All this while, we have come across the terms SCADA and HMI, and also seen the details of it. But what about the points of difference between SCADA and HMI? It is important to know it as well. To acquaint you with it, we have dedicated this blog to the same topic.
A SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) System is the one belonging to the Automation or Industrial Control System category, that might consist of directly control or have a communication with one or more of the below:
Data Acquisition Systems (DAQs) Industrial Cloud Computing Environment Historians and Data Storage Servers Networked industrial machines and automation Remote telemetry along with control using burst or continuous communications There is a possibility that a SCADA system can be all the time connected to all of the components in the ICS, or on the other hand at times connected to some or all, and updated through a burst communication over radio or cellular modems (2G/3G/4G, GSM and CDMA technologies) to field equipment and devices.
The Display, Keyboard and Mouse, that I use to program and monitor our SCADA system, is the HMI. The 3 different synced computers, running the Master Program, all the comm paths, the Remote Terminal Units (RTU), in the field, and the HMI, are all part of the SCADA system. A SCADA system needs to have an HMI, while an HMI doesn't have to be part of a SCADA system.
