An architecture to integrate IEC 61131-3 systems in an IEC 61499 distributed solution

The IEC 61499 standard has been developed to allow the modeling and design of distributed control systems, providing advanced concepts of software engineering (such as abstraction and encapsulation) to the world of control engineering. The introduction of this standard in already existing control environments poses challenges, since programs written using the widespread IEC 61131-3 programming standard cannot be directly executed in a fully IEC 61499 environment without reengineering effort. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents an architecture to integrate modules of the two standards, allowing the exploitation of the benefits of both. The proposed architecture is based on the coexistence of control software of the two standards. Modules written in one standard interact with some particular interfaces that encapsulate functionalities and information to be exchanged with the other standard. In particular, the architecture permits to utilize available run-times without modification, it allows the reuse of software modules, and it utilizes existing features of the standards. A methodology to integrate IEC 61131-3 modules in an IEC 61499 distributed solution based on such architecture is also developed, and it is described via a case study to prove feasibility and benefits. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed solution does not add substantial load or delays to the system when compared to an IEC 61131-3 based solution. By acting on task period, it can achieve performances similar to an IEC 61499 solution

Industrially Applicable System Regression Test Prioritization in Production Automation

When changes are performed on an automated production system (aPS), new faults can be accidentally introduced in the system, which are called regressions. A common method for finding these faults is regression testing. In most cases, this regression testing process is performed under high time pressure and on-site in a very uncomfortable environment. Until now, there is no automated support for finding and prioritizing system test cases regarding the fully integrated aPS that are suitable for finding regressions. Thus, the testing technician has to rely on personal intuition and experience, possibly choosing an inappropriate order of test cases, finding regressions at a very late stage of the test run. Using a suitable prioritization, this iterative process of finding and fixing regressions can be streamlined and a lot of time can be saved by executing test cases likely to identify new regressions earlier. Thus, an approach is presented in this paper that uses previously acquired runtime data from past test executions and performs a change identification and impact analysis to prioritize test cases that have a high probability to unveil regressions caused by side effects of a system change. The approach was developed in cooperation with reputable industrial partners active in the field of aPS engineering, ensuring a development in line with industrial requirements. An industrial case study and an expert evaluation were performed, showing promising results.Comment: 13 pages, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8320514

Low-cost Industrial controller based on the Raspberry Pi platform

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com o Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica Celso Suckow da Fonseca - CEFET/RJThe low-cost automation field exhibits the need of innovation both in terms of hardware and software. There is a lack of devices that allow the development of control logic that is free from restrictions of domain-specific communication platforms and at the same time able to provide the capabilities aligned to the Industry 4.0 requirements. The objective of this work is to develop an inexpensive, small Industrial Controller that supports the execution of programs in different industrial programming languages. So, it is intended to develop, manufacture and control a low-cost but powerful Industrial Controller based on the use of the single-board computer Raspberry Pi. The study described in this document was carried out on the creation of a hardware platform that is capable of integrating with software frameworks compatible with standards updated and widely used in the industrial automation field. IEC 61131-3 is employed displaying the ease of use and implementation alongside multiple well established programming languages for automation through the OpenPLC platform while IEC 61449 is employed through the 4DIAC framework that has a clear and objective environment capable of providing the appropriate tools for implementation of a distributed control. It is employed the single-board computer Raspberry Pi, a robust device with adequate processing power and communication capability for the elaboration of a platform in the low-cost automation scope. The elaboration of the Industrial Shields, responsible for providing the controller I/O interface took into consideration maintenance concerns of controller integrity through the application of galvanic isolation in the automaton input and output sections. The proposed platform was successfully tested in an automation system prototype comprising Fischertechnik’s Punching Machine being possible to develop the control logic using IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499.O campo de automação de baixo custo demonstra a necessidade de inovação em termos de hardware e software. Há uma falta de dispositivos que permitem o desenvolvimento de lógica de controle livre de restrições de plataformas de comunicação específicas de domínio e, ao mesmo tempo, capazes de fornecer os recursos alinhados aos requisitos da Indústria 4.0. O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um pequeno Controlador Industrial de baixo custo que suporte a execução de programas em diferentes linguagens de programação industrial. Assim, pretende-se desenvolver, fabricar e controlar um Controlador Industrial de baixo custo, mas poderoso, baseado no uso do computador de placa única Raspberry Pi. O estudo descrito neste documento foi realizado na criação de uma plataforma de hardware que é capaz de se integrar com frameworks de software compatíveis com padrões atualizados e amplamente utilizados na área de automação industrial. A IEC 61131-3 é empregada exibindo a facilidade de uso e implementação juntamente com várias linguagens de programação bem estabelecidas para automação através da plataforma OpenPLC enquanto a IEC 61449 é empregada através da estrutura 4DIAC que possui um ambiente claro e objetivo capaz de fornecer as ferramentas apropriadas para implementação de um controle distribuído. É empregado o computador de placa única Raspberry Pi, um dispositivo robusto com capacidade de processamento e capacidade de comunicação adequados para a elaboração de uma plataforma no escopo de automação de baixo custo. A elaboração dos industrial shields, responsáveis por fornecer a interface de I/O do controlador levou em consideração as preocupações de manutenção da integridade do controlador através da aplicação de isolação galvânica nas seções de entrada e saída do autômato. A plataforma proposta foi testada com sucesso em um protótipo de sistema de automação compreendendo a Punching Machine da Fischertechnik sendo possível desenvolver a lógica de controle usando IEC 61131-3 e IEC 61499

