Warehouse Conveyor Control System

A portfolio project simulating an industrial warehouse conveyor/sortation system with PLC-style control logic, fault handling, real-time metrics, and a SCADA-inspired dashboard.

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Overview

This project simulates a warehouse conveyor control system inspired by industrial automation environments (Amazon Robotics / RME-style). It demonstrates control logic, fault handling, monitoring, and performance tracking concepts relevant to automation engineering and robotics coursework.

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Features

Week 1 — Core Simulation Loop

• 3 conveyor zones (Zone A → Zone B → Zone C)
• Each zone tracks sensor state, motor state, and occupancy
• Packages spawn at Zone A and travel through the full line in real time
• Start / Pause / Reset controls

Week 2 — PLC-Style Control Logic

• Rule-based control engine (src/logic/controlRules.js)
• Interlocks: upstream zone stops when downstream is blocked
• Safe-stop state: system halts on any active fault
• Manual / Automatic mode: manual lets operators toggle motors directly
• Active rule reason displayed per zone (e.g. "INTERLOCK: Zone B is blocked")

Week 3 — Faults, Alarms & Diagnostics

• Fault injection buttons per zone: JAM, SENSOR FAILURE, MOTOR FAILURE
• Emergency Stop (E-STOP) halts all zones simultaneously
• Alarm panel with timestamps, severity labels (CRITICAL / WARNING), and ACK flow
• Event log with typed entries: START, STOP, FAULT, RECOVERY, RESET
• Diagnostics view showing zone-by-zone health
• Critical faults require explicit reset before the system can restart

Week 4 — Metrics & Operational Visibility

• Packages completed counter
• Throughput (packages per minute) with live trend chart
• Average cycle time per package through the full line
• Total downtime seconds while any zone is faulted
• Fault event count

Week 5 — Polish

• Industrial SCADA-style dark UI (monospace font, status LEDs, belt animation)
• Fully modular architecture — logic layer separated from UI layer
• Clean component structure ready for extension

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Architecture

src/
├── data/
│   └── simulationDefaults.js   # Constants: zone state, fault types, tick rate
├── logic/
│   ├── controlRules.js         # PLC-style interlock rules (pure functions)
│   ├── faultEngine.js          # Fault injection, alarm building, reset logic
│   └── metrics.js              # Throughput, downtime, cycle time calculations
├── components/
│   ├── ConveyorLane.jsx        # Zone visualization: belt, packages, faults
│   ├── SensorLamp.jsx          # LED-style sensor status indicator
│   ├── MotorPanel.jsx          # Motor state display with manual toggle
│   ├── AlarmPanel.jsx          # Active/acknowledged alarm list
│   ├── MetricsCard.jsx         # Single metric display card
│   └── DiagnosticsPanel.jsx    # Zone health table + event log
├── App.jsx                     # Main state orchestrator
└── App.css                     # Industrial SCADA-style theme

Control Flow

Simulation Tick (1 Hz)
    │
    ▼
applyControlRules(zones, mode)
    │
    ├── Check faults  (ESTOP > MOTOR_FAILURE > SENSOR_FAILURE > JAM)
    ├── Check downstream interlocks
    ├── AUTO mode:   run if occupied and fault-free
    └── MANUAL mode: pass through operator state
    │
    ▼
Update motor states → Advance packages → Update occupancy → Record metrics

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Getting Started

npm install
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173

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Usage Guide

Action	How
Start simulation	Click ▶ START
Pause	Click ⏸ PAUSE
Inject a fault	Click JAM / SENSOR / MOTOR on any zone
Emergency stop	Click ⚠ E-STOP
Clear faults	Click ✓ CLEAR FAULTS or use Diagnostics view
Switch mode	AUTO / MANUAL toggle in header
Manual motor control	Switch to MANUAL, then START/STOP per zone
View event log	Click 🔍 Diagnostics
Acknowledge alarm	Click ACK in Alarm Panel

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Stretch Goals (Future)

• Multiple conveyor lines with a merge/sort point
• Variable speed control per zone
• Maintenance mode with lockout/tagout simulation
• Simulated barcode scanning and sort destinations
• SCADA overview screen with all zones at once
• Unit tests for controlRules.js and faultEngine.js
• Vercel / Netlify live demo deployment

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Relevance to Automation Engineering

This project demonstrates skills directly applicable to Reliability Maintenance Engineering (RME) and automation roles:

• Control logic — PLC-style interlock rules, safe-stop states, mode transitions
• Fault management — Alarm severity, acknowledgment workflows, event logging
• Operational metrics — Throughput, downtime, cycle time (warehouse KPIs)
• Software structure — Modular, testable logic decoupled from UI
• Robotics integration — Foundation for adding robot arm or AGV simulation nodes

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Built as a portfolio project for an Automation Engineer / RME-style GitHub profile.