Terry Blevins

Industry Keynote:
Automatic Control: Future Challenges, Solutions, and Systems

Biography: Presently, Terry is a principal technologist in the applied research team at Emerson Process Management. Terry led the development of DeltaV advanced control products and the development of the Fieldbus Foundation Function Block Specification. He is the US expert to the IEC SC65E WG7 function block committee, chairman of ISA SP104-EDDL committee and is the technical advisor to the United States Technical Advisory Group (USTAG) for the IEC65E subcommittee. Terry coauthored the ISA bestselling books Wireless Control Foundation, Advanced Control Unleashed and Control Loop Foundation. He has 60 patents and has written over 90 papers on process control system design and applications. Terry received a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1973. He is a member of Control Magazine’s Process Automation Hall of Fame and an ISA Fellow.

Abstract: Industrial automatic control has achieved proficiency in many directions – scalable, easy configurable DCS, intuitive graphical HMI, extended flexibility and functionality of the basic level control and monitoring, embedded advanced control, wireless measurements, and most recently, wireless control. This presentation will outline new challenges and solutions which will move automatic control to new heights. Great practical value and tremendous challenge are associated with the automation of startup and shut-down and production transitions of continuous processes. The evolving ISA106 standard addresses the terms and definitions for the event based control for such automation. However, fully automated control may not always be achieved because of the lack of measurements and difficult process dynamics. The early detection of abnormal process operating conditions during normal plant operation also can improve process operation. However, most current distributed control systems lack easy to use, on-line tools to identify and pin point the source of abnormal operating conditions. This presentation will address how a combination of process knowledge, available process measurements, and in some cases wireless measurements, may be used in event based control to more fully automate process startup and process transitions. It also shows how future control systems may utilize the technical foundation originally developed for Big Data applications and mobile devices to more fully automate the detection and correction of abnormal operating conditions and enhance decision making.

Detailed Industry Keynote