Integration of simulation in the development process of distributed IEC 61499 control applications

Requirements of manufacturing systems are permanently changing. Therefore reconfiguration of their mechanical structure as well as their control software is inevitable. To reduce the time from specification to implementation a parallel development and implementation of hardware and software is the most promising approach. Modeling can act as specification of the desired plant behavior. These models provide the basis for the design of the control application. This work analyses existing approaches for designing distributed control applications using plant models. A hierarchical extension of the layered model-view-control design pattern is presented. Furthermore generic Service Interface Function Blocks are presented that allow seamless transition from simulation to implementation.