Inputs and Outputs

Programmable logic controllers typically contain a variable number of input/output (I/O) ports and usually employ reduced instruction set computing (RISC), which consists of simplified instructions that are intended to allow for faster execution. PLCs are designed for real-time use and often must withstand harsh factory environments, such as excessive vibration and high noise levels. The programmable logic controller circuitry monitors the status of multiple sensor inputs, which control output actuators such as motor starters, solenoids, lights, displays and valves.

Advantages

This type of controller has made a significant contribution to factory automation. Earlier automation systems had to use thousands of individual relays, timers and sequencers, which had to be replaced or rewired whenever the automated process needed to change. In many cases, a programmable logic controller allows all of the relays and timers within a factory system to be replaced by a single controller. Modern PLCs deliver a wide range of functionality, including basic relay control, motion control, process control and complex networking. They also can be used in a distributed control system (DCS).

Interface

There are several types of interfaces that are used when people need to interact with programmable logic controllers to configure them or work with them. The interface might be configured with simple lights or switches, or it might include a text display. A more complex system might use an Internet-based interface on a computer running a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.

History

PLCs were first created to serve the automobile industry. The first programmable logic controller project was developed in 1968 for General Motors to replace hard-wired relay systems with electronic controllers. PLCs have remained widely used in the early 21st century within manufacturing sectors such as the automobile industry.

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Technological revolution in Russia

         As it is known Computer Science and cybernetics appeared as late as in the middle of the century and had quite exceptional achievements. It is the real basis of what is now called “New Technological revolution”. Up to the recent time, the history of Computing in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union was practically unknown to the computer community in the West. This situation is now changing. In 1996, on the 50^th Anniversary of Computing, the Computer Society has honored prominent Russian computer scientists Victor Glushkov, Sergey Lebedev and Alexey Lyapunov as computer Pioneers among other Eastern European scientists. V. Glushkov was awarded for founding the first USSR Institute of Cybernetics in the Ukraine, and for establishing the theory of digital automation, computer architecture, and a high-level recursive, macro pipeline processor. S. Lebedev is known to have designed and constructed the first computer in the Soviet Union and founded the Soviet computer industry. A. Lyapunov developed the first theory of operator methods for abstract programming and founded Soviet cybernetics and programming. Indeed, the awarded scientists, together with A. Berg, A. Ershov, A. Kolmogorov, L. Kantorovoch and others, made a decisive contribution to the formation of Soviet cybernetics and Computer Science. These talented and noble people assured the front-rank position of Russian Computer Science.

         Alexey Lyapunov was a typical representative of progressive Russian intelligentsia. Over forty years of his life he devoted to disinterested service to his science and his country. The area of his scientific interests was so widespread that he can be truly called an encyclopedic scientist. Despite the broad spectrum of his scientific interests, Lyapunov’s activities in science were always distinguished by professional skill. The biologists considered him a biologist, the geophysicists a geophysicist, the philosophers a philosopher. His large erudition and encyclopedic knowledge, combined with his integrating, non-dividing approach in natural science, in the whole complex of scientific knowledge became the rich soil which provided the sprout of cybernetic ideas. In this respect, there is some similarity of A. Lyapunov with Norbert Wienner, who was also a scientist of deep and broad mind working in different areas.

         The name of Leonid Kantorovoch, his life, his role in the science, and his struggle for his ideas occupy a special position in the history of science of the 20^thcentury. Kantorovich’s importance to science and society has not as yet found an adequate expression in the scientific literature. The early blossoming of his talent, the discovery (at the age of 27) of new methods of planning and management, the extraordinary breadth of interests, the uncompromising nature of a fighter, and, at the same time, his modesty and nobility- all these features form the unique phenomenon of Kantorovich.

         The mathematical investigations of Kantorovich served as a basis of the formation of new important directions in mathematics. At the same time, he is rightfully considered one of the founders of modern mathematical economics, the kernel of which is the linear programming he created. It is the most important concept of the economical cybernetics allowing to transform the economics into objective science, thus ensuring most efficient results of the economic activity. Kantorovich is an outstanding economist, a scientist who changed essentially the understanding of economic events, the economic thinking, and became a founder of an original economic school.

 

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