Evaluation of closed loop control applications using different event management strategies under IEC 61499

This paper presents a study about the timing behavior of software designed under the IEC 61499 standard. In particular, the effect of different event management strategies on the execution time of applications is analyzed. The study is focused on the closed loop control applications in which the controller algorithm is implemented according to the standard. In particular, the PID control algorithm is considered since it is a well known algorithm that is widely used in industry. The execution time of software implementing both single and multiple PID controllers are statistically characterized by means of an extensive experimental study. The results demonstrate that the timing behavior of the PID algorithms is strongly influenced by how the events are managed.