Mobile Automation designed and commissioned the PLC and SCADA systems for a major appliance manufacturer's new MEPS (Minimum Energy Performance Standards) test laboratory, across two test rooms.
The challenge
Certifying appliance energy performance to MEPS demands precise, calibrated environmental measurement and resilient sensor communications — the control system has to hold accurate conditions, recover gracefully from sensor dropouts, and give staff a secure, easy-to-use interface.
Our approach
Mobile Automation's engineers built the control and data platform from the field sensors up, focusing on measurement accuracy, communications resilience and a usable administrator interface.
Scope of works
- Modbus client with a state machine reading the Vaisala sensor network; calibration-calculation logic with multiplexing between calibrated and uncalibrated readings, and communications-recovery handling for disconnected sensors
- Relative-humidity and dew-point calculation, air-off sensor ranging, and adjustable IP addressing
- Administrator HMI / SCADA with single-login user access control, trend pages, and integration of a new power-meter card and pump configurations
- Laboratory lighting brought under safety control and E-stop function verified
- Resolved SCADA-to-PLC reconnection after a Windows 11 upgrade and corrected sensor wiring returned from external calibration
The results
- A functioning MEPS test laboratory with calibrated, self-recovering measurement
- Secure, single-login administrator interface for lab staff
- Resilient sensor communications that recover automatically from dropouts
- In-house appliance energy-performance testing and certification enabled