A UML based engineering support system for the development of distributed control applications (original) (raw)

Using UML for the development of distributed industrial process measurement and control systems

… , 2001.(CCA'01). Proceedings of the 2001 …, 2001

Software industry increasingly faces today the challenge of creating complex custom-made Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCSs) within time and budget, while high competition forces prices down. A lot of proprietary solutions address the engineering process and evolving standards exploit the function block construct as the main building block for the development of IPMCSs. However, existing approaches are procedural-like and they do not exploit the maximum benefits introduced by the object technology. In the context of this work, new technologies in Software Engineering as well as modern CASE tools, which assist to improve the efficiency of software development process, are considered. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) was adopted for the definition of a notation to assist in the design and development of open distributed IPMCSs. The proposed notation constitutes the heart of our object-oriented framework that attempts to improve the engineering process in terms of reliability, development time and degree of automation.

Towards a UML based Engineering Support System

9th IEEE Mediterranean Conference on …, 2001

The function block concept has been proposed by recent IEC standards for the development of distributed Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCSs). However the function block approach is purely functional and does not exploit the benefits of the Object Technology. Object Orientation is now a mature technology with many remarkable commercial tools supporting the whole software life cycle. The Unified Modeling Language is becoming the de-facto standard and is currently adopted by the majority of modern CASE tools. In this paper we consider the use of the UML not only during the development phase of the Engineering Support System (ESS) but also for the development of distributed IPMCS applications. A notation is proposed along with a network topology and an interworking unit architecture to form the infrastructure that is necessary for the development of the new generation ESSs.

A tool supported engineering process for developing control applications

Computers in industry, 2006

Engineers in industrial and control sector continuously face problems on developing modern distributed industrial control applications. The latest standard in this domain, the IEC61499, defines a methodology to be used by system designers to construct distributed industrial control applications. New generation Engineering Support Systems (ESSs) are required to support the whole development process. In this paper, a process that introduces new and enhances already defined phases of the IEC61499 development process is presented. Model Driven Development has been adopted and two meta-models have been defined: a Unified Modelling Language (UML) based one that is used in the analysis phase and an IEC61499 based for the design phase. A set of transformation rules, formally defined by means of UML's Object Constraint Language, is defined to ameliorate the transformation process between the two metamodels. The proposed development process is supported by a prototype ESS, namely CORFU ESS, which is used to present a case study. #

Using UML in control and automation: a model driven approach

… Informatics, 2004. INDIN'04. 2004 2nd …, 2004

The Function Block (FB) has been defined by the International Electro-technical Commission as the basic construct for the development of reusable, interoperable, distributed control applications. However, the FB does not exploits recent advances in software engineering. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the new industry standard for modeling software-intensive systems. UML brings in the development process the best software engineering practices. In this paper, we examine the use of UML in control and automation and describe the use of a hybrid approach in the development process of distributed control systems. The proposed approach integrates UML with the already well accepted by control engineers FB construct, to cover the analysis and design phases of the development process. A model driven approach is adopted to move from analysis through design, to implementation. The applicability of the UML profile for Schedulabity, Performance and Time, to the proposed development process, is also examined.

A Tool Integration Framework for Industrial Distributed Control Systems

2006

This paper presents a tool integration approach for supporting the development cycle of industrial distributed control applications. The core of the approach is a formal model of the application that expresses separately the functionality of the control system from the implementation issues. The modeling language selected is XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and the framework proposed makes use of XML technologies for achieving the integration of the tools involved within the development cycle. Following this approach, a set of tools from different domain of expertise (control engineering, software engineering, configuration, maintenance…) have been integrated into a framework. The toolset has been used for designing and validating the distributed control system of a heat treatment line.

Formal Modelling of Industrial Distributed Control Systems

IFAC Proceedings Volumes, 2005

Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCS) are used in most of the industrial sectors to achieve production improvement, process optimisation and time and cost reduction. Integration, reuse, flexibility and optimisation are demanded to adapt to a rapidly changing and competitive market. There is also a growing requirement that all software tools that support the different phases of the development process (design, configuration, management) can be integrated as well. Thus, a consolidation of modelling methodologies for achieving this goal is needed. This paper presents a formal modelling for IPMCS that captures all aspects of the system to design in terms of functionality and implementation (hardware and software). The modelling language (eXtensible Markup Language, XML) allow to implement model validation as well as to easily transform information coming from / going to different software tools, achieving tool integration.

UML-Based Cyber-Physical Production Systems on Low-Cost Devices under IEC-61499

Machines, 2018

Current industry must improve the day-today control and industrial communications of its processes in order to bring itself closer to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. To attain these improvements, which aim towards obtaining agile and intelligent manufacturing systems, the IEC-61499 standard is considered to be the main option by many researchers. Despite its benefits, its biggest drawback is the lack of software tools required for an effective design process for distributed control systems. The following work details the implementation of the IEC-61499 standard in low-cost devices using 4DIAC-FORTE for distributed control of a FESTO MPS 200 educational system, by using Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams as a software tool for modeling the function blocks (FBs) of the IEC-61499 standard. This work demonstrates a simple and easy way to create distributed systems.

Model Driven Development of Process Control Systems Using Uml Profiles Marte and Sysml

2013

Development of effective software application for real-time and embedded systems requires new advanced methods and techniques. This paper presents a model driven approach for development of process control systems based on the UML profile for system engineering – SysML and MARTE profile for analysis and modeling of real-time systems. The suggested approach is illustrated with a simple example for development of tank level feedback control system. Finally some conclusions are made.

UML-PA as an engineering model for distributed process automation

Proceedings of the 16th IFAC World Congress, 2005, 2005

Common engineering approaches and modeling approaches from software engineering are brought together. For the domain of process automation an implementation oriented approach for an object oriented software development for heterogeneous distributed systems is introduced. Model elements for control are added to UML as well as small-scale patterns for plant automation. Besides large-scale patterns are introduced as well as implementational models. The adoption of UML regarding applied diagrams and stereotypes for process automation will be introduced and evaluated.