Profile
Software Engineer
After my Master Degree, I have been working for 25 years in the ICT field, spreading in many industrial sectors and covering several roles. The skills I’ve gained, leveraged by a genuine passion, led to first level achievements in all projects I handled. Important international experiences complete the professional profile.
Education
Title
Specialization
Specialization
Final Mark
Master Degree in Electronic Engineering
Computer Science – Software
Industrial Automation
110/110 with honors (Summa Cum Laude)
1985 – 1990
1987 – 1989
1989 – 1990
July 17th 1990
Certification/License/Association
Certification
Association
Certification
Licensed Engineering Professional Certification
Italian Engineer Register member
Australian Computer Society Skill Assessment granted under ANZSCO cat. 261313 (Software Engineering), Ref.Nbr. 828236
October 1991
November 1991
May 2014
Languages
Overall
Read
Write
Speak
Listen
English
IELTS SCORE (1..9)
7.5
8.5
6.5
7.5
7
French
8 YEARS schooling
Intermediate
Italian
Mother tongue
Personal Data
Resident
Parkes, New South Wales, Australia
Birthdate
December 23rd, 1966
Citizenship
Australia, Italy
Personal Notes
Hobbies-Passions
Online Trading (ProRealtime, Metatrader, Dealbook, MetaStock)
Music: Accordion
Music: Organ, piano
Music: Band/Orchestra
Personal Development (PNL, Coaching, Counseling, Nogotiation)
Radio Command avio flight
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Professional Experience
Exposure/Level
Industry Sectors
Process Control and Instrumentation
Firmware (embedded systems software)
ERP/MIS
Web
Finance (automated trading)
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
High
High
Responsibilities
R&D, Design/Architect
Development
Selection/Recruitment
Education/Training
Team Management/Leading
Specifications & Documentation
Consulting
System Integration
Business Development
General Management
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
Advanced
High
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
Intermediate
CPU Platforms
Intel 80x86 family
Intel 8051 family
Motorola 68HC11 family
SGS Thomson ST6 family
DSP Texas TMS family
Advanced
Advanced
intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Programming Languages
C
C++
C#
Java
Assembly
Pascal
Basic (Visual Basic)
Javascript
IEC 61131 (LAD, STL, FBD, SCL, CFC, SFC)
PHP
Python
Erlang
Elixir
Elm
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
Advanced
Basic
Advanced
High
Advanced
Basic
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Web
HTML, DHTML, CSS
Javascript
jQuery
ASP
ASP.NET, MVC, WCF
PHP
XML, XSLT, XAML, JSON
High
High
Basic
Intermediate
High
Basic
High
PLC & DCS
Instruments
Siemens Simatic (S5, S7, M7)
Allen Bradley
Beckhoff
Modicon/Schneider
GE
Honeywell
Hollysys
ABB
Softing 4Control
Matsushita/Panasonic
Eurotherm
MTL
Advanced
Intermediate
Advanced
Advanced
Basic
Basic
High
Advanced
Basic
Intermediate
Basic
Basic
SCADA
GE iFix, Proficy
WinCC
Vijeo/Citect
Intouch
WizCon
Movicon
ZenOn
High
Intermediate
Advanced
High
Intermediate
High
High
MES
OsiSoft PI
Schneider Ampla
Matrikon ProcessMORe
Advanced
Basic
Advanced
Operating Systems
MS-Windows (from 3.1 to 10)
Unix/Linux
mC/OS realtime kernel
DOS
Advanced
High
High
Advanced
Networks
Ethernet
TCP/IP & UDP (socket programming)
Profibus
CAN
DeviceNet, ControlNetwork
Lon
RS232-RS485-RS422
Modbus
OPC
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
Intermediate
Basic
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
Development Platforms
MS Visual Studio
Visual Basic 6 & VBA
LabView & LabWindows (National Inst.)
Simatic PCS7
Codesys
Crystal Reports
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
High
High
High
Office
Platforms
MS Word, Excel
MS PowerPoint, Visio
MS Project
Matlab
Advanced
Advanced
Intermediate
Basic
Trading Platforms
Metatrader
Prorealtime
NinjaTrader
Advanced
High
Intermediate
Database
SQL Server
MySQL
Postgres
MS Access
ODBC
Advanced
Basic
Basic
High
High
Northparkes Mines
Jan 2012 – Now
Senior Control Systems and Network Engineer
Description
Design-Develop-Manage control systems, PLC-DCS-SCADA-MES level accountability, provide support for day-to-day running of company ICT systems with special process control environment accountability, Carry out technical research and development to enable continuing innovation within the process control infrastructure. Design, develop, commission and maintain Software as required by the company operations.
