Emulation with DSOL

Manufacturing control systems are extremely hard to design and test. Testing programmable logic controller (PLC) software in an on-line manufacturing setting can be costly, dangerous, and inefficient. The availability of a seamless transition between the real manufacturing process and a simulated manufacturing process on the one hand, and a real PLC and a soft PLC on the other hand might help to solve these problems. Using the Java-based object oriented simulation library DSOL (distributed simulation object library), a case study was conducted for a concrete floor manufacturer to see whether these problems could be overcome. The full simulation and hardware-in-the-loop tests with DSOL, with the Modbus middleware protocol, and with real and soft PLCs went fine, and showed the added value of the distributed, service-oriented paradigm on which DSOL is based.