Methodology to Implement Logic Controllers with both Reconfigurable and Programmable Hardware

The flexibility and benefits of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) technology to carry out reconfigurable logic controllers (RLC) in order to implement parallel control strategies in a natural way has been recently proved. Moreover, programmable logic controllers (PLC) are widely introduced in the industrial market. Therefore the necessity of obtaining a global and complete solution to combine traditional design process and the hardware implementation with both technologies appears. This paper describes a hardware-software platform which enables the implementation of logic controllers with both PLC and RLC. The software aids the development of logic controllers using design methods based on Petri nets (PN) and translates them into instruction lists or into hardware description language (HDL) codes. The hardware utilized is formed by a commercial Simatic S7 and a specific reconfigurable hardware which consists of a main card, combining a cyclone FPGA and a USB controller, and on a set of digital and analog I/O cards. This hardware, as well as doing typical automation tasks, contributes to achieving additional characteristics such as simulation and monitoring.