists of
interoperability between the devices of different hardware and software components. The system hardware
manufacturers for secure and reliable exchange of data. components used to implement PLC based DC Motor speed
control is shown in Fig. 3

Fig. 1. OPC connection hierarchy

Fig. 3. PLC hardware connections

IV. TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS
The components of test system used for real time
process control with MATLAB and SCADA using PLC is Fig. 4 shows screenshot of ladder program used for DC
shown in Fig. 2. The process considered for experimentation motor speed control.
is speed control of DC Motor. DC Motor is operated at
different speed using PLC. The different positions of speed B. Developing SCADA Application:
are input through PLC. DC Motor operates at different CitectSCADA is a HMI/SCADA software package
speed based on input selection. Mitsubishi FX2N 32MR from Schneider electric used to integrate Mitsubishi FX2N-
PLC with two special function blocks is used in this work. 32 MR PLC via KEPServerEx.V4 OPC DA Server [9]. HMI
Mitsubishi GX-Developer programming software is used to is designed for speed control of DC motor in CitectSCADA
program PLC. 7.2 and is capable of reading and writing real time data in
PLC through OPC DA server.

2018 Fourth International Conference on Computing Communication Control and Automation (ICCUBEA)
 Tag Name Data Type
inspeed1 Boolean
inspeed2 Boolean
inspeed3 Boolean
inspeed4 Boolean
mspeed1 Boolean
mspeed2 Boolean
mspeed3 Boolean
mspeed4 Boolean
start Boolean
stop Boolean

To develop a required graphics, Citect SCADA

graphic builder platform is used. The required
objects are selected from object library and linked
Fig. 4 Screenshot image of ladder program. with appropriate tags already created. The
behaviour of individual graphics object in runtime
CitectSCADA uses three platforms for developing
application; Citect Explorer- is used to have top level is set by editing properties of each object. Table 1.
configuration interface, Citect Project Editor- is mainly used represents variable tags defined along with data
for entering database type information, Citect Graphic types for DC motor speed control application.
builder – is used for creating graphics and citect runtime –is
used to provide active operator interface.
• Configuring KEPServerEX OPC: KEPServerEX is
Fig. 5 shows screenshot of SCADA application for speed an OPC server, acts as a link between SCADA
control of DC motor. client and PLC based application. It serves live
data to a SCADA client whom it had acquired from
PLC. KEPServerEX is configured, setting channel,
device, groups and tags with appropriate data type.
Fig. 6 shows screenshot of OPC quick client
configured in KEPServerEX

Fig. 5 Screenshot image of SCADA application

Steps required to develop a SCADA based application

are given as below:
• Creating new I/O server or Device: In Citect
project editor, communication express wizard is Fig. 6 OPC quick client
used to create new I/O server which is linked with
OPC quick client is used to read and write data,
KEPServerEX.V4 driver. A new I/O device is
created which is linked with Mitsubishi FX2N PLC perform structured text suite and test server
driver. This linking of I/O server and I/O device performance. Its comprehensive error reporting
enables the SCADA to access the real time data provides detailed feedback regarding any OPC
from PLC through OPC server. errors returned by server. It helps to diagnose
• Creating variable tags and graphics: In Citect common OPC client/server issues.
project editor a variable tags are created with
specific tag name and data types. These are linked C. Matlab / Simulink Application:
with an I/O device and I/O server. The variable
MATLAB OPC Toolbox provides access to live and
tags holds real time data acquired from PLC. historical OPC data directly from MATLAB. One can read,
write and log OPC data from field devices connected to PLC
TABLE I. Variable tags with data types or other automation products. There are two ways in
MATLAB OPC Toolbox and can be used to set up

2018 Fourth International Conference on Computing Communication Control and Automation (ICCUBEA)
connection between MATLAB/Simulink client and PLC
through OPC server [10] one is command prompt in 10000

MATLAB, whereas other is SIMULINK model.

9000

In this paper, MATLAB command prompt is used to 8000

establish the connection between MATLAB and
KEPServerEX OPC. Simulink model is used to read and 7000

write real time data from process. Following MATLAB

RPM
commands were used for this purpose: 6000

opcregister(‘install’)
5000
info= opcserverinfo(‘localhost’)
da=opcda(‘localhost’, ‘[Link].V4’) 4000

connect(da)
3000
get(da, ‘status’)
opcregister function installs the OPC foundation core 2000
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
components so that OPC Toolbox software is able to speed levels

communicate with OPC server. opcserverinfo returns a

Fig.8. Graph between input speed levels and DC motor speed
structure, info that contains OPC server information
associated with host name or IP address specified by host.
The results of this experiment are discussed by plotting
The information includes server ID that can be used to
different speed levels that are input through selector switch
create a client associated with that server and other
and the resulting increase in the speed (RPM) of DC motor
information about each server. opcda function constructs an as shown in Fig. 8. When the input speed levels are altered
OPC data access object for specified host. To communicate from MATLAB client or SCADA client such as 1,2,3,4 the
with the server it must connect obj (da) to server with resulting increase in the speed (rpm) of DC motor connected
connect function. connect(da) function connects obj(da) to to PLC is observed and measure using tachometer. Thus the
OPC server that is specified by the host and server ID real time process control with MATLAB and SCADA client
properties. using PLC is realized.

Once the connection between MATLAB and VI. CONCLUSION

KEPServerEX OPC is established then SIMULINK model
is designed using OPC Toolbox. Simulink Model used for In this paper, use of OPC DA server for establishing real
controlling speed of DC motor is shown in Fig. 7. time control of process between SCADA, MATLAB and
PLC through OPC server is discussed. OPC server allows
secure and reliable exchange of data between devices of
different manufactures. It is platform independent and
ensures seamless flow of information among devices from
multiple vendors. This feature of OPC enables us to have
MATLAB as one client and other automation products like
SCADA as other client accessing, process data
simultaneously. The result of experiment demonstrates the
efficient and reliable data exchange between PLC, SCADA
and Matlab.
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2018 Fourth International Conference on Computing Communication Control and Automation (ICCUBEA)

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