Using object oriented technologies in factory automation

This paper discusses the use of OO technologies, in particular the use of Unified Modelling Language (UML) in factory automation. The authors have proposed an architecture to access remotely industrial plants. This papers focuses in the so-called virtual plant model, that contains the information of the plant that is remotely accessible. In order to show the use of UML class diagrams, the virtual plant model of simple manufacturing cell is developed. The remote actions are grouped in user profiles and from them the class diagrams that form the virtual plant are designed. The virtual plant model is contained in the application server that acts as a middleware between the plant and the remote users. Although these classes have been identified for a very simple case study, they may be extended and enriched according to the needs of new applications.