Projects/Jobs
Control Systems Administration
Jan 2012 – Now
Description
Maintain and manage the Control System. Design, development and commissioning of new control systems
Highlights
Important experience in the mining sector
Technologies
Schneider, Citect, p80i, B&R, Rockwell (Allen Bradley)
Business Application Development
Jan 2012 – Now
Description
Design, develop, test and Maintain Web based applications reporting business data analysis
Highlights
Collecting data from different sources and presenting them in the intranet
Technologies
Linux, Elixir/Erlang, Phoenix, Elm+Javascript, HTML, CSS
Legacy Controllers Upgrade
Jan 2012 – Now
Description
Upgrade the legacy controllers to actual equipment, redesign of network structure and porting of control software
Highlights
Wide expertise area
Technologies
Siemens Simatic, Schneider Unity, Vijeo/Citect
Technical Training
Jan 2012 – Now
Description
As the business major expert in software engineering, organize specialized training to increase staff efficiency in software related activities
Highlights
Wide expertise area
Technologies
Production floor (instruments, DCS, SCADA), production data (Database, SQL, reporting), Back End analisys (C#, Elixir, C Front End presentation (HTML, Javascript, ASP.NET, CSS, elm), Operating systems (Windows, Unix), OS toolchain (RDBMS, Web services, application architecture)
MES System Administration
Jan 2012 – Now
Description
Design, develop, test and commissioning of site MES application, with KPI, downtime, workflow, production and data reconciliation.
Highlights
MES application for the mining system
Technologies
Matrikon ProcessMORe, Schneider Ampla, Osisoft PI historian, Windows OS, C#, Reporting, Web services, SQL Server
CSiCo S.R.L.
Mar 2004 – Jan 2012
Co-Founder & Managing Director
Final Clients
My company has several clients in different sectors, including:
Food and Beverage
Tobacco processing
Medical devices
Chemical
Pharmaceutical
Tool Machinery
Building Automation
Energy
Description
After having started with a 2 people staff, CSiCo has grown to 15 staff members in 4 years, and got a 7 figure turnover. My involvement in the company encompasses:
Staff members selection & recruitment
Staff members training
Team forming and leading
Design projects architecture
Developing standard software modules
Research and Development
Business Development
Customer Relationship Management
General Management
Project Management
Product Management
Program Management
Resource Allocation
Resource Planning
Consulting
Highlights
As an entrepreneur, I have had the possibility to fully develop my potentials and become a mature and complete professional.
Projects/Jobs (For space reasons only relevant projects reported here)
Building Automation Concentrator
Jan 2011 – Dec 2012
Final Clients
A major building automation supplier
Description
Many devices in use in the building automation sector have proprietary protocols. The application purpose is to create a communication concentrator that implements all these protocols, exchanges process data with the devices and gives them as output with an open well-known protocol. The market price of the concentrator has to be very low to be competitive, so it is chosen an embedded Linux system. The application is highly network oriented, and implements several custom communication stacks.
Highlights
An example of networking centered application
Technologies
Linux, C++, C, Assembly, RS232, RS485, Modbus, Ethernet, Lon, Knx
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Trading Custom Indicators & Robots
Apr 2010 – Now
Final Clients
Trading Institutions
Retail Traders
Description
MetaTrader is a widespread realtime trading platform. It features an internal scripting C-like language, that allows to create custom trading indicators and trading robots (called Expert Advisors, aka EA). Trading companies and retail traders usually don’t have programming background, so they rely on outsourcing to get to reality their trading ideas.
Highlights
My programming experience together with my passion for online trading make me a good partner in online trading software projects.
Technologies
Metatrader, C, Trading Indicators, Trading Robots, Expert Advisors
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Security Scanners
Aug 2009 – Now
Final Clients
ProRealtime users
Description
ProRealtime is a Trading software Java-based. It has a built-in programming language (Probuilder). I developed several security scanners (ProScreeners), that scan the set of securities of a market (e.g. NYSE stocks, DAX stocks, Commodities, Forex and select those that satisfy specific conditions in price and/or against trading studies/indicators.
Highlights
An example of experience in the financial online tradinc sector. I got rid of ProRealtime, an important trading platform.
