Industrial Automation Software Research Articles

Dealing with applications in Industrial IoT

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) also known as Industry 4.0, consists of industries that utilize IoTs to facilitate logistics, manufacturing, transportation, oil and gas, energy/utilities, mining and metals, aviation, and others. Though a lot of companies have proceeded into a lot of areas utilizing IIoT, its applicability in a lot of is still not explored and remains unpredictable. Its evolution is similar to that of the Internet in the early 90s, where it initially appeared and slowly gained momentum in the 20th century to almost becoming and indispensable aspect of human life in the 21st century. Robotics and control are already a part of most of the manufacturing companies, however, when it comes to real-time applications in manufacturing, IIoT may not come to the rescue. Another aspect that separates the internet and IIoT is that the internet is based on the bet effort delivery model which is acceptable for e-commerce and man-machine interactions. However, failures in an IIoT scenario such as air-traffic monitoring, automated manufacturing can have serious consequences. Industry 4.0 is an initiative taken up by industries to use IoT in industries and many such initiatives have been taken up by different companies and countries. For example, GE has already invested $1billion to improve its asset performance and business operation by using IIoT services. Germany has started an initiative called “Industry 4.0”, a strategic initiative that brought together leaders from private and public sectors as well as from academia to create a detailed plan of action for incorporating digital technologies into German industries. Other countries such as Italy, Netherlands, and France have invested in setting up smart factories and industries. China has also started a project called “Made in China 2025” to integrate digital technologies and industrialization. A major hindrance in adopting IIoT is that the smart devices often speak different “languages” that existing industrial automation software uses, which creates a communication gap, and hence standardization is necessary. Overcoming such bottlenecks and adopting IIoT can help automate the production techniques, for instance, manufacturers could increase their productivity by a margin of 30%. The capabilities of IIoT can be explored in areas such as sensor driven computing, industrial analytics, and intelligent machine applications. The main aim of this topic is to explain various applications inf IoT in industries.

Development and Research of the Optimal Control System of Electroplated Processes in Multi-Anode Baths

The relevance of increasing the distribution uniformity of the electroplated coating thickness on the surface of details is considered in the article. The analysis of control actions that affect the uniformity of the electroplated coating thickness was carried out, during which preference was given to the use of multi-anode baths. The existing modes of the electroplated process in multi-anode baths aren’t widely used due to the constructive implementation complexity arising from the need to ensure the uniformity of the resulting coating thickness for multi-assortment industries. The authors propose an electroplated process mode, during which the optimal number and anodes size are found, as well as the current and duration of its flow through them, which ensure the alignment of the electric field lines distribution in the electrolyte between the anodes and the coated detail surface. The control system structure (mathematical model, search algorithm, control and actuator) with feedback on the current through the detail surface is designed to implement considered mode optimal control and an algorithm for its operation (based on the PID law and relay control) is proposed. The practical implementation was carried out using the industrial automation software package CoDeSys V2.3 in the programming language FBD. The proposed mode optimal control was found on the example of applying a zinc coating to a Z-shaped detail. As a result of simulation modeling, the control loop was tuned to the squared deviation integral minimum of the setpoint and the correctness of the control system operation algorithm was demonstrated by a relative average coating thickness deviation up to 5 %, which is comparable to the error of modern thickness gauges.

One-Click Formal Methods

Formal methods are mathematically based approaches for specifying, building, and reasoning about software. Despite 50 years of research and development, formal methods have had only limited impact in industry. While we have seen success in such domains as microprocessor design and aerospace (e.g., proofs of security properties for helicopter control systems1), we have not seen wide adoption of formal methods for large and complex systems, such as web services, industrial automation, or enterprise support software.

Securing the testing process for industrial automation software

The testing of automation applications has become a crucial pillar of every production systems engineering (PSE) project with the proliferation of cyber-physical systems (CPSs). In light of new attack vectors against CPSs, caused, inter alia, by increased connectivity, security aspects must be considered throughout the PSE process. In this context, software testing represents a critical activity, as a lack of adequate security mechanisms puts a variety of valuable assets (e.g., system configurations and production details) at risk of information theft and sabotage. Thus, organizations must analyze the security of their software testing process on a regular basis in order to counter these threats. Yet, due to the required security knowledge or budget constraints for security-related expenses, these undertakings may be destined to fail. In this work, we present a framework that supports the semi-automated security analysis of an organization’s software testing process for industrial automation software. This framework is based on the VDI/VDE 2182 guideline and integrates an ontological approach to model the necessary background knowledge, including, e.g., data flows, assets, entities, threats, and countermeasures. The framework comprises a default model of the testing process, which users can adapt so that the target of inspection accurately reflects their software testing environment. In particular, the testing process considered for creating the default model is based on best practices observed at a major system integrator, aligned with the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 series of software testing standards. Moreover, we developed a tool that enables the automatic generation of attack–defense trees from such formal models of the organization’s software testing process. We demonstrate how the proposed framework can be applied to a generic software testing process to answer essential questions in conducting a security risk analysis. The results of the exemplary security analysis provide guidance, should raise awareness in the industrial domain, and support effective, yet cost- and time-efficient security analyses. Finally, we evaluate the presented framework by performing a comprehensive comparison of suitable security analysis tools.

