Monika Wenger

A research roadmap for model-driven design of embedded systems for automation components

The aim of this paper is to describe a research roadmap for a multi-domain model-driven embedded systems design approach and the corresponding meta-model which is applicable to the domain of complex Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS). The special requirements of the industrial automation sector are taken into account by this novel approach, utilizing existing model-driven techniques. This approach is currently being developed in the Framework Seven (FP7) Embedded Systems Design project MEDEIA funded by the European Commission.

Transformation of IEC 61131-3 to IEC 61499 based on a model driven development approach

This paper provides a possibility to convert existing IEC 61131-3 projects into the newer IEC 61499 standard and therefore offers the use of its modern concepts also for the currently applied standard. Based on a model driven development approach as well as proper concepts and rules an implementation method for a transformation of IEC 61131-3 into IEC 61499 is presented. The transformation process is realized through an IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 compliant engineering environment. And an appropriate example model is provided by an IEC 61131-3 convenient development tool. After the transformation an available IEC 61499 development tool is used to check the transformation outcome.

Transformation of existing IEC 61131-3 automation projects into control logic according to IEC 61499

The new IEC 61499 standard provides new concepts and paradigms of system engineering to the automation and control system domain. But the customer can not start from scratch and develop their systems new as they have invested a lot of money into libraries and control logic. Therefore this paper aims at a transformation of existing IEC 61131-3 automation projects into the models of the new IEC 61499 standard. Next to the transformation of the control logic itself it is of eminent importance to consider also the overall architecture defined in IEC 61131-3, as especially the different kinds of variables influence the functionality of an automation project to a big extent.

Multi-domain model-driven design of Industrial Automation and Control Systems

The aim of this paper is to describe a multi-domain model-driven embedded systems design approach which is applicable to the domain of complex Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS). The special requirements of the industrial automation sector are taken into account by this novel approach, utilizing existing model-driven techniques. This is currently being developed in the FP7 Embedded Systems Design project MEDEIA funded by the European Commission.

Semantic correct transformation of IEC 61131-3 models into the IEC 61499 standard

This paper provides a possibility for a semantic correct transformation of existing IEC 61131-3 projects into the newer IEC 61499 standard. Based on a model driven development approach as well as proper concepts and rules this paper describes a suitable way to overcome some semantical problems which occurred during the transformation process. Those semantical problems regard some differences between the libraries of IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 as well as the extraction of the actual execution sequence of IEC 61131-3 programs. Both issues are supposed to be solved by auxiliary transformations. One static transformation which converts IEC 61131-3 function blocks into simple function blocks. And one project dependent transformation which extracts the execution order of IEC 61131-3 function block networks.

Model-driven engineering of networked industrial automation systems

The configuration of communication networks is still an extensive part of the engineering process especially within heterogeneous and hybrid networks. Reducing the engineering time by an automatic configuration of the communication networks would not only save time and costs it would also allow the engineer to concentrate more on the design of the automation applications and processes. Therefore this paper offers a concept to describe networked industrial automation systems especially the communication requirements requested by the control application as well as the restrictions given by the hardware equipment. It also presents how to integrate these descriptions within a framework for the calculation of possible communication paths.

Towards an increased reusability of distributed control applications modeled in IEC 61499

Reusability of control code is crucial for future industrial automation in order to allow the development of high quality control systems in less time and with less cost. A key stopper for automation software reuse is the current intertwining of control logic with hardware specific code. Existing approaches that tackled such a problem could lead to improvements but will not sufficiently solve this issue. In this work we investigate a concept based on a logical grouping of I/Os to so called Instrumentation- and Control-Points and decoupling them from the control application by applying IEC 61499s adapter concept. In two industrial motivated application examples we show that this concept fulfills the requirements for increasing the reusability of control code by separating control logic from hardware specific code. Moreover, it leads to a better application software structure which is easier to maintain and to understand.

Re-use of IEC 61131-3 Structured Text for IEC 61499

Because of the wide industrial adoption of IEC 61131-3 there exist a large amount of libraries and know-how, much of it in ST. Reusing these for IEC 61499 can greatly reduce the cost for changing to the new paradigm and allows to leverage existing investments. In this work we investigate how such a re-use can be performed. We develop a concept for IEC 61499 FBs encapsulating existing ST based IEC 61131-3 FBs and functions. Furthermore we develop transformation and design guidelines for using existing ST FBs and functions inside of IEC 61499. This not only improves an automatic transformation of IEC 61131-3 to IEC 61499 but also provides valuable input for IEC 61499 application developers as well as for the standardization committee to improve and extend IEC 61499.

Utilizing IEC 61499 in an MDA control application development approach

Traditional control application engineering techniques tend to mix logical functionality with hardware access methods. This greatly impedes reusability. Through separation of the logical control application domain and the specific hardware domain the MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) proposes a solution to this problem. In the domain of embedded systems development this approach brought a great advantage in reducing the complexity of the development process. In this paper we investigate if and how IEC 61499 can be utilized as a DSL (Domain Specific Language) for control application development in the domain of industrial automation systems. We will show the potentials of our work by developing a sample control application using the suggested methods.

Cloud Based Monitoring of Timed Events for Industrial Automation

This paper presents ideas towards automatic monitoring of industrial automation devices by using a cloud based monitoring infrastructure. We are in particular aiming at fine grained timed properties that can be described using formal specification techniques such as behavioral types. Possible applications are in the areas of remote maintenance and servicing as well as commissioning and testing. Our work is based in the IEC 61499 standard.