Intelligent Control

The technical objective of this program is to develop and implement a new generation of integrated, intelligent control systems for continuous, bulk and batch processing, or discrete parts manufacturing and assembly operations. Solutions must have applicability across multiple industry sectors or significant impact within a single industry with a wide variety of ultimate user applications. Thus, the common technical thread that binds such a broad population of industry sectors into a well-defined focused program is the difficult technical challenge of integration and introducing greater intelligence into the next, and significantly improved, generation of controls.

The business objective is to enable a broad spectrum of U.S. industry to significantly increase productivity, quality, safety, and environmental protection while reducing cost and time to market for new products by means of improved control of industrial operations through the introduction of industrial control systems that have been significantly improved through the addition of intelligence and greater systems integration.

The scope is limited to the development, integration, and (demonstration) of broadly applicable advanced technologies for intelligent control of manufacturing processes.

Technology: integration of elements of a control system - including sensors, actuators, measurement and control algorithms, software, and product and process models - into open architecture, intelligent control systems will be required.
Desired characteristics: integrated system solutions that are intelligent, having the ability to learn and adapt in a real time dynamic operating environment; open, allowing integration of either new or current off-the-shelf hardware and software components into customized applications; modular, permitting plug-and-play of software and hardware components; scalable, enabling easy reconfigurable incremental upgrades to meet customized application needs; economical, achieving high benefit with low cost for initial procurement, system integration, and life cycle maintenance; and maintainable, supporting robust plant operation (maximum uptime), expeditious repair (minimal downtime), and easy maintenance.
Breadth of proposals: control systems for entire plant sites, or for smaller production facilities such as work cells, or for individual machines and processes. Industrial processes of interest include discrete parts manufacturing and assembly, continuous, bulk and batch processing operations, from raw material production to final disposition. Industry sectors include measurement and control system builders, system developers, systems integrators, software and hardware component providers, and industrial users of control systems.

High level corporate or general management, finance, marketing, human resources and enterprise scheduling applications.
Single application integration technology that cannot be transferred to other systems (i.e., point solutions).
Development of unique standalone applications that do not contribute to the overall goal of an adaptable plug-and-play manufacturing environment.
Standalone sensors, actuators, control algorithms, or process models that are not part of an integrated control system.
Consensus-building activities, including large-scale demonstrations of essentially proven technologies to foster industry endorsement.
Development of specifications or data models without provision for realistic proof-of-concept (demonstrations).
Electronic commerce proposals unrelated to industrial processing.
Mission-specific needs of government agencies including the Department of Defense.

Based on this scope statement, a strong proposal would address a significant industrial control problem with a complete hardware/software solution. Due to the complexity of the problems that are expected to be addressed, we further envision significant partnering, subcontracting or the formation of joint ventures will be needed to assemble the expertise needed to overcome the technical and business challenges and to demonstrate feasibility. Further, because a critical component of this Intelligent Control focused program is to encourage development of broadly applicable industrial control systems (i.e., development of a technology-based infrastructure), a highly-rated proposal would be expected to demonstrate that the proposed project will go beyond involving traditional, vertically integrated members of an industry segment (i.e., researcher, developer, supplier, and end-user). A highly-rated proposal should also demonstrate interest and participation from other industrial segments (i.e., broadly applicable, rapid technology diffusion).