Requirements for a dynamic interface model of IEC 61499 Function Blocks

Abstract

Component-based software engineering has emerged as a principle of software design to facilitate reuse and improve the software quality. This principle is supported by the domain-specific language IEC 61499, where Function Blocks are fully encapsulated software components. For a Function Block definition, a static interface description and an internal implementation are required. Service sequences describe the event flow at a component interface and are an optional dynamic interface model in IEC 61499. In general, dynamic interface models are a powerful tool for various use cases, yet service sequences are rarely used in practice due to their low expressiveness. Therefore, we identify the domain-specific requirements for a comprehensive dynamic interface model and use them for our analysis of service sequences, where several issues are identified.

Towards facilitating software engineering for production systems in Industry 4.0 with behavior models

“…• C1: Enhancing software engineering for distributed control systems with visual behavior models, including a mechanism to capture behavior models from legacy software automatically [45,46] • C2: A model execution framework for the DSML IEC 61499 including a model interpreter [46] • C3: Tool support for control software engineers to implement and test models, as well as to improve model comprehension [48] This work does not replace, but supplements existing languages and tools that are used in the domain. Behavior models for applications (C1) will provide an important infrastructure for IEC 61499, e.g., as test specification and for software updates [27].…”

Dynamic Adapter Connections for IEC 61499

“…Dynamic reconfiguration in the realm of IEC 61499 has been studied at multiple levels of abstraction including [1] and [3]. [13] presents some requirements for dynamic interface model in IEC 61499, but hasn't proposed an approach that demonstrates the idea. To our knowledge, we are the first to propose an approach to regard dynamicity for IEC 61499 adapter.…”