A Methodology for Multidisciplinary Modeling of Industrial Control Systems using UML

Industrial process measurement and control systems (IPMCS) are used in most of the industrial sectors to achieve production improvement, process optimization and time and cost reduction. Integration, reuse, flexibility and optimization are demanded to adapt to a rapidly changing and competitive market. Thus, a consolidation of modeling methodologies for achieving this goal is needed. In this paper, a multidisciplinary modelling of distributed IPMCS, as well as a modelling methodology are proposed. The model of the application consists of three related views that separate the functional aspects from the implementation issues (hardware and software). The complete model is constituted by the three different views as well as the relationship among them. The modelling methodology makes use of the unified modelling language (UML) and it guides a non-expert UML user through the steps needed to model the control application. To achieve this, a set of UML profiles, that characterize the different elements of each domain view, have been defined. A limited subset of UML diagrams are used to define the three domains as well as its relationships. To illustrate its use, the methodology is applied to an industrial application: the distributed control system of a heat treatment line.