In this paper, we describe a method to automatically derive the controller for an automated process by an interactive learning approach using a simulation model developed in Visual Components 3D simulation software. The latter is used to record the events of the processes and the controller is generated as an IEC 61499 function block. To create different process scenarios, the actuator signals are triggered manually in appropriate order. The controller logic in Petri net is derived by process discovery algorithms with help of recorded events and conversion of Petri net to IEC 61499 function blocks is done by a software tool configured with a set of transformation rules.

In this paper, we discuss how process mining techniques can be applied in industrial control systems for modeling, verification, and enhancement of the cyber-physical system based on recorded data logs. Process mining is used for extracting the process models in different notations from the recorded behavioral traces of the system. The output model of the system’s behavior is mainly derived using an open-source tool called ProM. The model can be used for such applications as anomaly detection, detection of cyber-attacks and alarm analysis in industrial control systems with the help of various control flow discovery algorithms. The extracted process model can be used to verify how the event log deviates from it by replaying the log on Petri net for conformance analysis.

Recent technological advances and manufacturing paradigm evolutions in industrial settings will dramatically increase the complexity of automation control systems. Traditional solutions to the software development of low-level control kernels (e.g., numerical control kernel, motion control kernel, and real-time communication tasks) are unable to cope effectively with such complexity due to an inadequate level of abstraction and challenges for dependability. This article presents a formal semantics integrated model-driven design approach as a holistic solution. A domain-specific modeling language (DSML) is specified based on the adaption of IEC 61 499 architecture, along with the extensions of task model, task-to-resource allocation, and nonfunctional specification. Both formal structural and behavioral semantics of the proposed DSML are then explicitly defined. Design-time formal verification is also achieved by automated model transformations. A metaprogrammable environment is adopted to facilitate flexible modeling, verification, and code generation. A case study is demonstrated on implementing a prototype computer numerical control (CNC) system using the proposed solution.Note to Practitioners—The low-level automation control system in the modern manufacturing scenarios require more agility while respecting strict timing constraints. Handling such complexity with manual coding is getting harder and less efficient. The DSML and the supporting development environment presented in this article aim to enhance the level of automation, flexibility, and dependability of the whole design process. For the proposed DSML, its syntax is formalized and defined as metamodels, while the semantics is integrated through model annotation and transformation. These definitions are implemented as external rules for a metaprogrammable environment to establish our proposed development tool. The finding and insight from this article can enhance efficiency and dependability during the development of common control kernels, such as CNC kernel and motion controller.

Smart grid is a cyber-physical system with a high level of complexity due to its decentralized infrastructure. IEC 61850 and IEC 61499 are two industrial standards that can address the challenges introduced by the smart grid on the substation automation level. Development of smart grid automation software is a very time-consuming process due to the need to address many requirements and a high degree of customization in every new substation, which limits the adoption of such smart grid technologies in digital substations. This article aims at addressing this limitation by applying a semiformal boilerplates (BPs) model of functional requirements originally presented in informal natural language. The BPs are then modeled formally in an ontology for model-driven engineering (MDE) model transformation. The contribution of this article is the development of the semiformal and formal BP representation in the form of ontology to formulate smart grid requirements and demonstrating how functional requirements can be translated to IEC 61499 control codes using MDE to autogenerate an IEC 61499 protection and control system with structure and control flow. The MDE framework augmented with the requirement models is illustrated in a case study from the International Council on Large Electric Systems representing different stages of modeling in the proposed framework.

The growing need for smart and flexible systems in many areas of industry, such as manufacturing, smart grids, building automation systems and others, has resulted in new design approaches such as Cyber-physical systems (CPS). This raised the need for formal modelling of these systems to address reliability and robustness requirements. This paper addresses the problem of developing a formal semantics, based on abstract state machines (ASM), for modelling of distributed control systems for industrial CPS based on the IEC 61499 standard. The developed approach allows to build formal models of flexible distributed control systems for analysis and verification of various properties.