Selection of a new hardware and software platform for railway interlocking

The interlocking system is one of the main actors for safe railway transportation. In most cases, the whole system is supplied by a single vendor. The recent regulations from the European Union direct for an “open” architecture to invite new game changers and reduce life-cycle costs. The objective of the thesis is to propose an alternative platform that could replace a legacy interlocking system. In the thesis, various commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software products are studied which could be assembled to compose an alternative interlocking platform. The platform must be open enough to adapt to any changes in the constituent elements and abide by the proposed baselines of new standardization initiatives, such as ERTMS, EULYNX, and RCA. In this thesis, a comparative study is performed between these products based on hardware capacity, architecture, communication protocols, programming tools, security, railway certifications, life-cycle issues, etc

Usage of IEC 61131 and IEC 61499 standards for creating distributed control systems

This publication deals with the application of standards for industrial automation during distributed control systems design. Control systems design consists of a choice between two approaches based on the standards, IEC 61131 and IEC 61499. The question is which of the standards to use for distributed control systems design. The most commonly used standards are briefly listed in the introduction section. Then follows a more detailed description of the IEC 61131 and IEC 61499 standards, future development of the IEC 61499 standard and its usage during the creation of distributed control systems. Further on are lists and descriptions of existing commercial and research software tools, which are necessary in implementing this standard. The main section deals with the methodology for standard application comparison and criteria selection for comparing. This methodology is then verified on real control systems. The final section includes methodology generalization for suitable approach selection, resulting in recommendations for which standard to choose during creation of distributed control systems

Concept and Implementation of a Factory Simulation

Current technological trends, such as cyber-physical systems and the industrial internet of things (IIoT), blur boundaries between software and hardware development. Industrial software systems control whole production factories by using advanced information technology approaches. Hence, the development of such systems requires a tight integration of data and processes between the different software systems, e.g., programmable logic controllers, production planning systems, or enterprise resource planning software. This thesis provides the concept and implementation of a factory simulation including the development of a programmable logic controller (PLC) application based on PLC programming languages. The PLC application controls the execution of customizable production processes and generates process data, e.g., sensor data, production logs, or alarm events, which can be further analyzed, for example, in condition monitoring applications

A model-based approach for supporting flexible automation production systems and an agent-based implementaction

158 p.En esta Tesis Doctoral se plantea una arquitectura de gestión genérica y personalizable, capaz de asegurar el cumplimiento de los requisitos de calidad de servicio (QoS) de un sistema de control industrial. Esta arquitectura permite la modificación de los mecanismos de detección y recuperación de los requisitos de QoS en función de diversos tipos de ésta. Como prueba de concepto, la arquitectura de gestión ha sido implementada mediante un middleware basado en sistemas multi-agente. Este middleware proporciona una serie de agentes distribuidos, los cuales se encargan de la monitorización y recuperación de las QoS en caso de su perdida.La incorporación de los mecanismos de reconfiguración incrementa la complejidad de los sistemas de control. Con el fin de facilitar el diseño de estos sistemas, se ha presentado un framework basado en modelos que guía y facilita el diseño de los sistemas de control reconfigurables. Este framework proporciona una serie de herramientas basadas en modelos que permiten la generación automática del código de control del sistema, así como de los mecanismos de monitorización y reconfiguración de los agentes del middleware.La implementación de la arquitectura ha sido validada mediante una serie de escenarios basados en una célula de montaje real