Technologies
ProRealtime, ProBuilder, ProScreener, Java.
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Industrial Boiler Controller
Mar 2009 – May 2011
Final Clients
Industrial Boiler manufacturers
Description
Control the flow of combustible and air to optimize the burning efficience in a range of heating load. Control the CO emission as per national regulations and keep it under maximum values by air injection. The controller is an embedded system with RT Linux. Features:
Ingition sequence control
Graphical editing of load curves
Gas&Air modulation
CO emission guard
PID load control
Messaging on Event
Remote Control
Hystorical Local storage (trends)
Asset management and maintenance alerts
Highlights
All features (I/O exchange, PID closed loops, graphical management, messaging and RE232, RS485 and ethernet socket networking) have been developed completely from scratch, relying on the RT Linux operating system (no third party libraries)
Technologies
RT Linux, C++, C, Assembly, RS232, RS485, Modbus, Ethernet.
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Matlab Predictive Model
Feb 2009 – Dec 2009
Final Clients
Coating & Paint producers
Description
The R&D department of the client gives a Matlab-based complex predictive model of a core process. The purpose of the model is to forecast the value of some key variables of the ongoing process. The requirements are:
Acquire process variables
Feed the Matlab predictive model
Adjust process setpoints according to the model’s predictions
Store process variables and preditcions
Study the stored variables to work out quality/efficience indicators
The acquisition of process values is done usineg NI (National Instruments) DAQ boards, LabView, LabWindows. Some parts are written as C++ external libraries.
Highlights
An example of real project with exposure to Matlab and NI products
Technologies
Matlab, LabView, LabWindows, National Instruments, C++, DAQ Boards
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Tobacco Primary USA
May 2008 – DEC 2012
Final Clients
Imperial Tobacco Group PLC
Description
Control: 70+ Beckhoff controller stations
Local HMI: 70+ Windows CE Local Panels (one per controller)
Supervision: 3 server + 12 client ZenOn supervision stations + 1 SQL Server Data Warehouse server, 240+ forms, 4000+ VBA LOC + 1500 C# LOC
Instruments: inverters, weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, Radio Frequency barcode scanner, barcode printers, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters, light displays
I/O: 10000+ I/Os, TwinSAFE security technology
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus DP, RS232, RS485
Highlights
This is one of the biggest projects. The team is composed by 8 members. Here, I got rid of ZenOn.
Technologies
Beckhoff, TwinCAT, ZenOn, Window CE, C#, C++, .NET, Profibus DP, RF, SQL Server
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Coating Pro
Jun 2007 – Oct 2009
Final Clients
A pharmaceutical machinery manufacturer
Description
In this case, the client wanted to offer to the market a solution cheaper than the competitors. I studied a specific solution based on a special controller and developing the application without using a SCADA. Thanks to this solution, the market price has been halved and the client could this way enlarge his market quote.
Highlights
An example of experience in the pharmaceutical sector
Technologies
IEC 61131, C#, C++, .NET
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Sodium Hydrosulphite
Mar 2006 – Jun 2007
Final Clients
A major chemical company
Description
Control: 3 DCS redundant ABB AC800M stations
Supervision: 2 server + 5 client C#.NET supervision stations, 80+ forms, 5000+ C# LOC
Instruments: inverters, weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, Radio Frequency sensor over Modbus, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters, viscosity transmitters
I/O: 3000+ I/Os, most in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus DP, RS232, RS485
Batch Management: CSW Batch management engine
Highlights
This application gave me the possibility to master ABB DCS systems. It was one of the 20+ projects where the SCADA application is built in C#, relying on CSW, with OPC communication. Finally, this is a project where I installed my C#.NET batch control solution, based on CSW.
Technologies
ABB DCS, OPC, C#, C++, .NET, Modbus, RF
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Company Website
Mar 2006 – Sep 2006
Final Clients
My company website
Description
The chosen technolgy is ASP.NET, with AJAX as framework
Highlights
The previous ASP knowledge expanded to the new ASP.NET technology, with exposure to AJAX.
