The NIH Bio-Technology Unit (Pilot Plant) has various instrumentation needs that have not been addressed previously. This project has been concerned with satisfying these needs by using modern equipment and low-cost desktop-size or laptop-size personal computers (PCs). PCs have been acquired and installed to supply a variety of services, including process control, data acquisition, data analysis, and administrative functions. The instrumentation and process-control functions use commercial equipment as much as possible, and are interfaced using standard I/O connections such as the IEEE-488 GPIB and the RS-232 Serial I/O ports, as well as using direct-digital and analog I/O components in the desktop computer. Utilizing the computational capabilities of the computer/controller allows initial selection of the operating parameters and facilitates dynamic alteration of these parameters as the process continues, allowing optimization of yields or detailed study of the process parameters. Adaptive control techniques have been applied.
