What is Fault Tolerant Control?
Fault-tolerant control systems recognize and compensate for malfunctioning control system components and allow for repair while continuing to perform specified tasks without interrupting the process. Highly integrated control systems such as Tricon are used in critical process applications where safety and availability are critical.
What is Tricon?
Tricon is an advanced controller that provides fault tolerance through Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) architecture. TMR integrates three independent parallel control systems and extensive diagnostic capabilities. The system utilizes a two-out-of-three voting system to provide highly integrated, error-free, uninterrupted process operation without a single point of failure, and highly integrated, error-free, uninterrupted process operation without a single point of failure.
Tricon controllers use three identical channels. Each channel executes the control program independently of the other two channels and in
in parallel with the other two channels.
All digital inputs and outputs utilize a dedicated hardware/software polling mechanism.
Analog inputs, on the other hand, use a median selection program.
Since each channel is isolated from the others, a single point of failure in any one channel is not passed on to the other.
A single point of failure in one channel is not passed on to another channel. If a hardware failure occurs in one channel, the other channels will overwrite it. At the same time, failed modules can be easily removed and replaced, and the controller runs online without interruption.
Using the Triple Tricon System simplifies control program setup because it can be run as a single control program.
Using the Triple Tricon system simplifies control program setup because it operates as a single control program.
From the user’s perspective, the Triple Tricon System simplifies control program setup because it operates as a single control system.
The user simply connects the sensors and actuators at one terminal block and then wires them at one terminal block.
The Tricon system consists of a main chassis and up to 14 expansion or chassis and up to 14 expansion chassis or remote expansion (RXM) chassis. The maximum system size of the system is 15 chassis supporting a total of 118 I/O modules as well as communication modules connected to OPC clients, Modbus devices, other Tricons and external host applications on Ethernet (802.3) networks, and Foxboro and Honeywell Distributed Control Systems (DCS).
