A motivação para o presente trabalho foi o desejo de investigar métodos e ferramentas que fossem capazes de auxiliar engenheiros a desenvolver melhores projetos de sistemas de automação. Investigaram-se então quais seriam as contribuições da engenharia de software e da engenharia de controle para alcançar esse objetivo: a primeira destacou-se pelos métodos e ferramentas aplicáveis às fases de levantamento de requisitos e análise, em que os sistemas podem ser expressos através da UML; a segunda contribuiu com blocos funcionais, especialmente os orientados a eventos da norma IEC 61499, e ferramentas para implementação e testes. Diversos autores sugerem a unificação entre as técnicas de orientação a objetos expressas através da UML e o projeto de sistemas por meio de blocos funcionais orientados a eventos da norma IEC 61499, para que os engenheiros de cada uma das áreas citadas continuassem trabalhando com técnicas e ferramentas próprias no desenvolvimento de sistemas de automação, mas de maneira colaborativa. Nesta pesquisa estudou-se a maneira pela qual vêm sendo feitos os mapeamentos entre a UML e a norma IEC 61499 do ponto de vista teórico, embora com intenção de implementação de ferramentas para ajudar nessa conversão. Estudaram-se também as ferramentas criadas para automatizar essa transformação e para auxiliar no projeto de sistemas de automação distribuídos, principalmente segundo a visão da norma IEC 61499. A partir daí, pôde-se oferecer as seguintes contribuições: quanto aos métodos, sugerir um novo método de mapeamento UML-IEC 61499 simplificado, com o uso, em UML, de um vocabulário menos atrelado à norma IEC 61499 (ao contrário do que acontecia com os métodos estudados); e sugerir a expressão de requisitos temporais quanto aos sistemas de automação (também considerados no contexto da conversão UML-IEC61499); quanto às ferramentas, comparar o modelo lógico da IEC 61499 com o da tecnologia LonWorks; e, a partir daí, demonstrar a viabilidade de criação de uma ferramenta para implementar sistemas de automação LonWorks expressados primeiramente em abstrações da IEC 61499 (obtidas a partir das ferramentas vistas anteriormente). Concluiu-se que é possível, teoricamente, criar uma ferramenta para cobrir todo o ciclo de vida de desenvolvimento de um sistema de automação distribuído, com a implementação deste sendo feita em uma tecnologia de controle de grande aceitação no mercado. Apesar disso, identificou-se ainda que há várias oportunidades de estudo em continuidade a essa pesquisa, como aprofundamento da expressão dos requisitos de QoS e implementação da ferramenta idealizada. / The main motivation of this research was to investigate tools and methods which could help engineers to develop better automation system projects. So, with this aim, the contributions of both software engineering and control engineering areas were investigated: the first offered methods and tools to be used in the requisite elicitation and system analysis project phases, in which the system could be designed in terms of UML models; the latter contributed mainly through implementation and test tools, related to the usage of function blocks, especially the IEC 61499 standard eventoriented ones. Many authors suggest the unification between object-orientation techniques expressed through UML and project methods done with the IEC 61499 event-driven function blocks, so that software engineers and control engineers could keep working with their own area techniques and tools, in the context of an automation system design, but in a collaborative sense. In this work, the mapping between UML and IEC 61499 standard concepts was investigated from a theoretical point of view, even though the intention behind that was to find or generate tools which could automate this kind of conversion. Additionally, other tools related to help engineers in the development of automation systems (particularly those which used IEC 61499 standard abstractions) were also analyzed. After all that, some contributions to this area could be proposed: as for the methods, a new simplified UML-IEC61499 mapping, whose main features are the usage, in UML, of a less IEC 61499-constrained vocabulary (opposite to what happened in the other studied techniques), and the way of expressing automation systems temporal requisites (still related to the UML-IEC61499 conversion context); as for the tools, a comparison between IEC 61499 and the LonWorks technology logical models, which led to the conclusion that it would be possible to implement LonWorks automation systems whose models were expressed at first through IEC 61499 abstractions (mainly those resultant from the usage of UML-IEC61499 conversion tools). The conclusion of this work is that with the development of all these tools and techniques it would be possible to aid engineers through all automation system development phases, and the implementation of such systems could be done with a broadly-accepted control system technology. It was also identified that many other study opportunities were raised by this research, such as discovering ways of expressing other QoS requisites in automation system models, and trying to implement more complete engineering project tools.

