An object-oriented framework for control-system design

The paper presents an object-oriented framework for the design of control systems that is based on the physical and functional structuring of the plant. The framework guides the designer from structuring the plant, over functional specification and design, to implementation. The basic units of the framework are objects that reside in states and are transferred between the states by means of state transitions. Invariants, i.e. conditions that need to be satisfied, specify the different states and transitions and can serve as an interface to a fault diagnosis system