Function block implementation of service oriented architecture: Case study

The Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), initially developed for general purpose computing, is becoming increasingly popular in industrial automation, especially due to the growing importance of distributed measurement and control systems, Internet of Things and wireless sensor network infrastructures. There are two serious gaps in the current implementations of SOA for automation: the lack of a proper standard form for representing the logical relation between services at the system level, and, in particular, lack for a proper visual representation format enabling intuitive understanding and reconfiguration of services during the system lifecycle. In this paper, it is shown how these gaps can be filled using the IEC 61499 function block architecture in the most intuitive and natural way. The ideas are illustrated on example of systems, composed form intelligent mechatronic devices. Such features, as software reuse, flexibility, reconfigurability and scalability are demonstrated. The paper shows complementarity of the SOA and IEC 61499.