A motivação para o presente trabalho foi o desejo de investigar métodos e ferramentas que fossem capazes de auxiliar engenheiros a desenvolver melhores projetos de sistemas de automação. Investigaram-se então quais seriam as contribuições da engenharia de software e da engenharia de controle para alcançar esse objetivo: a primeira destacou-se pelos métodos e ferramentas aplicáveis às fases de levantamento de requisitos e análise, em que os sistemas podem ser expressos através da UML; a segunda contribuiu com blocos funcionais, especialmente os orientados a eventos da norma IEC 61499, e ferramentas para implementação e testes. Diversos autores sugerem a unificação entre as técnicas de orientação a objetos expressas através da UML e o projeto de sistemas por meio de blocos funcionais orientados a eventos da norma IEC 61499, para que os engenheiros de cada uma das áreas citadas continuassem trabalhando com técnicas e ferramentas próprias no desenvolvimento de sistemas de automação, mas de maneira colaborativa. Nesta pesquisa estudou-se a maneira pela qual vêm sendo feitos os mapeamentos entre a UML e a norma IEC 61499 do ponto de vista teórico, embora com intenção de implementação de ferramentas para ajudar nessa conversão. Estudaram-se também as ferramentas criadas para automatizar essa transformação e para auxiliar no projeto de sistemas de automação distribuídos, principalmente segundo a visão da norma IEC 61499. A partir daí, pôde-se oferecer as seguintes contribuições: quanto aos métodos, sugerir um novo método de mapeamento UML-IEC 61499 simplificado, com o uso, em UML, de um vocabulário menos atrelado à norma IEC 61499 (ao contrário do que acontecia com os métodos estudados); e sugerir a expressão de requisitos temporais quanto aos sistemas de automação (também considerados no contexto da conversão UML-IEC61499); quanto às ferramentas, comparar o modelo lógico da IEC 61499 com o da tecnologia LonWorks; e, a partir daí, demonstrar a viabilidade de criação de uma ferramenta para implementar sistemas de automação LonWorks expressados primeiramente em abstrações da IEC 61499 (obtidas a partir das ferramentas vistas anteriormente). Concluiu-se que é possível, teoricamente, criar uma ferramenta para cobrir todo o ciclo de vida de desenvolvimento de um sistema de automação distribuído, com a implementação deste sendo feita em uma tecnologia de controle de grande aceitação no mercado. Apesar disso, identificou-se ainda que há várias oportunidades de estudo em continuidade a essa pesquisa, como aprofundamento da expressão dos requisitos de QoS e implementação da ferramenta idealizada. / The main motivation of this research was to investigate tools and methods which could help engineers to develop better automation system projects. So, with this aim, the contributions of both software engineering and control engineering areas were investigated: the first offered methods and tools to be used in the requisite elicitation and system analysis project phases, in which the system could be designed in terms of UML models; the latter contributed mainly through implementation and test tools, related to the usage of function blocks, especially the IEC 61499 standard eventoriented ones. Many authors suggest the unification between object-orientation techniques expressed through UML and project methods done with the IEC 61499 event-driven function blocks, so that software engineers and control engineers could keep working with their own area techniques and tools, in the context of an automation system design, but in a collaborative sense. In this work, the mapping between UML and IEC 61499 standard concepts was investigated from a theoretical point of view, even though the intention behind that was to find or generate tools which could automate this kind of conversion. Additionally, other tools related to help engineers in the development of automation systems (particularly those which used IEC 61499 standard abstractions) were also analyzed. After all that, some contributions to this area could be proposed: as for the methods, a new simplified UML-IEC61499 mapping, whose main features are the usage, in UML, of a less IEC 61499-constrained vocabulary (opposite to what happened in the other studied techniques), and the way of expressing automation systems temporal requisites (still related to the UML-IEC61499 conversion context); as for the tools, a comparison between IEC 61499 and the LonWorks technology logical models, which led to the conclusion that it would be possible to implement LonWorks automation systems whose models were expressed at first through IEC 61499 abstractions (mainly those resultant from the usage of UML-IEC61499 conversion tools). The conclusion of this work is that with the development of all these tools and techniques it would be possible to aid engineers through all automation system development phases, and the implementation of such systems could be done with a broadly-accepted control system technology. It was also identified that many other study opportunities were raised by this research, such as discovering ways of expressing other QoS requisites in automation system models, and trying to implement more complete engineering project tools.