Close integration between UML and IEC 61131-3: New possibilities through object-oriented extensions

Within the maintenance of the IEC 61131-3 standard, its extension towards object orientation (OO) is currently discussed and very likely to happen. Such an extension would enable the bidirectional mapping between OO-IEC 61131-3 software structures and graphical UML class diagrams (ISO/IEC 19501). This paper presents the main OO-extension to IEC 61131-3. This is followed by a specification of bidirectional mapping rules to UML class diagrams which allow the seamless integration of UML and OO-IEC 61131-3. Finally this paper presents exemplarily a domain/specific design pattern for the implementation of a modular machine mode control according to IEC 61512. Within a research project a class diagram editor and the corresponding mapping rules were prototypically implemented and evaluated in CoDeSys V3.