[China Instrument Network Instrument R&D] “In all areas of human life, we have to rely on automatic control technology. It can be said that the control system is the 'brain' of industrial equipment. This 'brain' is not smart and not only directly determines the production of the enterprise. The scale also directly determines the product quality and production safety.†Talking about the most familiar “control system,†Wang Wenhai, a researcher at the School of Control Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University, used an image metaphor.
High security complete sets of special control devices and systems - project application photos.
On January 9, Wang Wenhai stood for the second time on the podium of the National Science and Technology Awards. With the "high-security complete set of special control devices and systems", including Zhejiang University, Shanghai Electric, Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator, Hangzhou Youwen Automation, Shanghai University and other project teams, won the 2016 National Science and Technology Progress Award second prize.
"If we say that the research and application of the design and development platform for high-end control equipment and systems won in 2013 was focused on the field of general control systems, then this project will focus on the field of special control equipment such as turbine control and elevator control. And so on,†Wang Wenhai told reporters. “Dedicated control devices are tightly coupled with industrial equipment. The complete sets, special applications, and high integration of hardware and software have secondary development workload, high implementation efficiency, high safety, high performance, and high accuracy.â€
In terms of elevators, universal control technology can be applied to ordinary elevators, but the high-speed/ultra-high speed elevators that skyscrapers need have higher requirements for energy feedback, multi-machine mobilization, and emergency braking. Depth coupling on the basis of a common platform, namely "deeper digging", realization of complete sets, and high safety and high performance.
According to Wang Wenhai, the brake life of the high-speed/ultra-high-speed elevator complete control system developed by Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator and Shanghai Electric and Zhejiang University can reach 18 million times, which is 9 times that of other domestic products, and its reliability, comfort and energy efficiency. Such performance indicators have a leading level in China, and the high-speed/ultra-high speed elevators that use this control system have occupied 80% of domestic elevators.
In addition, the project team has also successfully developed a special control system for supercritical/ultra-supercritical steam turbines and a dedicated control system for supercritical/ultra-supercritical DC furnaces, which are widely used in desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal, and sewage treatment. The products are exported to more than 20 countries including the United States, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
The "deeper digging" continues to discover new problems and meet new challenges in the same field. This is also the concept that Wang Wenhai's team has been pursuing for 20 years.
"In the graduate stage, we found that many companies' control systems often malfunctioned. The most common thing we went to was the enterprises and gave them solutions to various problems." Wang Wenhai had studied and worked at Zhejiang University since 1985. At that time, the high-end control equipment of large enterprises in China all depended on imports, becoming the key to the Chinese industry's “not being able to control†and being controlled by others. “This is not only a cost issue, but also a hidden security issue. With the support of the supervisor, Sun Youxian, we decided to set up our own control system,†said Wang Wenhai.
If he said that he first stepped on the R&D control system, Wang Wenhai had a passion. After that, he and his team depended on the resilience of “going down and focusing enoughâ€.
Wang Wenhai (first from the left) and the team are conducting operational experiments on high-security complete control devices and systems.
From the early 1990s, the first set of control systems was introduced, to “fully integrated new generation of industrial automation systemsâ€, to “design and development platforms for high-end control equipment and systemsâ€, and to “high-security complete sets of special control devices and systemsâ€, Like 2G, 3G to 4G, and 5G in the communications field, the control system is also upgraded from one generation to the next, and as each problem is solved, new problems arise again.
"At first I did not imagine that things were so complicated," Wang Wenhai said. For more than 20 years, they have not only touched the edges and corners of their fields, but also carefully studied other related knowledge across the field. They have finally been able to walk further and further into the control system.
"In the next few years, will you still focus on the development of control systems?"
"Of course. We are specializing in control systems and only control systems."
When the reporter threw this question out, Wang Wenhai came up with the latest plan. “With the upgrading of smart manufacturing, the information security of industrial control systems is facing great challenges. This is the problem we will solve next.â€
"Specially control system, only control system", this is also a sentence that Wang Wenhai often blurted out during the interview. In addition to a deep and solid professional foundation, this focus and persistence of “doing one thing only once in a lifetime†must also be a magic weapon for him and his team to succeed.
(Original title: National Science and Technology Awards 丨 focus on control systems to create "smart" brains)