Human machine interface for Virtual Prototyping of Industrial Instruments

Instrumentation is an important part in the industrial automation domain as it is fundamentally required for process control loops. Virtual Prototyping (VP) as prime technology is considered as a novel approach to aid in the development Industrial Instruments. However, using state-of-the-art VP technologies requires a high degree of expertise, thereby limiting its usability among multi-disciplinary teams. This paper proposes a new approach for easing the use of VP technologies among different domain experts. It provides common grounds for domain experts to productively interact and share knowledge already in early stages of development. This is done by extending an existing virtual prototype of an Industrial Instrument with an integrated interfacing methodology. In this paper, the design, implementation, and integration of a custom HMI for an industrial temperature transmitter instrument are presented. This includes the verification and validation of the VP-enhanced development process. The presented evaluation shows the encapsulation of the complexity of Virtual Platform-based development process to enable agile development of Industrial Instruments.