Programming discrete control systems using state machine templates

This paper presents an approach to discrete control based on combining independent pre-defined control templates (simple state machines) to create the control software for an entire discrete process. Using this approach, application engineers who are typically not programmers can assign instances of the state-machine templates to each device in the process and identify the conditions that control the state transitions in each state machine. Experience with industrial customers shows there are several benefits realized from this methodology. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this practical methodology to the discrete-event systems research community, and to suggest several directions for research