The 1980s have seen the introduction of personal computers on a huge scale in industry. The range has widened with the increased use of personal computers to monitor and control processes. This is a collection of papers on the use of personal computers in control, monitoring, modelling and fault diagnosis which looks at the opportunities and limitations of personal computers in the process industries. The areas covered include the convenience or otherwise of using PCs for real-time monitoring and control, the desirability or otherwise of using PC-based expert systems for real-time control, the safety aspects of the use of computer control and a critical analysis of current developments in control software and hardware for PCs. Trends are identified in the needs, requirements and interests of the process industries with a view to encouraging new products and improving existing ones. Chemical engineers specializing in process control, computer manufacturers and software developers, end-users of PC-based control software and hardware and chemical engineering academics should all find this work useful.
