Today’s   market   is   subjected   to   numerous   changes   due   to   the   need   of   continuous improvement  of  different  commercial  brands  in  order  to  survive  against  competitors.  This competition  drives  the  evolution  of  industrial  processes,  to  satisfy  the  high  customers’ requirements. It means that factors such as flexibility, adaptability and agility are crucial for the  successful  development  of  industries,  which  experience  some  degrees  of  uncertainty due  to  machine  breakdowns,  delays  and  market  fluctuations  among  others.  The  current trend  in  manufacturing  industries  consists  in  the  implementation  of  distributed  control systems (DCS), substituting the earlier programmable logic controllers (PLC) systems where a main  processor  operated  as  the  central  unit  of  the  system.  To  this  end,  the  application  of function  blocks  (FB)  compliant  with  the  IEC  61499  standard  represents  an  innovative technique  for  dealing  with  the  design  and  programming  of  DCSs.  These  FBs  enable  the creation  of  event-driven  networks  governed  by  embedded  algorithms  that  can  be  used  to enhance  the  flexibility  and  portability  of  industrial  job-shops  based  on  a  distributed architecture.  Job-shop  floors  represent  a  principal  concept  in  manufacturing  industries.  This  project  is focused on the integration of a computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine and a gantry robot  which  must  be  coordinated  and  cooperate  for  the  achievement  of  an  industrial machining  and  assembly  process.  It  implies  the  design  of  a  PLC-managed  distributed  cell using  nxtControl  software.  This  software  facilitates  the  construction  of  FBs-networks  to control both machines and enables the communication process via service interface function blocks (SI-FB). Likewise, the whole process will be monitored using an interface also created within nxtControl which will allow the operator to decide the batch and characteristics of the production.  This project is also intended to set the basis for the understanding of the FB concept defined in  IEC  61499  which  moves  away  from  earlier  scan-based  systems  to  event-driven  models, aiming to contribute to the development of future research in the function blocks area.

Standards are, nowadays, a useful and sometimes essential tool, in the world of automated industry. Since the development of the standard IEC 61131-3, automation has made progresses in a consistent manner. This allows an engineer to develop control programs for any type of systems using the language set in the standard. However, this standard was not enough because it did not cover the control over distributed systems. Therefore, it was necessary to establish rules in this field. In order to fill this gap, the new standard IEC 61499 was developed. Its main objective is to describe how to develop, design and implement distributed control systems, using the new concept of function blocks. By the use of the new function blocks, it is possible to control distributed systems in a quick and easy way, adding some advantages such as reusability, portability, and much enhanced maintenance.This project involves the preparation of a manufacturing cell composed of a gantry robot interacting with a CNC machine. The project is developed in two sections; one is focused on the computer programming with function blocks for the gantry robot and HMI, and the other is prepared for the programming of function blocks for the CNC machine and HMI. The communications between PLC, PC, gantry robot and CNC machine are developed using the standard IEC 61499. This document covers the survey and research made for the first section of the project.The new standard IEC 61499 provides the methodologies and the appropriated tools to achieve a good control in distributed systems. The basic tools offered by this standard are the new function blocks which will be the main tool used in this project. Equally important, it is necessary to take into account the different assembly features and the machining features in order to design better function blocks to control the system. An HMI has to be developed in order to obtain a good interface for a worker of this cell.The aim of this project is to investigate how the new standard IEC 61499 works in a real manufacturing cell and how the new function blocks interact in a real distributed system. Moreover, it is important to see how the event flow works, controlling all the sequences required in the manufacturing cell.