Automated measurement and interactive control of a process plant using labview / Norhazimi Hamzah, Rizal Mat Jusoh and Afaf Rozan Mohd Radzol

Monitoring and controlling of the plant parameters involve necessary data acquisition. Data acquisition process at the simplest level can be accomplished manually using paper and pencil to record readings from a multimeter or any other instrument. However, data recording process that require large number and very frequent data readings must include instruments or microcontrollers to acquire and record data precisely. In this report, the development of a low cost and easily modifies PC based virtual instrumentation that is capable of monitoring and operational control of the plants parameters is outline. The data acquisition interface is based on existing equipments of the Armfield Multifunction Process Control Teaching System. The equipment is interfaced to the PC using the NI USB-6009 DAQ card and Lab VIEW is used as the development environment. The water level control is chosen for the experimental setup. The developed system has the advantage of simplicity, flexibility, feasibility and easy operation.