Modeling techniques for distributed control systems based on the IEC 61499 standard - current approaches and open problems

The introduction of distributed systems to the automation area not only brought new design methods but also new analysis problems. This paper is an attempt to survey approaches in modeling systems based on the standard IEC 61499 and to point out some open problems. The modeling approaches can be classified into two groups namely those dealing with design problems and those dealing principally with formal analysis. The survey notes some design approaches but then focuses on the formal approaches. It also points out the open issues and problems within the standard (execution model, event-handling, and data-handling) which are leading to differences in various formal approaches used for analyzing the IEC 61499 applications