Technologies
ASP.NET, C#, AJAX
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Formaldehyde
Mar 2006 – Nov 2006
Final Clients
A major chemical company
Description
Control: DCS MTL
Supervision: 2 server + 2 client C#.NET supervision stations, 50+ forms, 2000+ C# LOC
Instruments: weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters
I/O: 2000+ I/Os, most in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus DP
Highlights
MTL DCS
Technologies
MTL, OPC, C#, C++, .NET
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Biodiesel
Oct 2005 – Jul 2006
Final Clients
A major oil & gas company
Description
Control: Beckhoff CX 1020 Controller
Supervision: 2 server + 2 client C#.NET supervision stations, 120+ forms, 16000+ C# LOC
Instruments: inverters, weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters, viscosity transmitters.
I/O: 2000+ I/Os, all in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus PA
Highlights
Oil & Gas sector application. Profibus PA.
Technologies
Beckhoff, Profibus PA, C#.NET
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Ureic & Melamminic Resins
Sep 2005 – Oct 2007
Final Clients
A major chemical company
Description
Control: DCS Schneider
Supervision: 2 server + 4 client Citect supervision stations, 100+ forms, 2000+ Script LOC
Instruments: weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters, viscosity transmitters, motion devices
I/O: 5000+ I/Os, some in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus, CAN
Highlights
A get-rid-of project for Schneider and Citect
Technologies
Schneider, Citect, Script, C++, CAN, Profibus, Ethernet
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
CSW
Jan 2005 – Jan2012
Final Clients
Internal
Description
In order to be less dependent on SCADA packages, that needs hardware keys to be bought in order to be run, I decided to develop a Windows framework to use in place of SCADA packages. I called this framework “CSiCo SCADA Workspace” (CSW). It is written mainly in C# (90%), and the remaining (low level coding)in C++ and Assembly. It is composed by the following .NET DLLs:
Visual Studio .NET extensions: the .NET framework encompasses Visual Studio extension assemblies that allow programmers to extend the funcionality of the IDE. Using this facility, Visual Studio .NET has been extended in order to offer additional functionalities, more close to a SCADA dev. platform:
oTag List Designer
oAlarms Designer
oDevice Designer
oAsset Management Designer
Field Library: several Field communication drivers:
oOPC Client
oModbus RTU and TCP Client
oBeckhoff ADS
oHollysys
o...
Scada Library: many custom controls that are built to have mimic functionality connected to tags
Net Library: components for the Service Oriented Client/Server functionality (based on .NET Remoting)
MES Library: Graphical Batch Management Engine inspired to ISA S88.
Highlights
With this framework, I and my employees can develop a SCADA application in the same time (= same costs) required by a SCADA package and using Visual Studio .NET. The biggest advantages are that hardware keys (and the relative license costs) are eliminated and we have the full .NET framework available for custom needs
The framework size is of 21.000+ LOC
Technologies
.NET, C#, C++, Beckhoff ADS, Modbus, Modbus, OPC
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Acrylic, Vinyl, Phenolic, Powders
Oct 2004 – Aug 2005
Final Clients
A major resins chemical company
Description
Control: 10 Beckhoff Controllers (300 and 400) PLCs, 34000+ IEC 61131 LOC (Lines Of Code)
Supervision: 4 server + 8 client Movicon supervision stations, 500+ pages, 7000+ VBA LOC
Instruments: inverters, weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, External PID controllers, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters, viscosity transmitters
I/O: 6000+ I/Os, part of them in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus DP, RS232, RS485
Highlights
Beckhoff technology is based in Codesys, a hardware independent controller software development platform adopted by many brands (e.g. WAGO, ABB, Schneider). Movicon is in Italian SCADA.
Technologies
Movicon, VBA, Codesys, TwinCAT, Beckhoff, RS232, Profibus, Ex, Ethernet, DP
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Alkid & Polyester
Mar 2004 – Jun 2005
Final Clients
A major Alkid & Poliester chemical company
Description
Control: 12 Siemens S7 (300 and 400) PLCs, 23000+ Step7 LOC (Lines Of Code)
Supervision: 2 redundant server + 15 client iFix supervision stations, 400+ pages, 15000+ VBA LOC
Instruments: inverters, alarm central, weighers, cell loads, motors, valves, flow meters, pressure transmitters, temperature transmitters
I/O: 4000+ I/Os, part of them in Ex zone.
Networks: Industrial Ethernet, Profibus DP, RS232.
