Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control Community

Community Mission Statement

Community Overview

Distributed Acquisition and Control covers a very broad range of topics.  We are interested in gathering information, analyzing it, making some decision based upon that analysis, and then causing some action to occur.  This requires a network of sensors and actuators governed by some controlling application.  Together these pieces may be referred to as a Transducer Network. This concept has been available for decades under various names, architectures, topologies and technologies.  Sometimes it's called Industrial Control, sometimes SCADA, sometimes Robotics, and sometimes Building Automation.  Whatever the name, these approaches all have one thing in common.  They are Transducer Networks.

However, there are many things these networks do not have in common.  Some transducers are sensors, and some are actuators.  Sensors can measure many things, such as voltage, temperature, fluid or air flow.  Some actuators produce a fixed output voltage, some cause a piston to move, and some cause a motor to turn.  Sometimes communication occurs over Ethernet, sometimes via serial interface, and sometimes devices are hard wired.  Some  control applications consist of simple combinational logic, while others are composed of large application programs consisting of Graphical User Interfaces, real-time data bases and redundant fail-over servers.   Some Transducer Networks are confined to the control of a single small machine, while others are widely distributed and regulate extremely complex processes such as the generation and distribution of electricity within an electrical utility grid.    

Development of Standards                                                                                                                                       

The Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control, JDDAC, community is dedicated to developing open source standards for this environment.  We are dedicated to working with Standards Organizations like NIST the National Institute of Standards and Technology, IEEE the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, ANSI the American National Standards Institute, etc.

Advantages of Standardization                                                                                                                                 

The advantages of standardization are numerous.  They include such benefits as

• Accelerated development of Transducer Network Applications such as industrial control applications, robot control, etc.
• Larger body of compatible equipment
• Reduced cost due to maintenance of multiple networking protocols, etc.

Furthermore, by implementing these standards in Java, we accrue all the benefits of the Java Platform

Current Projects                                                                                                                                                        

In order to achieve these goals the Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control, JDDAC,  community has determined to begin at the lowest level.  
We will develop a standard interface for all transducers.  This is an interface defined by the IEEE and NIST and called IEEE 1451 The Standard for Smart Transducer Interface.  This endeavor is in embodied in our project JTI, the Java Transducer Interface.
Additionally, through the project JPCSI, the Java Precision Clock Synchronization Interface, we are implementing IEEE 1588, the Standard for Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol.  The API that this interface will define addresses the issue of timing on a network where individual devices have clocks of varying precision, resolution and stability.  The protocols allows for synchronization of these clocks to the sub-microsecond level.
Finally, via JDOS we are developing a highly functional platform upon which Distributed Data Acquisition and Control can be hosted.

Future Project Ideas                                                                                                                                                 

It is our desire to  initiate a project in the near future that will wrap OPC messsages within a Java wrapper, thereby leveraging the investment of existing windows based drivers into a more modern and standardized environment.

Other projects we would like to see initiated include:

• Wrapping various types of transducers within JavaBeans.
• The development of plugins for existing IDE architectures that would allow graphical editing of transducers wrapped in those JavaBeans.  This would allow monitoring and control systems developers to quickly and easily "wire"  the topology of their application

Community Governance

The Java Distributed Data Acquisition and Control community is currently assembling a Governance Board by invitation.  The Board will consist of five members, two of which, Jim Wright representing Sun Microsystems, and Jay Warrior, representing Agilent Laboratories, have been selected.  The remaining three members will be in place and the Governance Board will be operating in full capacity by July 2004.  Thereafter membership upon the Governance Board will be by election.

View full Governance Document

Community Participation

Java + RFID increases industrial efficiency
At the Java One event recently in Los Angeles, Jim Wright, Solutions Architect with Sun, demonstrated how industrial Java technology, an initiative developed by aJile Systems, Cyberonix, Mitsubishi Electric Automation and Sun Microsystems, powers robots, sensors and other manufacturing operations with Java technology. This initiative extends Sun's Smart Station technology to the factory. With RFID tags and readers, industrial Java technology increases efficiency and cuts costs by connecting multiple factory automation devices and virtually monitoring the supply chain.
  (Oct 23, 2003)

Java CLDC - Industrial Protocols
In industrial control systems, Java is more & more used in MMIs in a C/S architecture but except Modbus, no industrial protocols exist in Java. Java CLDC has been chosen here to get a portable code. Initial tests are with aJile based embedded systems.