This paper proposes a streamlined framework for commissioning process systems using open standards such as Data Exchange in the Process Industry, Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture and IEC 61499. The proposed workflow focusses on the automatic generation of Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture entry points and software generation, enabling interoperability across different platforms while maintaining a vendor-neutral approach. This approach reduces manual engineering efforts while minimising the risks of inconsistencies in the data. Moreover, the proposed workflow is scalable and capable of adapting to future industrial needs and digital transformation while reducing the time to market of process systems. The proposed workflow is validated through a case study that involves the commissioning of a water process demonstrator. This case highlights how the use of open standards and vendor-neutral approaches can streamline design workflows, minimise manual engineering tasks and improve flexibility and interoperability across the entire process lifecycle. The paper also identifies limitations within current engineering tools and offers recommendations to further enhance the commissioning in the process industry.

This paper proposes a method to build plant simulation models by means of IEC 61499 to execute them directly within PLC concurrently with control. This addresses the problems of cost, time, and incompatibility associated with developing plant simulation models using separate software. The proposed approach improves testing and troubleshooting and provides advanced data processing within the control system. It is inspired by Model-View-Control design pattern and was demonstrated with a conveyor system use case. The plant simulation model can function as a real-time monitor or operate in simulation mode.

The growing global population and the increasing scarcity of arable land highlight the urgent need for reliable and efficient food production systems. With their controlled environments, vertical farms (VFs) offer a promising solution for sustainable food security. Nevertheless, their high energy demands call for innovative approaches to optimize energy consumption while maintaining optimal growing conditions. This paper introduces a novel control-oriented model for VFs, capturing the interactions between crop growth conditions and energy consumption. To address the high energy demand of VFs, the model is integrated into a dynamic energy market characterized by time-varying energy prices and a demand response scheme, which includes a discrete reward to encourage flexible energy consumption. Then, centralized and decentralized receding horizon control approaches are proposed to minimize the energy cost of the VF while ensuring optimal crop growth. Experimental evaluations on real systems of varying scales demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches in reducing costs and ensuring sustainable agricultural practices.

This work develops a concept of a natural language co-pilot for the creation of IEC 61499 applications to accelerate initial testing and development. The co-pilot addresses the challenge of generating the correct function blocks that can be opened in popular IEC 61499 IDEs. In our case study, we focus on the generation of the centralised controller that operates particular equipment to perform a defined process. In addition, we have developed a scheme for how the co-pilot will be integrated into the FBME IDE as an AI assistant in the next steps. In the discussion, we provide valuable information for future co-pilot developers on the possible problems they might face in this area and how to overcome them.

This paper proposes a framework designed to optimise energy consumption in vertical farming. It aims to maximise cost efficiency by balancing between minimising system operations during the electricity price peaks and the ability to trade capacity on the FCR market while also fulfilling constraints on the internal growing process. We consider that the vertical farming system has distributed control with a series of actuators controlled by various spatially distributed PLCs that we refer to as agents, to underline their independence. The paper conducts two experiments for a lO-agent system with a Pareto controller and a lOO-agent system with a Lagrangian approach and shows the balance between more cost-efficient momentary energy consumption control.

This paper proposes an extension to IEC 61499 architecture to better support flexibility and reconfigurability of automation systems while reducing communication overhead. The extension concerns adapter connections between function blocks. It aims at improving the performance of popular "one-line engineering" design pattern. The current adapter connections are supporting one-to-one links between function blocks, through which a bi-direction flow of events and data takes place. The proposed extension, called bus, allows many-to-many connections, i.e., several function blocks can be connected to several function blocks sending and receiving events and data simultaneously. Before implementing the extension by means of compiler and editor, it was prototyped using an existing means of IEC 61499, as a composite function block with several inputs - adapter sockets and outputs - adapter plugs. The prototyping shows feasibility of the proposed extension.

IEC 61499 is an emerging standard for distributed automation which requires well-defined design practises to improve development efficiency. In this paper, we extend the one-line engineering design pattern and provide step-by-step guidelines on its implementation keeping in mind key features of Industry 4.0. The one-line design pattern simplifies the modification of the application structure and the addition of new components to the system without disrupting the existing control application. It also enables easy fault identification and debugging of the system. The design pattern was developed and validated in three different use cases that demonstrated the applicability of the pattern.

This paper presents integration of software services of smart-sensors into distributed process automation systems using the IEC 61499 architecture. This solution enhances interoperability of IIoT devices and reduces system integration effort. Benefits of IEC 61499 for implementing systems with smart sensors mixing both change and time-based signals have been proven. This also promises reduced power requirements of the field devices.