Highlights
The whole site is under control of the systems (also peripheral gates to the site)
Technologies
Windows, iFix, VBA, S7, Step7, RS232, Profibus, Ex, Ethernet, DP
Work Areas
See Managing Director/Description
Freelancer Software Engineer
Jul 1990 – Mar 2004
The clients
As freelancer I worked for several clients id different industry sectors:
CAD/CAM
Telecommunications
Tobacco processing
Automatic Distribution
Tool Machinery
Water process
Financial (trading)
Responsibilities
Staff members selection & recruitment
Staff members training
Design projects architecture
Developing standard software modules
Research and Development
Consulting
Achievements
I got a deep and extensive experience in software engineering and about industry sectors I’ve worked in. I got the professional and human maturity to create a new successful start-up.
Projects/Jobs (For space reasons only relevant projects reported here)
AREA MANAGEMENT
May 2002 – Mar 2004
Final Clients
A major Italian SCADA company
The Italian branch of a major German Controllers manufacturer
Description
In this period I have been the area manager for the Italian north-eastern territory. In this role I did:
Product promotion
Customer technical and commercial support
Shadow-working
Education and training on the products
Development of SCADA communication drivers:
oKNX/EIB (Building Automation)
oMatsushita Controller FP (TCP/IP)
oBeckhoff ADS
o...
Highlights
I got a good command of marketing, commercial, customer satisfaction and negotiation processes.
Technologies
Windows, C++, Visual Basic, VBA, Movicon, Citect, ZenOn, Beckhoff, Modicon, Modbus, Schneider, Allen Bradley.
Work Areas
Education, Training, CRM, Negotiation, Development, Shadow-working, customer support, customer satisfaction.
MES WEB KPI
May 2001 – Feb 2002
Final Clients
SCADA package suppliers
Description
Given a Database with historical production data, this web application gives several Key Performance Indicators. Data are accessed via SQL and ODBC and then are elaborated. The KPI results are then presented as Web Page.
Highlights
This project has been developed using IIS and ASP (Active Server Pages)
Technologies
Internet Information Services (IIS), ASP, Visual Basic, SQL, ODBC, Javascript, HTML, DHTML.
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, Document
JavaScada
Mar 2000 – Jun 2002
Final Clients
Experimental project of a SCADA package supplier
Description
Due to the fact that all known Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) packages are based on Windows, the client wants to invest in developing a Linux/Java (GNU) package. The software exchanges data with some field-level instruments and controllers, maintains a realtime database, handles alarms, stores hystorical data in a MySQL database, displays trends, mimics and report pages.
Highlights
In this project I had a good understanding of Java and Linux
Technologies
Linux, Java
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug
Porting a legacy Unix App -> windows
AUG 1999 – Jun 2000
Final Clients
A storage service company
Description
An existing application developed under Unix is not supported anymore. The client want to port it in a Windows based distributed system
The DB2 existing database had been migrated to SQL Server
A Windows Server system has been installed and configured, with a proper NAS high availability unit.
The legacy Unix based structure (main processor with several terminals) has been substituted with a client/server intranet Windows-based structure.
The software application has been rewritten as a three-tier application: on the server side the database management (first/data tier) and the business logic (second/business tier) and on the client the front-end logic (client/third tier). The communication between clients and server has been realized by a specific protocol, that I developed over Ethernet socket services.
Highlights
I had the occasion to work on a Unix system. It was also my first multi-tier application and the project where I got rid of Ethernet socket.
Technologies
Unix, Windows, Win32, C++, MFC, SQL Server, DB2, Multi Tier Software, Ethernet socket
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, Team leading (3 developers)
Banking Desk-Side Front-End
Jul 1997 – Mar 1999
Final Clients
A banking farm service company
Description
The client manages a electronic farm with mainframe systems, and supply data warehouse and banking business logic to some major banks. With this project, the client wants to replace the legacy chararcter-oriented desk application with a more actual Windows graphical application. Two modules have been developed:
A ethernet socket-based communication protocol. This protocol has been developed in collaboration with mainframe managers, to be secure (encription) and transaction-based. Then, I developed the client side.
The front-end, a forms-based Windows application to allows the desk operators to fulfill their duties with simplified procedures than in the legacy character-based application.
Highlights
I had the possibility to learn several banking procedures and terminologies.
Technologies
Windows, Win32, C++, MFC,Multi Tier Software, Ethernet socket.