Developing and evolving a DSL-based approach for runtime monitoring of systems of systems

Complex software-intensive systems are often described as systems of systems (SoS) due to their heterogeneous architectural elements. As SoS behavior is often only understandable during operation, runtime monitoring is needed to detect deviations from requirements. Today, while diverse monitoring approaches exist, most do not provide what is needed to monitor SoS, e.g., support for dynamically defining and deploying diverse checks across multiple systems. In this paper we report on our experiences of developing, applying, and evolving an approach for monitoring an SoS in the domain of industrial automation software, that is based on a domain-specific language (DSL). We first describe our initial approach to dynamically define and check constraints in SoS at runtime and then motivate and describe its evolution based on requirements elicited in an industry collaboration project. We furthermore describe solutions we have developed to support the evolution of our approach, i.e., a code generation approach and a framework to automate testing the DSL after changes. We evaluate the expressiveness and scalability of our new DSL-based approach using an industrial SoS. We also discuss lessons we learned. Our results show that while developing a DSL-based approach is a good solution to support industrial users, one must prepare the approach for evolution, by making it extensible and adaptable to future scenarios. Particularly, support for automated (re-)generation of tools and code after changes and automated testing are essential.

Multi-purpose, multi-level feature modeling of large-scale industrial software systems

Feature models are frequently used to capture the knowledge about configurable software systems and product lines. However, feature modeling of large-scale systems is challenging as models are needed for diverse purposes. For instance, feature models can be used to reflect the perspectives of product management, technical solution architecture, or product configuration. Furthermore, models are required at different levels of granularity. Although numerous approaches and tools are available, it remains hard to define the purpose, scope, and granularity of feature models. This paper first reports results and experiences of an exploratory case study on developing feature models for two large-scale industrial automation software systems. We report results on the characteristics and modularity of the feature models, including metrics about model dependencies. Based on the findings from the study, we developed FORCE, a modeling language, and tool environment that extends an existing feature modeling approach to support models for different purposes and at multiple levels, including mappings to the code base. We demonstrate the expressiveness and extensibility of our approach by applying it to the well-known Pick and Place Unit example and an injection molding subsystem of an industrial product line. We further show how our approach supports consistency between different feature models. Our results and experiences show that considering the purpose and level of features is useful for modeling large-scale systems and that modeling dependencies between feature models is essential for developing a system-wide perspective.

Model-driven engineering of Manufacturing Automation Software Projects – A SysML-based approach

This paper comprises a SysML-based approach to support the model-driven engineering (MDE) of Manufacturing Automation Software Projects (MASP). The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is adapted to define the SysML-AT (SysML for automation), a specialized language profile that covers (non-)functional requirements, corresponding software applications and properties of proprietary hardware components. Furthermore, SysML-AT supports an automated software generation for run-time environments conforming to IEC 61131-3. A prototypical tool support was realized for adapted SysML Parametric Diagrams (PD) inside an industrial automation software development tool. Coupling the model editor and online data from the provided run-time environment enables direct debugging inside the model. The approach was evaluated by several case studies and additional usability experiments. With the latter, the suitability of the MDE approach for future users was proven.

Development of PLC-Based Software for Increasing the Dependability of Production Automation Systems

This paper presents the elaboration of a concept to develop and implement real-time capable industrial automation software that increases the dependability of production automation systems by means of soft sensors. An application example with continuous behavior as it is a typical character treat of process automation is used to illustrate the initial requirements. Accordingly, the modeling concept is presented which supports application development and which is supplemented by an implementation approach for standard automation devices, e.g., programmable logic controllers. The paper further comprises an evaluation which adapts the concept for two use cases with discrete behavior (typical character treat of manufacturing automation) and validates the initially imposed requirements.