OPTIMIZATION OF PRODUCTION LINES USING ADVANCED CNC INTERPOLATION METHODS AND DISTRIBUTION OF CONTROL LOGIC

These days, information technology really makes the difference in manufacturing industry. High performance computers allow to realize control algorithms of increasing complexity and high speed reliable computer networks allows the communication between different devices and realization of advanced distributed control applications. In this thesis, we focus on the optimization of the production lines using two different approaches. First we focus on the improvement of a single workstation of the production line, then we focus on the improvement of the interactions between various stations of the production line.. A typical workstation that can be found in a production line is the machine tool for manufacturing workpieces. Advances in manufacturing technologies allow to increase quality and efficiency in production lines, but also ask for new and increasing requirements on the motion planning and control systems. The increase of CPU processing power has permitted, in traditional CNC systems, the introduction of NURBS interpolation capabilities, thus determining a further increase in machining quality and efficiency. This has posed new and still unsolved issues, such as the need to satisfy multiple opposite constraints like limiting chord error, acceleration and jerk and offering real-time guarantees. In addition, the ability of privileging the production throughput by relaxing one or more of the previous constraints in a simple way has emerged as another requirement of modern manufacturing plants. Nevertheless, none of the existing NURBS interpolators have these characteristics. In this thesis, we propose a NURBS interpolator that is able to satisfy all the manufacturing technology requirements and is able to respect, thanks to its bounded computational complexity, the position control real-time constraints. Such interpolator is easily reconfigurable, i.e. it can relax some of the constraints and can be adapted in order to include constraints that were not originally considered. Performances of the proposed algorithm have been evaluated both by simulations and by real milling experiments. However, improvements in productivity of a the machine tool can be neutralized if the various workstations of the production line are not properly synchronized. Distributed control allows to improve the coordination of different workstations but its design is challenging. The IEC 61499 standard has been developed to ease the modeling and design of distributed control systems, providing advanced concepts of software engineering (such as abstraction, encapsulation, reuse) to the world of control engineering. The introduction of such standard in already existing control environments poses challenges, since the widespread IEC 61131-3 programming standard is not compatible with the new standard. In order to solve this problem, this thesis presents an architecture that permits to integrate modules of the two standards, allowing to exploit the benefits of both. The proposed architecture is based on coexistence of control logic of both standards. Each standard interacts with some particular interfaces that encapsulate information and functionalities to be exchanged with the other standard. A methodology of integration of 61131-3 modules in a 61499 distributed solution based on such architecture is also developed, and it is described via a case study to prove feasibility and benefits

Multi-Agent Modelling of Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems for IEC 61499 Based Distributed Intelligent Automation

Traditional industrial automation systems developed under IEC 61131-3 in centralized architectures are statically programmed with determined procedures to perform predefined tasks in structured environments. Major challenges are that these systems designed under traditional engineering techniques and running on legacy automation platforms are unable to automatically discover alternative solutions, flexibly coordinate reconfigurable modules, and actively deploy corresponding functions, to quickly respond to frequent changes and intelligently adapt to evolving requirements in dynamic environments. The core objective of this research is to explore the design of multi-layer automation architectures to enable real-time adaptation at the device level and run-time intelligence throughout the whole system under a well-integrated modelling framework. Central to this goal is the research on the integration of multi-agent modelling and IEC 61499 function block modelling to form a new automation infrastructure for industrial cyber-physical systems. Multi-agent modelling uses autonomous and cooperative agents to achieve run-time intelligence in system design and module reconfiguration. IEC 61499 function block modelling applies object-oriented and event-driven function blocks to realize real-time adaption of automation logic and control algorithms. In this thesis, the design focuses on a two-layer self-manageable architecture modelling: a) the high-level cyber module designed as multi-agent computing model consisting of Monitoring Agent, Analysis Agent, Self-Learning Agent, Planning Agent, Execution Agent, and Knowledge Agent; and b) the low-level physical module designed as agent-embedded IEC 61499 function block model with Self-Manageable Service Execution Agent, Self-Configuration Agent, Self-Healing Agent, Self-Optimization Agent, and Self-Protection Agent. The design results in a new computing module for high-level multi-agent based automation architectures and a new design pattern for low-level function block modelled control solutions. The architecture modelling framework is demonstrated through various tests on the multi-agent simulation model developed in the agent modelling environment NetLogo and the experimental testbed designed on the Jetson Nano and Raspberry Pi platforms. The performance evaluation of regular execution time and adaptation time in two typical conditions for systems designed under three different architectures are also analyzed. The results demonstrate the ability of the proposed architecture to respond to major challenges in Industry 4.0