Efficient application of model-based software design methodologies in industrial automation requires methods and tools for automatic code generation. Formal models can be especially useful to avoid ambiguity, to verify and evaluate performance, which ultimately will improve the quality and reliability of the project and lead to lower design costs. This paper proposes methods for implementing state-transition formal models, such as finite state and pushdown automata, as well as extended Petri nets (A-nets) by means of IEC 61499 function blocks. These implementation approaches can be used in the design of industrial cyber-physical systems for monitoring, diagnostics, conformance checking, detection and selection of specified sequences of events and parameterized objects from an input stream. One of the proposed applications is illustrated using an example of an assembly process with LEGO blocks.

An approach is proposed for the implementation of distributed semaphores in the IEC 61499 architecture on the basis of protocols for solving consensus in a network of unreliable processes that allows developing function blockbased control applications with complex types of interactions using the resources sharing. The models of distributed semaphores (in the form of coloured Petri nets) based on Paxos and Raft protocols for solving consensus are developed, simulation experiments are performed in the CPN Tools, comparative analysis and recommendations are given.

Cyber-physical agnosticism (CPA) is a property of software in cyber-physical systems (CPS) to withstand various disturbances and keep maintaining the required behaviour of the physical process. With the increased research on the use of internet of things (IoT) in industrial automation (IoT-A), there is a need for robust distributed automation control systems that can take into account some overheads of using wireless devices in such an IoT setup. For example, data transfer delays between wireless sensors and the controller might result in the controller acting on a stale sensor value. In this paper, we present an approach of using time-aware computations to let the controller to assess quality of the input data and formal verification as a method to check the CPA property of the IoT-A applications. The paper specifically considers IEC 61499 standard for implementation of distributed IoT-A application. Ptolemy II PTIDES inspired time stamped event semantics is used in the application to keep track of the origin of different events. Timed automata are used to model the plant. The IEC 61499 application together with abstract plant model is then converted to SMV language and NuSMV model checker is used for formal verification. The paper presents a case study of an elevator example to demonstrate the proposed approach. A random delay is used to model the communication delay in the wireless network. It is shown that if the communication delay was not accounted for, then the elevator would stop in-between the floors and open the doors that is considered unsafe. The paper then shows how time-aware computation is used to make sure that the elevator always follows safe behaviour.

An increasingly important goal of industrial automation systems is to continuously optimize physical resource utilization such as materials. Distributed automation is seen as one enabling technology for achieving this goal, in which networking controller nodes collaborate in a peer-to-peer way to form a new paradigm, namely industrial cyber-physical systems (iCPS). In order to achieve rapid response to changes from both high-level control systems and plant environment, the proposed self-manageable agent relies on the use of the service-oriented architecture (SOA) that improves flexibility and interoperability. It is enhanced by the autonomic service management (ASM) to implement software modifications in a fully automatic manner, thus achieving self-manageable and adaptive iCPS. The architecture design of the ASM is provided and integration with SOA-based execution environment is illustrated. Preliminary tests on self-management are completed using a case study of an airport baggage handling system.

Service-oriented architecture is increasingly applied in industrial cyber-physical systems to provide better flexibility and interoperability between various systems and devices. In the previous work ([3]) a service-based execution environment for IEC 61499 is proposed to enhance flexibility and interoperability in distributed automation systems. In this paper, we discuss questions raised by some readers, for example, performance overhead of the proposed method. Also, other clarifications are made in order to address possible confusions expressed in the received comments.

This paper proposes a method for the automatic generation of smart-grid automation systems software from specifications that includes physical system layout and domain-specific functional “recipes.” The generated software has component organization and implements a decentralized approach to smart grid control, which reduces complexity of automation systems design and modification. The proposed method relies on synergies of two industrial standards IEC 61850 and IEC 61499, which are used to represent a part of the specification and the resulting software model, respectively. Then, the specification model is created in a form of ontology and the generation is based on ontology transformation. The proposed method requires an extension to the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) to support the change of an ontology axioms set for the purpose of ontology transformation. The proposed transformation language, called extended SWRL, is introduced and illustrated in use. The result shows the viability of eSWRL as an ontology transformation language when demonstrated in a power distribution case study system.

