Graphical Modeling of PLC-based Industrial Control Applications

Abstract

Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCS) are used in most of the industrial sectors to achieve production improvement, process optimization and time and cost reduction. Integration, reuse, flexibility and optimization are demanded to adapt to a rapidly changing and competitive market. In fact, standardization is a key goal to achieve integration in this type of applications. The international standardization efforts have lead to the definition of the IEC 1131 standard. Part 3 of this standard defines a software model for defining automation projects as well as 5 programming languages, emphasizing software reuse. The Technical Committee 6 for XML belonging to the international organization PLCopen, has defined an XML based interface for importing/exporting automation projects. This work presents a graphical modeling tool that guides the user through the definition of the IEC1131-3 automation project, as a PLC programming tool does.

MDE of manufacturing automation software — Integrating SysML and standard development tools

“…The coupling of models from different various domains involved in the engineering of manufacturing systems based on XML schemes and adapting the approach from [7] is presented by Estévez et al [9]. Although the approach enables the description of the software's structure by modeling Function Blocks [19] and their interfaces, the implementation of software applications require model exports to a standardized interchange format for PLC programs [20], i.e. PLCOpen [21].…”

Towards industrial application of model-driven platform-independent PLC programming using UML

“…[27] propose a component-based development approach based on XML technologies. They have developed the PlcOpen XML-based format icsML.…”

Design of a PLC-Based Engineering Training Unit

“…2.4 Touch panel model selection Nowadays with soaring development of electronic times, touch panel becomes more and more important in the industrial control sector for its safety, stability and reliability [3] . With science and technology advancing by leaps and bounds, the performance of electronic products is improved greatly, but the prices are cheaper.…”