Facility Automation Taiwan

Project Introduction: Provincial Highway No.2 stretches through northeastern Taiwan and is one of the major traffic arteries in the region. Two of the main tunnels on the highway were built many years ago, and their equipment was very outdated, with wires and circuits often breaking down. Moreover, they had no remote control and monitoring system, posing safety and security threats to commuters. Advantech’s PAC products integrate control, data processing, networking and audio and video functionalities in a single platform, which was perfect as the basis for a lighting and circuit project in the Lanyang Tunnels.

System Requirements:

The Lanyang tunnels lighting and circuit project adopted the most recent industrial technology and equipment available. To detect errors in the lighting equipment that need repair or maintenance, a fiber-optic communication system was designed with a redundant ring topology which allows fast, stable and ceaseless transmission of data. In addition to onsite monitoring and control workstations for the lights, power equipment and control devices, a master monitoring and control host was established in the control center, installed with software that can be easily used, can acquire real time data from the tunnels and implement immediate monitoring control.

This project was carried out by a professional team including electrical engineering from the Tong Wee Professional Electrical Engineers Office, system integrator Goldenwell and the industrial computer provider Advantech. TWIEE is responsible for planning, designing and supervising the implementation of the project; Goldenwell for constructing the monitoring control system; and Advantech offering the core control equipment including HMI/SCADA software, control hosts, touch screens, network equipment and programmable automation controllers, a complete industrial-grade application solution which is suitable for hot and dusty environment like tunnels. After deliberate evaluation, they chose Advantech’s product as their main control system, because it can be easily integrated into a system, from the upper computer hosts, screens, network equipment to controllers, everything.

Project Implementation:

	FPM-5151G	15" XGA Industrial Monitor with Resistive Touchscreen, Direct-VGA, and DVI Ports
	EKI-7654C	4+2G Combo Port Gigabit Managed Redundant Industrial Ethernet Switch
	APAX-5570XPE	PC-based Controller with Celeron M CPU
	APAX-5017	12-ch Analog Input Module
	APAX-5040	24-ch Digital Input Module
	APAX-5060	12-ch Relay Output Module
	ADAM-5550KW	8-slot Micro PAC with GX2 CPU
	ADAM-5051S	16-ch Digital Input Modules
	ADAM-5056S	16-ch Digital Output Modules
	APAX-5353	Power Supply for APAX-5570 Series

System Diagram:

System Description:
In the project, the network equipment for illumination control in Lanyang tunnels is composed of Advantech EKI industrial Ethernet switches with a redundant topology, as well as Ethernet to fiber optic converters, ensuring fast and reliable transmissions. Advantech’s APAX-5000 series are used as the main controllers and ADAM-5000 series as sub-system controllers. After installation, the equipment met all requirements and passed operation tests, checked and accepted by the transport authority, and thereafter offering comprehensive monitoring supervision over the tunnels with high reliability.

APAX-5000 series boast high computing power that can handle large volumes of graphic files and documents. Their unique dual controller scheme allows it to handle different tasks separately, with one controller responsible for acquiring data from project nodes in the tunnels and controlling equipment, while the other is responsible for computing and analyzing data as well as communicating with the network. The APAX-5017 is in charge of acquiring data from luminance meters and power meters, APAX-5040 monitoring the status of high-pressure illumination lamps and APAX-5046 controlling the status of the lamps.

ADAM-5051S, a 16-ch digital input module takes charge of monitoring the status of the node lighting and air-conditioning equipment. ADAM-5056S, a 16-ch digital output module, controls tunnel lamps and air-conditioning equipment. A total of 10 sets of controllers were installed in the two tunnels for monitoring supervision. Advantech’s APAX-5000 and ADAM-5000 series have dual Ethernet LAN ports to enable fast monitoring, recording, control, storage and remote maintenance functionalities. Fiber optic communications equipment with networking redundancy was established to ensure non-stopping data acquisition and transmission and raise the reliability of tunnel illumination.

Conclusion:
Advantech PAC products, with system architecture of exclusively high flexibility, expandability and reliability, have been applied in monitoring control systems in many industrial applications. They are an excellent choice for transportation monitoring control systems.