Model-driven design and implementation of discrete event control for a machine tool control system

Abstract

Design and implementation of discrete event control for machine tool control system is extremely complicated. In current industrial practice, designers tend to derive implementations from a rough system design in terms of system specification analysis. Such an implementation-based method leads to ad hoc system design and implementation, with system performance that relies highly on the designers' experiences. Usually a long ‘cycle and debug’ stage is needed to fix errors after a prototype system has been built. In addition, it is always difficult to build a new system by modifying an existing one when the specification is changed. In this paper, the authors propose a model-driven method to enhance the design and implementation of discrete event control for a machine tool control system. Based on the system specification, an executable model is first built. This model is then evaluated by simulation to eliminate the design errors before implementation. Finally for system implementation, a separate process engine with operation rules is obtained from the model. A key module of machine tool control system is used to illustrate the proposed method.