I am from the industrial controls world, where we use a lot of embedded controls. I see no reason why drupal would not be an excellent batch scheduling system. Its almost perfect infact.
But there is just one glaring problem with it that I can not figure out at the moment, and I could really use some help. Its the DATASOURCE module. is it really working? and where is the documentation.
The model I see is that a Node can include an ingredient list, and some batch operations. the ingredients would be scheduled events... the embedded devices would make remote XML calls of some kind to the DRUPAL system to get the next orders. These calls would be either timed events or interrupt based.
the embedded devices are usually PLC's which dont have very much horse power, but you can add a PC104(linux based) to handle complications.
DRUPAL can even pump data to a FLASH screen.
I dont thnk DRUPAL would work well for data aquisition, as the could be to much coming in. Pumping it directly to a dedicated DB makes more sence in my mind, then some kind of DataMining solution on the side.
This sort of stuff already exists in the industrial controls world, but its very expensive. Factory owner expect to pay a lot of money becuase they want to be able to yell at someone if something screws up on the line. or worse, something gets broken.
another nice feature, is that HTML pages are much lighter and simpler to support on diskless workstations, even these new ATOM based terminals, then the alternatives.
So, there is my two sense, come up with a solution for displaying data, ideally in views Datasource ( my first pick) and you have a very viable industrial solution. if anyone wants to do more with this, let me know.