Title: An optimised simulation of component-based embedded systems in manufacturing industry

Authors: Mohamed Khalgui, Emanuele Carpanzano, Hans-Michael Hanisch

Addresses: Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, ITIA-CNR, Italy; Martin Luther University, Germany. ' Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, ITIA-CNR, Italy. ' Martin Luther University, Germany

Abstract: This paper deals with an optimised simulation of embedded systems following the international standard IEC61499 in which a Function Block is an event triggered component owning data and an application is a network of blocks that have to satisfy properties described in user requirements. We design these components in different abstraction levels of a hierarchy to control the development complexity. To achieve a feasible simulation, we formalise at first-time the FB concept by defining the Control Function Module (CFM) and the Virtual Plant Module (VPM). We propose thereafter a technique processing temporal deadlines for control modules and we define in the system behaviour critical scenarios where properties can be violated. We apply the simulation around these scenarios by applying a fault injection technique to optimise the system validation and to consider its hierarchy, we propose a simulator architecture based on the master-slave model where a slave injects faults in each level of the hierarchy, whereas the master chooses the best values of these errors to generate critical scenarios.

Keywords: component approach; manufacturing industry; embedded systems; IEC61499 function blocks; simulation; fault injection; control function module; CFM; virtual plant module; VPM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2008.022076

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2008 Vol.4 No.2, pp.148 - 162

Published online: 17 Dec 2008 *

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