In this paper a speculative computation method for IEC 61499 function block (FB) systems is proposed to increase the level of parallelism when executing the FB system and thus to increase system's performance and to reduce response time on input events. Data and control dependencies in FB systems are recognized and defined as a basis for organizing speculative execution of FB algorithms. A simulation model of FB systems with speculative execution based on timed stochastic Petri nets is considered. In addition, the paper discusses the results of simulation experiments conducted in CPN Tools.

In recent years, requirements for interoperability, flexibility, and reconfigurability of complex automation industry applications have increased dramatically. The adoption of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) could be a feasible solution to meet these challenges. The IEC 61499 standard defines a set of management commands, which provides the capability of dynamic reconfiguration without affecting normal operation. In this paper, a formal model is proposed for the application of SOAs in the distributed automation domain in order to achieve flexible automation systems. Practical scenarios of applying SOA in industrial automation are discussed. In order to support the SOA IEC 61499 model, a service-based execution environment architecture is proposed. One main characteristic of flexibility-dynamic reconfiguration-is also demonstrated using a case study example.

Improvement of flexibility and interoperability is a usual concern of industrial automation systems developers. Service-oriented architecture is one approach promising improvement of flexibility and interoperability in existing distributed automation systems. However, the intelligent self-managing features cannot be fully achieved by just applying the service-oriented architecture. In order to improve efficiency and reliability of distributed automation systems, the service-oriented architecture is extended in this paper by autonomic service management. The design of the autonomic service manager is provided and some key features such as self-configuration, self-healing and self-optimization are demonstrated. The design of a flexible and interoperable execution environment is also illustrated. Some preliminary tests are completed with a case study.

In this paper an ontology driven approach to the design of control systems, in particular, control applications of IEC 61499 standard is proposed. The source ontology is an ontological description of control object (plant) while the target ontology is an ontological description of a control system implemented using an appropriate programming language. For the ontologies transformation an extension of SWRL (called eSWRL) is informally introduced. An example of transformation of the ontological description of a baggage handling system to the ontological description of a control application based on IEC 61499 function blocks (FB) is in detail considered. The corresponding transformation rules have been developed in the context of this example.

This paper presents an introductory step in the automatic generation of distributed control software for power distribution automation systems based on Ontology Driven Engineering enabled by industrial standards IEC61850 and IEC61499. The novelty of this approach is the ability of automatically generating the logical connections between the logical nodes. The paper covers the several stages of the transformation process, such as developing the IEC61850 ontology and the ontology transformation rules. The developed IEC61850 ontology includes the logical nodes descriptions and additional contextual relations between the logical nodes which is lacking in the IEC61850 SCL configuration language. Then, the IEC61850 ontology is transformed to an existing IEC61499 ontology, adding classes of IEC61850 logical nodes as IEC61499 function blocks in the IEC61499 ontology. The means of the transformation of the ontologies is based on the eSWRL sematic web rules language, an extension to the rule language SWRL. The end result is the development of an IEC61850 ontology and a set of eSWRL rules which facilitates the ontology transformation.

Agent technology in the power system domain is the realm of theory and laboratory simulation. Agent-based systems, due to their complexity of concept and design, may appear difficult to implement and maintain, and hence more expensive, which is a prohibiting factor against using the new technology. Designing a decision-making system for an agent is one of the most complex tasks in the development of agent-based systems. Designing a decision-making system enabling proactive behaviours while maintaining reasonable complexity is a challenge. This paper proposes an deliberative decision making system for an industrial agent which allows pro-active behaviour of the agent while maintaining reasonable complexity. It employs a combination of practical and procedural reasoning principles. The formal definition of the proposed deliberative layer is derived in the paper. The procedural reasoning is based on IEC 61850 Logical Node concept and implemented with IEC 61499 reference architecture. The proposed agent architecture is demonstrated on the Fault Location Isolation and Supply Restoration application and validated via so-simulation with Matlab model of the sample distribution network.

