DRPC: Distributed Reconfigurable Process Control

Abstract

In the previous chapter we noted that a distributed approach to the design of a process control environment may provide a route to increased reconfigurability and with that the associated business benefits. In this overview chapter and the following three chapters we begin to build up a blueprint for how such a distributed control system might be constructed. We have already noted that such an approach is — conceptually — fundamentally different to conventional, hierarchically-based control systems and because of this we begin with a recasting of the process control system structure before moving on to examine the way such a system might operate.