SCADA - Robot DHQ

SCADA is Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition and is a common term used to refer to the electronic control infrastucture in a complex automated factory. The acronym is useful as it helps one recall the major functions of the electronic nervous system that exists in such an environment.

As autonomy is built into the Robot DHQ robot and important intermediate step is supervision. The computer elements need to be designed in such a way that the engineer can inquire into the details of the system and expose any and all variables and parameters needed to debug and improve the system. The analyst needs this same visibility and supervisory abilities to create test scenarios and evaluate the effects of the differences between different combinations of settings and options. This is the essence of the supervisory functions that must be built into the electronic control infrastructure.

Control is part of the supervisory function but is deeper and broader than supervision. The robot must understand and respond to control inputs such as sit, walk and stand. Commands such as these have their use but fall short of being useful for "supervision" while at the same time they above and beyond the needs of the engineer or system analyst.

Data Acquisition is also part of the supervisory function but the emphasis of data acquisition is to collect time series data point collection for analysis in the time domain while specifically logging data elements to serve some specific purpose. The purpose may be anticipated or unanticipated but the data acquisition function needs to be built into the design from the start. Adding this function or feature as an afterthought can become a drain on resources that could be spent more efficiently elsewhere.

This needs to be addressed soon after the servo module and routing module are operational.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.