Model driven design in industrial automation

Current industrial applications demand the design of more and more complex, safe and trustworthy control systems which exhibit a high degree of flexibility and reutilization. To achieve this, the engineering process has to be improved through the integration of the tools involved in the development process. To achieve this goal the definition of Markup Languages for factory automation has been proposed at different layers of the engineering process. They allow defining the application from different points of view. Each point of view uses a particular syntax and semantics. Applications are defined by means of a set of view models as well as their relationships. This paper proposes a further step as the mechanisms needed for exchanging information among models are analyzed. They are used in the design of a model collaboration prototype for distributed industrial control systems.