Development of a Bioreactor Simulator for supporting automation software test and verification

Sammanfattning: The GE Healthcare Life sciences organization develop and manufacture bioreactors, mixers, filtration skids and chromatography systems used together in a biomanufacturing platform. The platform is monitored and controlled by a distributed control system through a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The automation software controlling the platform is today tested and verified together with the physical units. The software use PROFIBUS, an industry standard for industrial automation, for communication and control of the units. Limited access to the physical units is usually a bottleneck and it's difficult to test abnormal situations to make sure the correct alarms are triggered. To reduce the hardware dependency and to provide support during test and verification, a virtual environment is developed to simulate the behavior of a bioreactor during execution. A .NET application has been developed together with a mathematical framework to simulate a cell culture and to return relevant process parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and weight. The results show that it's possible to simulate a bioreactor and to communicate with the control system. The software can be a valuable tool when developing and testing automation software but should not be used for process optimization or tuning of control parameters.