The project is to develop at Drexel University a research facility for hierarchical and distributed industrial control centered at a Honeywell TDC-3000 process control system. This is a joint effort between Drexel University and Honeywell, Industrial Automation & Control Division (Fort Washington, PA), aiming to add a strong experimental component to Drexel's research in control and expand Drexel's activities and education in power systems, robotics, and manufacturing.

The TDC-3000 is a popular real-time industrial automation system. 7,500 TDC-3000 units are currently operating in power generation stations, oil refineries, manufacturing plants, and chemical factories. The system's architecture allows monitoring and control of a large number of actuators, sensors, and processes using PID controllers, programmable logic controllers, and special-purpose programs for optimal control. It is a hierarchical architecture aimed to guarantee robustness. Moreover, it is a prime example of a discrete-event system of the kind that has attracted significant theoretical interest during the last decade in both control and computer science communities.

Members Working on the IPC project

John Esposito