A New Challenge in Ecological Process Control Based on PLCs with Profinet Communication Protocol

The current situation of environmental resources requires their efficient usage through efficient process control. But, process control can not be achieved without an essential component: the communication between all devices, such as sensors, controllers, actuators, programming stations etc. The aim is to achieve the irrigation process of plants in greenhouse conditions. Therefore, it is submitted a comprehensive application that proposes to be a distributed control system including data acquisition and processing, both local and remote monitoring of the process parameters. The distributed system is based on modern equipment: Siemens Simatic PLCs and HMI, Memsic e̅Ko Pro wireless sensors network, level sensors for irrigation tanks and actuators such as on/off valves and pumps. In terms of communication between equipments, an industrial bus and protocols were used - Profinet and wireless communication. The software part is provided by TIA Portal with STEP 7 and WinCC flexible RT and LOGO! Soft Comfort for programming the automation devices. ModbusTCP was used to develop the communication protocol between central devices.