Next generation integrated development of automation control code in TORERO

Abstract

Industrial control technology experiences a strong trend towards distributed systems. This leads to the distribution of formerly physically centralised hardware and software into smaller units, which are distributed within the automation system. From the software point of view, a major state-of-the-art technology for this is the international standard IEC 61499, for which however wide spread applications do not exist. In addition, Internet related technologies also have to be considered, to enhance the overall system performance. Related to these topics diverse proposals created by different organisations exist, which specify a future way of building industrial automation applications. All these approaches have the common modeling paradigm of programming distributed applications by connecting the function blocks in a "system editor". The function blocks for the single distributed units need to be programmed in a specific editor which is device specific. The overall system functionality thus can only be programmed as relationships of already existing function blocks. Within the IST initiative of the European Commission, the funded research project TORERO aims at specifying both an integrated development environment (IDE) and an architectural platform on specific devices which together allow for the distribution of (central) control functions.