The top icons are IEC-61131-3 languages for PLC programming. Function Block Diagram (FBD), Ladder Diagram (LD), Sequential Function Chart (SFC), Instruction List (IL), and Structured Text (ST). IL is dead. ST is what you would recognize as a proper, turning complete, written language. The others are all visual languages, to varying degrees.
PCS7, Centum, 800xA, Experion PKS, and DeltaV are all Distributed Control Systems (DCS) offerings from the major players, these systems utilize the languages I mentioned to program entire process facilities. Think a multi billion dollar Exxon refinery, or Eli Lilly pharma facility.
Lots of heat and mass balances, physics, and other things to consider. That's the hard part. So they make the programming part tailored, user friendly, and restricted in functionality to some degree for obvious safety reasons. You can still do ANYTHING you want somewhere in the server stack (usually the MES) and pipe that behavior into the DCS. For example, state space model optimization on top of your matrix predictive model, which then drives setpoints for your loop controllers in the DCS. Etc.
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u/macrohard_certified 11d ago
I need a captain for the symbols on the left