Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Kolkata Unit, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Govt. of India, Bidhannagar, Kolkata.
A modem complex instrumentation system design for on-line graphical monitoring of remote target process system parameters in a river-barrage required designing of several blocks of signal or data-processing electronics. The barrage already had some local arrangement of recording gate-movement through electronic encoders attached with the hoist-motor system at the barrage-structure. So, a design-challenge was to study these encoders and to develop indigenous Microcontroller-based Processing cards for integration. Gate-height inputs were picked through electro-magnetic sensing in encoder-electronics. The electronic signals needed to be properly analyzed so as to ensure that the gate-data are properly compatible with the measurement system. Using Virtual Instrumentation (VI) systems in the control rooms of both industrial and field measurements is now a steadily growing global trend with the easy availability of standard PC based hardware and software which are now rugged and user-friendly. The graphical programming software called LabVIEW has become a dominant standard in the area of Virtual Instrumentation. The developed integrated instrumentation system included LabVIEW based front-ends developed for graphical display of Gate movements in the control room PC screen. Control room PC was equipped with a DAS card. Other options of display software were also tried. This paper would report the result of real-life research-studies and design-experiments performed in the spheres of sensor-electronics and system-electronics for developing a modem Barrage Gate Monitoring System applicable to any river-project with electrically operated barrage-gates.
