Figure 2: Orbit kernel architecture with the two layers; i) communication and ii) real-time execution, together with the application specification of its configuration and automation.
Network of supervisory controllers
When processes consist of several instruments communication of the instruments are vital. Orbit has support for communication between each other. An orbit can connect to another orbit as a client or act as a server to receive connections from other orbits. For a network of Orbit running instruments it’s important to be able to communicate when a pool needs to be transferred. In that case there need to be a synchronization when both of the systems are ready. A system in a chain needs to synchronize with both the machine before and the machine after. The cycle of an instrument can therefore be generalized to be “ready to receive”, “receiving”, “processing”, “ready to deliver” and “delivering”. When an instrument is “ready to receive” and the previous machine is ready to deliver the delivering/receiving phase can start.
In the BMS and QAS OrbitX controllers, the OrbitX works as a service where other Orbits can connect and make an order. In that case the Orbit connects as a client and makes an order. A necessity is of course that there is a physical connection. Figure 3 illustrates the process where the integrated downstream process is communicating with each other. They are also connected to the support systems BMS and QAS for ordering of fresh buffer or analysis of the product. All communication happens in a local network. Each Orbit controller is it’s own module and with this framework it’s easy to extend the system with another process step or to add another service. All of the orbit instances are also connected to the database where all data are streamed to. The modularized approach creates a flexible, almost plug-and-play, architecture. Modules, a physical setup with a local Orbit supervisory controller, can be exchanged in the structure with minimal effort as long as the plant-wide synchronization protocol is kept constant.