Effective demonstration of minicomputer-based systems by a novel digital simulation

Minicomputer-based systems are becoming more and more popular. A typical system of this type consists of an industrial process to be controlled/monitored and a minicomputer connected to it through an interface. (See Figure 1.) Effective demonstration of such a system is often required in many instances. For example, it is required in industry during the initial phase of justification (to the management) for the manufacture of such a system. It is also required in education while teaching minicomputer-based gadgets like optimum controller, Luenberger observer, and Kalman filter. Normally this is done through the usual digital or hybrid simulation. However, the usual digital simulation, while capable of providing all the desired information, is not very appealing because it does not physically bring out the conversation type interaction between the process and the computer. This is not true in the case of a hybrid simulation of the system where the process is simulated on the analog part and the minicomputer is played by the digital part. The hybrid simulation, however, requires the availability of a hybrid computer, a fairly expensive equipment, and may or may not be easy to implement depending on the features of the particular hybrid computer facility and the availability of personnel conversant with hybrid programming. Of course, a prototype system using the actual process and the proposed minicomputer is the most direct demonstration of the system but is generally a quite costly approach. Thus there seems to be a lack of an all-digital simulation that has the same appeal as the hybrid simulation and which is interactive and conversational. Such a simulation is developed next.