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a formal method that is used to support analysis, design, independent verification, and validation inherent in the development of software and hardware systems. MBSE applications are present in many areas of our daily lives, including manufacturing, robotics, healthcare, automation, etc. However, despite their rapid and sustainable growth during the last few years, the MBSE methods themselves are quite far away from perfect. There are some current problems, which resist more rapid penetration of MBSE systems in their development. One of them is that currently the majority of MBSE systems are vendor dependent and, as a result, they have poor compatibility with each other. Furthermore, currently, there is a gap between the design of a digital model and a control model of an engineering system. Currently, this problem is usually solved by involving two or more groups of engineers, where each of these groups works on their own problems. All this costs companies additional engineering time and, as a result, development costs. Therefore new, and more sophisticated approaches for the generation of MBSEs are needed in order to overwhelm the challenges highlighted above. In order to narrow the field of study and better concentrate on specific problems, smart power distribution systems have been chosen as the main research object for this dissertation. Thus, in this work, the author introduces Model-Integrated Systems Engineering (MISE), as the MBSE sub-discipline. Here and later in this paper, the author will refer to MISE as the main area of interest. Also, the author uses the term DigitalTwin to refer to the multilayered structure of a complex distributed automation system consisting of three layers, namely:– the static machine-readable information about the infrastructure of the smart energy system,– the simulation model layer,– the distributed control layer for the investigated smart energy system. In general, two new transformation approaches for automatic MISE generation are discussed in the scope of this dissertation, namely:1. Transformation of the System Configuration Design (SCD) files of an electric system(presented in IEC 61850) into the corresponding SIMULINK model.2. Transformation of specification files of electronic components into corresponding OPC UA information model.All discussed approaches are implemented in the form of a program code that is publicly available on the Internet. The IEC 61850 and OPC UA standards are considered key components of the current dissertation. IEC 61850 is an international standard covering different sides of smart energy distribution systems including communication protocols for diverse equipment in a substation, including protection, control, and measurement equipment, as well as intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). Information Modeling OPC UA is a platform-independent service-oriented architecture that combines the concepts of semantic modeling. First, the structure of the IEC 61850 standard is discussed, as well as its potential benefits for the MISE of smart power distribution systems in terms of the automatic transformation of the information model. Next, the architecture of the electrical system (the SCD file) of the electrical vehicle (EV) charging station (CS) is proposed as an example. The aim is to design a mechanism for the automatic transformation of MISE in two domains, namely:- Physical model of the electrical system itself,- Automatically build a communication channel between the digital replica (the model) of the electrical system and the virtual energy management system (EMS). Thus, this work aims to contribute to the design and virtual commissioning of Digital Twin systems, as well as to improve the interoperability between IEC 61850 compliant systems and electric vehicle charging stations (paper C explains that in more detail). Finally, by narrowing down the scope of the investigation to one specific electrical device, a new approach for converting integrated circuit (IC) specification files of an electric system into an OPC UA information model is discussed. The designed transformation algorithm is based on the directed graphs theory (paper D explains that in more detail). The purpose of this work is to highlight and contribute to the problems of the MISE analysis solutions.  In summary, the work presented in this dissertation raises questions about interoperability between different standards, the problems of converting the IEC 61850 information model into MISE, verification of the generated MISE compared to the original IEC 61850 information model, and the problems of forming an information model OPC UA.

Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This work considers the control of reconfigurable assembly systems using a welding assembly system as a case study. The assembly system consists of a pallet magazine, a feeding system, an inspection and removal system, a welding system and a conveyor. The aim of the work is to compare PC and PLC as controllers, as well as to compare two different approaches to reconfigurable control. The control system of the pallet magazine was developed using a PC and a PLC. The PC control was programmed using Visual C#, while the PLC was programmed in Ladder Logic using Siemens S-300 STEP7. The two controllers were compared based on the attributes that measure the quality of a controller's software, which include its capability, availability, usability and adaptability. The approaches to reconfigurable control considered were the agent-based methodology and the IEC 61499 distributed control methodology, both of which were applied to the feeding system. The agent-based control system was implemented using the JADE agent platform, while the IEC 61499 distributed control system was implemented using the FBDK software kit. These two methods were compared based on the characteristics of a reconfigurable system, which include the system's modularity, integrability, convertibility, diagnosability, customization and scalability. The result obtained in comparing the PC to the PLC shows that the PLC performs better in terms of capability, availability and usability, while the PC performs better in terms of adaptability. Also, the result of the comparison between the agent-based control system and the IEC 61499 distributed control system shows that the agent-based control system performs better in terms of integrability, diagnosability and scalability, while the IEC 61499 distributed control system performs better in terms of modularity and customization. They are, however, on a par in terms of convertibility. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie werk beskou die beheer van herkonfigureerbare monteringstelsels met 'n sweismonteringstelsel as gevallestudie. Die monteringstelsel bestaan uit 'n paletmagasyn, 'n voerstelsel, 'n inspeksie-en- verwyderingstelsel, 'n sweisstelsel en 'n voerband. Die mikpunt van die werk is om persoonlike rekenaars (PCs) en programmeerbare-logikabeheerders (PLCs) as beheerders te vergelyk, asook om twee verskillende benaderings tot herkonfigureerbare beheer te vergelyk. Die beheerstelsel van die paletmagasyn is ontwikkel met 'n PC en 'n PLC. Die PC-beheer is in Visual C# geprogrammeer, terwyl die PLC in leerlogika met Siemens S-300 STEP7 geprogrammeer is. Die twee beheerders is vergelyk in terme van die eienskappe wat die kwaliteit van 'n beheerder se sagteware meet en sluit in vermoë, beskikbaarheid, bruikbaarheid en aanpasbaarheid. Die benaderings tot herkonfigureerbare beheer wat oorweeg is, is die agent-gebaseerde metodologie en die IEC 61499 verspreide-beheermetodologie. Beide is op die voerstelsel toegepas. Die agent-gebaseerde beheerstelsel is geïmplementeer met behulp van die JADE agent-platform, terwyl die IEC 61499 verspreide stelsel geïmplementeer is met behulp van die FBDK sagteware-stel. Hierdie twee metodes se vergelyking is gebaseer op die eienskappe van 'n herkonfigureerbare stelsel, waarby die stelsel se modulariteit, integreerbaarheid, diagnoseerbaarheid, pasmaakbaarheid en skaleerbaarheid ingesluit is. Die resultate wat in die vergelyking tussen die PC en PLC verkry is, toon dat die PLC beter vaar in terme van vermoë, beskikbaarheid en bruikbaarheid, terwyl die PC beter vaar in terme van aanpasbaarheid. Die resultaat van die vergelyking tussen die agent-gebaseerde beheerstelsel en die IEC 61499 verspreide beheerstelsel wys dat die agent-gebaseerde beheerstelsel beter vaar in terme van integreerbaarheid, diagnoseerbaarheid en skaleerbaarheid, terwyl die IEC 61499 verspreide beheerstelsel beter vaar in terme van modulariteit en pasmaakbaarheid. Hulle is egter vergelykbaar in terme van omskepbaarheid.