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), initially developed for general purpose computing, is becoming increasingly popular in industrial automation, especially due to the growing importance of distributed measurement and control systems, Internet of Things and wireless sensor network infrastructures. There are two serious gaps in the current implementations of SOA for automation: the lack of a proper standard form for representing the logical relation between services at the system level, and, in particular, lack for a proper visual representation format enabling intuitive understanding and reconfiguration of services during the system lifecycle. In this paper, it is shown how these gaps can be filled using the IEC 61499 function block architecture in the most intuitive and natural way. The ideas are illustrated on example of systems, composed form intelligent mechatronic devices. Such features, as software reuse, flexibility, reconfigurability and scalability are demonstrated. The paper shows complementarity of the SOA and IEC 61499.

This paper proposes a new methodology of migration from IEC 61131-3 PLCs to IEC 61499 function blocks. The aim of this migration process is to recreate IEC 61131-3 applications in IEC 61499 implementations with equivalent execution behavior. The formal model of the IEC 61131-3 standard for migration and cyclical execution model is defined. This method also creates a foundation for correct-by-design development tools and automatic migration between the IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 standard. Formal migration rules based on ontology mappings, restoring execution model including tasks and programs scheduling and variables mapping with different access levels, are provided. A transformation engine for importing PLC code, mapping from PLC ontology model to function block model and code generation is implemented based on the ontological knowledge base and semantic query-enhanced web rule language. The migration approach is demonstrated on a simple airport baggage handling system.

The IEC 61499 standard is designed for distributed control and proposes new visual form of programming using block diagrams with embedded state machines and unlimited hierarchical nesting and distribution across networking devices. Such visual programs require new methods of automatic syntactic and semantic analysis. This paper proposes a new approach to semantic analysis using multiple-layered ontological knowledge representation and rule-based inference engine. Its working is demonstrated on example.

The international standard IEC 61499 for the design of distributed industrial control systems defines an abstract model of function blocks (FB) which allows many different semantic interpretations. As a consequence, in addition, so-called execution models were proposed to specify the execution order of FBs. The variety of models leads to the incompatibility of tools and hinders the portability of automation software. To achieve a degree of execution model independence, in this paper, design patterns are suggested that make FB systems-robust to changes of execution semantics. A semantic-robust pattern is defined for a particular source execution model. The patterns themselves are implemented by means of the FB apparatus and therefore are fairly universal. The patterns can be defined and implemented using the FB transformations expressed in terms of Attributed Graph Grammars.

This paper deals with refactoring of execution control charts of IEC 61499 basic function blocks as a means to improve the engineering support potential of the standard in development of industrial control applications. The main purpose of the refactoring is removal of arcs without event inputs. Extended refactoring, proposed in this paper, also helps to get rid of potential deadlock states. The ECC refactoring is implemented as a set of graph transformation rules. A prototype has been implemented using the AGG software tool. The refactoring can help in implementing equivalent transformation of control programs without introducing errors.

This paper presents a new approach to modelling and verification of function block applications of the IEC 61499 standard. The approach uses the language of logic programming Prolog to represent a model of function block network and to verify its properties. The class of properties that can be checked is extended to more substantial queries providing in return not only "yes" or "no", but also the parameters explaining the reasons. The models essentially use the topological properties of the function block network and allow data of arbitrary types (not only Boolean) be used in the queries.

This paper suggests a comprehensive engineering framework for software design for component-based distributed industrial automation based on the combination of UML with the function block concept of the newly emerging international standard IEC61499. Four UML diagram types have been used, namely: class, sequence, cooperation and state-chart diagrams. The UML design is transformed then to the executable function block specification following the IEC61499.