Kari Koskinen

A Migration Path to IEC 61499 for the Batch Process Industry

Many recent contributions in the field of embedded, networked control and collaborative manufacturing, such as dynamic reconfiguration, are based on the IEC 61499 standard, which defines a general-purpose architecture for control applications. The industrial acceptance of the standard remains unclear at this time, largely because there is no obvious way to apply domain-specific, industrially accepted engineering methodologies and concepts in the context of IEC 61499. This paper proposes a way to support the established practices of the batch process domain with IEC 61499, and assesses the feasibility of the approach with an experiment involving professional designers.

Multi-agent based information access services for condition monitoring in process automation

This paper studies issues concerning the application of goal-oriented information agents to condition monitoring tasks in process automation. In the presented approach, an agent-based information access layer is operating as a mediator for various types of process-related information. The agent system may be seen as an active partner for human users in this information intensive application domain. In the future, more and more automation related information will be available in electronic form. Physical sensors provide not only measurements but also reliability information, and numerous configuration details are available in electronic form. The challenge is to integrate as much of the available information as possible, and to automate the processing of this information to enable easy decision-making for end users.

Extending process automation systems with multi-agent techniques

This paper presents a design of a process automation system extended with multi-agent systems (MAS) and experiments with its implementation. According to this design, MAS can be used to extend the functionality of ordinary process automation systems at higher levels of control. Anticipated benefits of this include enhanced reconfigurability, responsiveness and flexibility of the resulting automation system. The design also takes into account particular characteristics of process automation. An agent platform for process automation is presented as a basis for applying MAS. A FIPA-compliant agent platform is extended with process automation specific functionality. The platform utilizes a hierarchical agent organization and a BDI-agent model. Two applications are implemented using the platform. One of these shows how the techniques of distributed planning can be applied in discrete control. The other provides a model for supervisory continuous control using the techniques of distributed search. Experiments performed with a laboratory test environment using the applications are presented. They are able to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach in test scenarios.

An IEC 61499 Based Approach for Distributed Batch Process Control

The function block (FB) construct has been adopted by recent IEC standards for the design of reusable, interoperable, distributed control applications. In this paper, an approach to exploit the benefits of this paradigm in batch process control is presented. A hybrid approach that integrates the FB model with the Unified Modeling Language is exploited and customized to the batch domain taking as starting point the industrially accepted SP88 standard. A toolset was customized to support the presented approach and demonstrate the applicability of the IEC61499 function block model in batch processing. Research experience with industrial engineers in the context of IEC 61499 and SP88 is used to motivate a development methodology that is sufficiently straightforward and efficient. The Java-based IEC61499-compliant run-time environment used for the execution of the control application is briefly described.

SOA-Based integration for batch process management with OPC UA and ISA-88/95

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is a new standard for communication between information and automation systems and devices. An important application area for OPC UA is communication between Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Process Control Systems (PCS). In this paper an approach is presented for utilizing OPC UA in conjunction with SOA-based middleware and ISA-88/95 standards for integration between MES and PCS in the context of batch process management. First, the requirements of communication are identified and then a software design combining the mentioned technologies is proposed. The design is evaluated with the help of an experimental implementation and test scenarios.

Professional designers' adaptations of IEC 61499 to their individual work practices

The IEC 61499 standard enables a number solutions to the same application development problem, and this can result in components that are incompatible even though they are standards based. IEC 61499 underpins a vision for an open object-oriented knowledge economy, so the application of component-based software development principles needs further research. Such principles are not broadly used in the industry, so our goal is to understand how industrial practice needs to be changed. What are the practices that need to be replaced before the object-oriented, component-based paradigm can be accepted? We organized an intensive course on IEC 61499, where professionals and researchers automated a process in teams. Our results show that the background of a designer has a strong impact on the choice of the problem solving approach, and that this can prevent the use of many new and progressive features in IEC 61499

Control software reuse strategies with IEC 61499

The IEC 61499 gives developers considerable freedom and offers several features that support reuse. Although this can help the adoption of the standard into an organizations development process, the range of design decisions can also harm the reusability of software, if components are developed with incompatible design principles. Guidelines are needed, but the unique backgrounds and market positions of industrial players must be respected. The paper analyzes some alternative solutions that were developed by automation designers using IEC 61499; although the solutions differ considerably, it is very difficult to rate their reuse potential absolutely. The factors that must be addressed in a reuse strategy are discussed, concluding with the suggestion that it is not possible to present detailed guidelines that would apply to the entire industry

A concept of an agent-augmented process automation system

This paper studies issues concerning the application of agent technology to process automation systems. We present an approach to achieve increased flexibility and fault-tolerance in process control operations, as well as enhanced systems configuration and maintenance. A functional specification of an agent based system as an extension to traditional process automation systems is described. The software architecture for the implementation of the required functionality is also presented. Furthermore, the connection of a novel type of mobile instrumentation to this concept is presented.

Industrial evaluation of functional Model-Based Testing for process control applications using CAEX

Model-Based Testing (MBT) is expected to increase test coverage and reduce the development and maintenance effort of test suites. However, MBT approaches require source information such as UML diagrams that are not produced by many companies in the industrial automation domain. This paper investigates the possibility of using IEC 62424 and CAEX to facilitate MBT state machine model building with source information specific to the industrial automation domain. An experiment and industry feedback demonstrated a capability for discovering challenging faults, but also, that the modelling effort needs to be reduced for feasibility. First steps for generating MBT models from CAEX design information are presented in this paper.

Process Control with IEC 61499: Designers' Choices at Different Levels of the Application Hierarchy

The IEC 61499 enables different approaches for application development, and this can undermine the emerging open knowledge economy. Developers typically try to use an approach that resembles their previous programming experience, and this can result in the new features of IEC 61499 to be overlooked. Even when designers are able to turn out working software, the various components are often incompatible because they incorporate diverse design principles. In this research, we look at the different levels of the application hierarchy, in order to understand the design decisions that need to be made. We have organized a laboratory experiment with professional designers and researchers, and we use qualitative research methods to understand the design choices that participants with different backgrounds make.