Overview
Adroit
is an Open Automation toolkit created from experience gained supplying
thousands of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Human-Machine
Interface (HMI) and other plant-wide information systems to users in 20 countries
over a period of more than 15 years using platforms such as VMS, UNIX, and
Windows
It
fulfils all the key requirements for a net-centric process automation software
toolkit that can be readily tailored to meet the needs of a wide range of
industries and applications while at the same time still preserving a basic
common underlying design.
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Unmatched openness: ActiveX, OLE Automation,
OPC, DDE, etc
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Unparalleled database connectivity:
ADO, OLE DB, ODBC, SQL Server, Oracle, etc
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Local- and Wide-Area Network Support,
including Internet/Intranet
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Flexible object- and property-based
server object model: allows open access to any object's property from anywhere
(subject to security)
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Active Clusters: server redundancy
that really works - without any user scripting or application programming
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Advanced features: true vector graphics,
plant VCR, delayed history, full data quality attributes, including proper
data timestamp handling
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Very high performance: no 16-bit legacy,
more than 10 years native NT experience, 64-bit ready, etc
Ease
of Use
The
Adroit User Interface conforms fully to the Windows user interface guidelines;
so right from the start users are comfortable with the "look and feel". Adroit
ships with advanced configuration tools and functions that readily permit
a small prototype configuration to scale up easily to a configuration encompassing
thousands of tags and hundreds of screens.
Template
screens for both plant mimic and trend displays supplement in-built mimic
wizard capability. Together these capabilities foster a very high degree of
re-use - something acknowledged as key in achieving optimum productivity.
Adroit
is fully online-configurable either locally or remotely, from an in-built
configurator window, or from standard spreadsheet and database tools such
as those present in MS Office. Conversely all configuration files can be exported
in standard CSV format, extended, and re-imported. This technique is also
useful for auto-generating project documentation.
Flexibility
Adroit's
flexibility stems from its adaptable and extensible design. Adaptable, due
to its object-based server and object-oriented graphical User Interface, and
extensible because of its distributed and easily re-configurable client-server
architecture. Several system integrators and OEMs have been able to achieve
added value by developing Adroit add-ons in Visual Basic, Visual C++, MS Office,
etc
The
client-server architecture allows the user to spread the processing load of
SCADA functions such as scanning, data logging, alarming, etc and HMI functions
such as visualizing, trending, reporting, etc across any number of local-
or remotely-networked servers and workstations.
Using
the driver development toolkit new Adroit protocol drivers can fairly easily
be developed. These are the means by which Adroit interfaces to front-end
devices such as PLCs.
Using
the agent development toolkit power-users are able to add their own unique
data types to the Adroit Server. They are still able to benefit from all of
Adroit's standard SCADA HMI functionality on instances of these data types,
thereby achieving the ultimate in flexibility and customization.
Scalability
Adroit
is scaleable - users can add power and resources as required, building the
system from a single stand-alone computer to a very large installation that
may encompass multiple sites - with very little effort. Scalability is achieved
by adding additional "full service" nodes to the network (i.e. an
installation consisting of a Server and User Interface), User Interface only
"view" nodes, or "blind" Server nodes. For example, consider
a stand-alone installation consisting of a single computer where both the
User Interface and Server are running. As the application grows, the User
Interface could be hosted on a different computer forming a physically separate
"client" in the Adroit distributed client-server architecture. This
would allow more processor resources to be dedicated to the Server, an expansion
strategy that neither compromises the integrity of existing data nor requires
reworking of the existing configuration.
Another
aspect to scalability involves the use a symmetric multi-processor servers
and workstations. Adroit is highly multi-threaded at the server and client
level and replacing a single processor machine with a multiprocessor machine
would result in a significant degree of actual concurrent execution instead
of just the apparent concurrent execution that occurs when several Win32 threads
compete for a single processor.
Connectivity
Adroit's
byline is Open Automation Technology. This byline has been deliberately
chosen because Adroit provides unmatched openness. First of all, having a
very orthogonal object- and property-based architecture at the heart of the
server, and secondly exposing this model through all relevant present day
standards: ActiveX, OLE Automation, OPC Client and Server, ADO, OLE DB, XML,
and even DDE if you must, provides the ultimate in open system connectivity.
All
of the API mechanisms listed above, in addition to providing the obvious get
and set methods, have a way of subscribing or registering as
being notifiable when a property value, quality or timestamp changes. This
makes for very elegant and efficient application development using Adroit
as the plant-wide process data repository.
Advanced
Features
Adroit
contains several truly differentiating high-end, advanced features including:
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Mimic replay (Plant VCR)
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Delayed history, including proper treatment
of time stamped data
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Hot standby server redundancy via Active
Clusters
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Template mimics and trend displays
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Easy connectivity via ADO to any OLE
DB provider or ODBC driver including all industry-standard SQL databases
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Server installable as Windows Service
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Wide-area Network Support (WAN Link)
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Vector-based mimics and wizards meaning
there's no additional development needed for different screen resolutions
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Unmatched open access via ActiveX,
OLE Automation, OPC, DDE, CSV, ADO, etc