Instrument & Process Control
May 1997 – Mar 1999
Final Clients
Philip Morris Switzerland
Philip Morris Kazakhstan
Description
Process control and supervision of primary tobacco plants. Several level of software have been realized:
PLC: 20+ S7-400 Stations, 10+ S7-300 stations
PC: 20+ Intouch supervisory stations
PC: Batch Scheduler
Networking:
Industrial Ethernet Network for PC<->PLC communications
Profibus FDL network for PLC<->PLC communications
Profibus DP for remote I/O
RS232 for special device communications
RF (Radio frequency) for handheld terminal communications
In this projects more than 20 software/system engineers have been involved. My assignments have been:
Designing a standard for software development, to be adopted by all the software engineers
Controlling comformity to the standard of team softwares
Controlling optimization and quality of team softwares
Writing simulation software: during the development phase, I did several simulation engines (C They did simulate the machinery and served to test and troubleshoot most critical process automation tasks before the commissioning phase.
Device management FBs: I developed Function Blocks to manage all the devices on the production floor connected to the PLCs, as for example:
oLight Displays on the production floor
oBarcode readers
oMoby magnetic tag readers/writers
oInverters
oTobacco scan machines
Motion control for discharge robots
Inter PLC communication standards: a set of FBs to setup communications inter PLCs
Radio Frequency handheld device software: a C++ application to be run in the handheld device and a paired FB to be run in the PLC.
Process control software: I developed and tested several process control parts of the plant.
Highlights
The level of quality required by the client (Philip Morris), the complexity of the system and the large scale make of these projects a milestone in my experience.
Technologies
S7, STEP7, AWL, SCL, LAD, Industrial Ethernet, Profibus, DP, RS232, Radio Frequency, C++, Intouch, Visual Basic, SQL Server
Work Areas
QA (Quality Assurance) R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, QA
Crystal Growing Process
May 1997 – Oct 1997
Final Clients
Italian Research Institute
Description
The insitute had an automatic machine that controls the process of growing stratified crystals. The parameters of the process phase are calculate externally and given as input to the RSView (Rockwell) supervisory application. An Allen Bradley PLC controls the growing process. An external application reads process data from the RSView database, makes automatically the calculation of the process parameters interfacing to a Matlab mathematic model and write them back to the RSView database, and so to the Allen Bradley PLC.
Highlights
Rockwell (Allen Bradley) automation project. All the interprocess communication between the existing RSView application and my C++ application is via DDE, a good example of legacy integration.
Technologies
Rockwell Automation, Allen Bradley, DeviceNET, ControlNetwork, RSView, Matlab, Win32, C++, DDE
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, Document
OLE Realtime Dataserver
Set 1995 – Dec 1995
Final Clients
SCADA package providers
SCADA application developers
Description
Cyclically read data from instruments and control devices and maintain a realtime database to service SCADA client applications. The dataserver contains user lever drivers for the following network protocols:
Siemens AS 511, a RS232 based proprietary protocol by Siemens (for who knows Siemens S5, the protocol of the PLC programming port)
Siemens 3964R, a RS232/422 serial point-to-point proprietary protocol by Siemens
Siemens Sinec L2, a RS485 (mono)master/(multi)slave proprietary protocol by Siemens, that later became Profibus.
The software was required to act as server for different client applications using OLE, so it is a precursor of OPC (Ole for Process Control) server technology.
Highlights
The main challenge has been decrypt the protocols, that were not “open”. To do it, I put an observer PC in the network. I developed an application that passed through received telegram (so the normal normal exchange was not disturbed), but recorded all of them. Studying the stored telegrams, I could decode the protocol and therefore could write communication drivers for the procotols.
Technologies
Windows, Win32, C++, MFC, OLE, Siemens, Sinec L2, S5, AS511, 3964R, RS232, RS422, RS485
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, Document
Robot Inverse Kinematic
Aug 1995 – Nov 1996
Final Clients
Robot machines constructors
Description
Given a predefined path and a parameterised robot structure, returns the sequence of movements that the axes of the robot must perform in order to make the hand (tool) point to go through the path.
Highlights
For this project I studied the inverse kinematic theory and to implement it in a software developed an C++ class library for multidimensional matrix calculations.
Technologies
C++
Work Areas
R&D, Architect, Develop, Test, Debug, Document
Telecontrol
Jul 1995 – Oct 1995
Final Clients
Telecontrol application developers
SCADA package providers
SCADA application developers
Description
Establish a PSTN modem connection to a remote serial network.
Highlights
At the time of the project, the possibility to use the normal telephonic network to connect a SCADA application to a remote Instrument/PLC/485 network was a pioneer application.
Technologies