A graphical modeling tool for generating IEC 61131-3 automation applications

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. In fact, standardization is a key goal to achieve integration in this type of applications. The international standardization efforts have lead to the definition of the IEC 61131 standard. Part 3 of this standard defines a software model for defining automation projects as well as 5 programming languages, emphasizing software reuse. Nowadays, a major part of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) market follows this standard, although each programming tool adds particularities and stores the automation project in different manner. At the same time, there is a growing requirement that all software tools that support the different phases of the development process can be integrated as well. Thus, a consolidation of modeling methodologies for achieving this goal is needed. This work presents a graphical modeling tool based on Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) language. It embeds a methodology to guide the user in the definition of the software architecture on an application. The graphical model information is stored in a XML file and Schema, Schematron rules and Stylesheets technologies are used to assure the correctness of the software architecture and to generate the automation project for the target tool.