Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Good Morning,

                I am evaluating the use of EPICS in a non-physics/laboratory industrial control system. The control system requires exceptional stability and reliability and primarily interfaces PLCs and RTUs on an ethernet network. The system also requires support for some aged equipment (Allen-Bradley PLC5).

1. Is the current build stable enough to run indefinitely with no EPICS-caused outages?
2. Is Control System Studio or React Automation Studio stable and reliable similar to question 1?
3. Can the ether_ip module support greater than 10K points distributed across multiple PLCs and physical sites?
4. Has anyone successfully deployed a module to support Ethernet/IP interface with an Allen-Bradley PLC5 processor?
5. Are there any plans/projects to implement more stringent information security mechanisms into the system (e.g., something consistent with NIST, IEC, etc. for critical infrastructure)?

I have done a thorough review of the mailing list, EPICS training materials, and data I could find through internet searches. I was not able to find much in the way of PLC 5 support. I believe the best current answer is to install an Allen-Bradley MicroLogix Controller as an intermediate device and forward PLC5 data via the MicroLogix controller and the ether_ip module.  I have also implemented a build in a test environment to prove general functionality, but I do not have a good feel how the system would scale. I am very excited by what I perceive the capabilities of this system to be, and I think it could easily replace a very large, closed source, and expensive software suite we have in production today.

V/R

Joshua West

Lower Colorado River Authority | Control Systems Administrator