Implementing constrained cyber-physical systems with IEC 61499

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are integrations of computation and control with sensing and actuation of the physical environment. Typically, such systems consist of embedded computers that monitor and control physical processes in a feedback loop. While modern electronic systems are increasingly characterized as CPS, their design and synthesis still rely on traditional methods, which lack systematic and automated techniques for accomplishment. Recently, IEC 61499 has been proposed as a standard for designing industrial process-control and measurement systems. It prescribes a component-based approach for developing industrial automation software using function blocks. Executable code can then be automatically generated and simulated from these function blocks. This bodes well for designers of CPS, who are more likely to be experts in specific industrial domains, rather than in computer science. The intuitive graphical nature and automatic code synthesis of IEC 61499 programs will alleviate the programming burden of industrial engineers, while ensuring more reliable software. While software synthesis from IEC 61499 programs is not new, the generation of efficient code from them has been wanting. This has made it difficult for function blocks to be used in software development for resource-constrained embedded controllers commonly employed in CPS. To address this, we present an approach that can generate very efficient code from function block descriptions. Experimental results from a benchmark suite shows that our approach produces substantially faster and smaller code compared to existing techniques.

On Current Situation and Development of our Industrial Automation Control Technology

The industrial automation control technology is comprehensive technology, mainly including industrial automation hardware, software and systems which reaches inspect, control and optimization, scheduling, management and decision-making, and increases yield and improve quality, reduce cost, to ensure safety. Industrial automation control technology as the most important technology in modern manufacturing in 20th century, which mainly solve the problem of production efficiency and consistency. Although automation system itself is not directly creating benefit of enterprise production, but it has obvious effect of ascension process. Our industrial automation control development road, mostly in the introduction of complete sets of equipment, and at the same time the digestion and absorption of second development and application. Currently our industrial automation control technology, industry and applications have developed greatly in industrial computer system, has been formed. At present, industrial automation control technology is intelligent, network integration and development direction

Reusable Models in Industrial Automation: Experiences in Defining Appropriate Levels of Granularity

AbstractDomain engineering approaches are widely used in the software engineering. They focus on building reusable models in a domain. At the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering (IAS) of the University of Stuttgart, a new domain engineering approach has been developed. The approach considers entire industrial automation systems, including hardware and software. Models that capture structure and behavior of entire systems have to be carefully tailored, in order to be reusable. The level of granularity deserves particular attention, since too coarse or too fine grained reusable models discourage reuse. This paper addresses the issue of finding appropriate levels of granularity and proposes a set of recommendations for determining appropriate levels of granularity for reusable models created during domain engineering.

Towards a Model-Driven IEC 61131-Based Development Process in Industrial Automation

The IEC 61131-3 standard defines a model and a set of programming languages for the development of industrial automation software. It is widely accepted by industry and most of the commercial tool vendors advertise compliance with it. On the other side, Model Driven Development (MDD) has been proved as a quite successful paradigm in general-purpose computing. This was the motivation for exploiting the benefits of MDD in the industrial automation domain. With the emerging IEC 61131 specification that defines an object-oriented (OO) extension to the function block model, there will be a push to the industry to better exploit the benefits of MDD in automation systems development. This work discusses possible alternatives to integrate the current but also the emerging specification of IEC 61131 in the model driven development process of automation systems. IEC 61499, UML and SysML are considered as possible alternatives to allow the developer to work in higher layers of abstraction than the one supported by IEC 61131 and to more effectively move from requirement specifications into the implementation model of the system.

Agility counts in developing small-size software

A common question in practice is "what are the circumstances in which agile methodologies should be adopted for more effective software development?" For instance, is the agile method suited for the development of modern industrial automation software? Actually this is a hard problem to address, and the right answer can be determined only by the requirements and constraints of each individual project. The size of projects in the industrial automation arena varies from small-size software with limited specific functionality to large-scale software systems with comprehensive functionality and rigorous requirements. A number of agilists are seeking ways to expand the use of agile methodologies for efficient development of larger software-intensive projects and effective management of distributed development teams. However, for safety-critical industrial automation software development, caution should be exercised in employing agile methodologies, as the detailed analysis of each software elements is needed and the system may have intense interactions with other software and hardware systems.

Component Technology and Remote Process Visualization

The contribution deals with the relevance and usefulness of software components-ActiveX controls in the context of industrial automation software. The emphasis i concentrated on the remote visualization - SCADA/HMI (Supervisory Control and Dat Acquisition/Human Machine Interface) through dynamic HTML pages. Research an education DCS (Distributed Control System) at the DCAI (Department of Cybernetics an Artificial Intelligence) is shortly presented here. One part of its SCADA/HMI subsystem wa implemented with the goal of remote visualization by the use of ActiveX Controls (Rockwel Software) and ASP-Active Server Pages technology (Microsoft).