4DIAC – Framework for Distributed Industrial Automation
An Open Source Initiative for Distributed Industrial Automation
Motivation / Background
The domain of automation industry is characterised by a highly proprietary environment. Different platforms and different tools are in use. In most cases there is no interoperability between different solutions of different vendors. The standard IEC 61131-3 provides a very small basis for common modelling of control programs, but platforms and tools are not able to interoperate. Several steps to improve this situation have been undertaken by the PLCopen. The new standard IEC 61499 has even more ambitious objectives. These can be described by the three issues portability, configurability, and interoperability:
Mission
The general aim of the 4DIAC initiative is to provide an open, IEC 61499 standard compliant basis, that gives the opportunity to establish an automation and control environment based on the targets portability, configurability and interoperability. The following two open source projects are in the focus of the 4DIAC initiative:
Events
4DIAC Users Meeting
Organizers:
Alois Zoitl, Vienna University of Technology;
Martijn Rooker, Profactor GmbH;
Antonio Valentini, O3neida Europe.
Abstract:
The open source initiative 4DIAC - Framework for Distributed Industrial Automation and Control (www.fordiac.org) is going into its fourth year. In the last three years, new versions, improving features and performances, have been provided. Even more important, 4DIAC, while being used to implement distributed control systems, based on IEC 61499, in many industrial as well as research applications, has provided a stable basis for further research into next generation distributed automation and control systems based also on other open standards.
With this workshop we would like to bring the users of 4DIAC together. The meeting should provide them an opportunity to present their projects, exchange ideas, and discuss the near future planned 4DIAC enhancements, which will let the initiative to become a larger framework for many application domains, based on several standards.
Date: 16th September.
Duration: Half day, morning.
Potential attendees:
- Portability: the ability of software tools to accept and correctly interpret library elements produced by other software tools.
- Configurability: the ability of devices and their software components to be configured (selected, assigned locations, interconnected and parameterized) by multiple software tools.
- Interoperability: the ability of devices from different vendors operating together to perform the functions specified by one or more distributed applications.
Mission
The general aim of the 4DIAC initiative is to provide an open, IEC 61499 standard compliant basis, that gives the opportunity to establish an automation and control environment based on the targets portability, configurability and interoperability. The following two open source projects are in the focus of the 4DIAC initiative:
- FORTE (4DIAC-RTE): Modular IEC 61499 compliant Runtime Environment for small embedded devices (16/32 Bit), implemented in C++. It provides the execution of basic function blocks, composite function blocks, and service interface function blocks. The following two versions are supported: A PC based version tested on i386 (Cygwin and Linux) and PPC (Linux), and an embedded ARM7 based version.
Current Version
The current version of FORTE is 0.3.7. This version is provided under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). It can be downloaded from here (http://sourceforge.net/projects/fordiac/files/FORTE/FORTE%200.3.7/FORTE-0.3.7.zip/download).
FORTE: runtime environment for control applications based on IEC 61499
- 4DIAC-IDE: Modular IEC 61499 compliant Integrated Engineering Environment based on the Eclipse open tool framework. The 4DIAC-IDE provides an extensible engineering environment for modelling distributed control applications with IEC 61499. A hardware capability definition allows the modelling of control hardware and its interconnections through networks. The modelled applications can be downloaded to distributed field device according the means defined by the IEC 61499 standard. The basis of the 4DIAC-IDE is the Eclipse framework. This allows that other plug-ins can easily be applied to the 4DIAC-IDE providing new or extended functionality.
Current Version
The current version of 4DIAC-IDE is 0.3. This version is provided under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). It can be downloaded from here (http://downloads.sourceforge.net/fordiac/4DIAC-IDE_0.3.exe).
4DIAC-IDE: prototypic engineering environment for distributed control systems
Furthermore this open source implementation should serve as discussion basis for the further development of the IEC 61499 standard.
Events
4DIAC Users Meeting
Organizers:
Alois Zoitl, Vienna University of Technology;
Martijn Rooker, Profactor GmbH;
Antonio Valentini, O3neida Europe.
Abstract:
The open source initiative 4DIAC - Framework for Distributed Industrial Automation and Control (www.fordiac.org) is going into its fourth year. In the last three years, new versions, improving features and performances, have been provided. Even more important, 4DIAC, while being used to implement distributed control systems, based on IEC 61499, in many industrial as well as research applications, has provided a stable basis for further research into next generation distributed automation and control systems based also on other open standards.
With this workshop we would like to bring the users of 4DIAC together. The meeting should provide them an opportunity to present their projects, exchange ideas, and discuss the near future planned 4DIAC enhancements, which will let the initiative to become a larger framework for many application domains, based on several standards.
Date: 16th September.
Duration: Half day, morning.
Potential attendees:
- 4DIAC users;
- Potential 4DIAC users who would like to be informed on current and near future developments;
- People interested in IEC 61499;
- People interested in the management of open source projects.
- Welcome,
Speaker: Antonio Valentini (O3neida Europe) - Introduction to 4DIAC,
Speaker: Ingo Hegny (Vienna University of Technology, ACIN) - Implementation of Control Systems and Future Trends at the Martin-Luther-University using 4DIAC,
Speaker: Christian Gerber (Martin-Luther-University) - Using FORTE in Infomechatronics lab, The University of Auckland,
Speaker: William Dai (University of Auckland) - Utilizing Lego Mindstorms nxt(tm) as teaching and training platform for IEC 61499,
Speaker: Alois Zoitl (Vienna University of Technology, ACIN) - SIFB Development Approach to Provide Control and Real Time Communications,
Speaker: Federico Perez (University of the Basque Country) - 4DIAC and wireless sensor networks for factory automation,
Speaker: Robert Brennan (University of Calgary) - 4DIAC Initiative near future plans
Speaker: Alois Zoitl (Vienna University of Technology, ACIN) - Open Discussion
Moderator: Antonio Valentini (O3neida Europe)