A rapid configurable embedded development framework

IEC 61499 defines an execution model for industrial control applications that may be distributed among several devices. In such a heterogeneous environment partial failures are likely to occur. In order to avoid probable system malfunction and breakdowns, the authors propose a framework where the concept of replication may be applied to the IEC 61499 execution model. This framework takes special care in guaranteeing that all replicas maintain synchronised internal state, and reduces network overload by using the timed-messages protocol. This paper presents an example application of how the replication framework may be used in a real-world scenario.

Integration, 2010

Heterogeneous reconfigurable systems provide drastically higher performance and lower power consumption than traditional CPU-centric systems. Moreover, they do it at much lower costs and shorter times to market than non-reconfigurable hardware solutions. They also provide the flexibility that is often required for the engineering of modern robust and adaptive systems. Due to their heterogeneity, flexibility and potential for highly optimized

Expert Systems with Applications, 2010

For decades, researchers and practitioners have been trying to develop and deploy prognostics technologies with ad hoc and trial-and-error approaches. These efforts have resulted in limited success, due to the fact that it lacks a systematic approach and platform in deploying the right prognostics tools for the right applications. This paper introduces a methodology for designing a reconfigurable prognostics platform (RPP) which can be easily and effectively used to assess and predict the performance of machine tools. RPP can be installed on the equipment and it has the prognostic capabilities to convert the data into performance-related information. The equipment performance information can then be integrated into the enterprise asset management system for maintenance decision making through the Internet. Two industrial cases are used to validate the effectiveness of applying the RPP for different prognostic applications as well as the reconfigurable capabilities of the proposed RPP.

Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Resilient Systems - SERENCE '10, 2010

The efficient design of resilient embedded systems is hampered by the separation of engineering disciplines in current development approaches. We describe a new project entitled "Design Support and Tooling for Embedded Control Software" (DESTECS), which aims to develop a methodology and open tools platform for collaborative and multidisciplinary development of dependable embedded real-time control systems. We also present some initial results from a small co-simulation case study. The DESTECS methodology combines continuous-time and discrete-event modelling via co-simulation, allowing explicit modelling of faults and fault-tolerance mechanisms from the outset. Continuous-time models are expressed using differential equations, which we represent using the wellknown bond graph notation, supported by the 20-sim tool. We model discrete-event controllers using the Vienna Development Method (VDM), supported by the Overture tools. An open, extensible tools platform will be developed, populated with plug-ins to support static analysis, co-simulation, testing and fault analysis. Trials will be conducted on industrial case studies from several domains, including document handling, inertial measurement and personal transportation.

International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics, 2008

This paper deals with automatic reconfiguration of embedded systems following the Component-based Standard IEC61499. First of all, we propose a new reconfiguration semantic allowing the improvement of the system performance even if there is no hardware fault. In addition, we characterize all possible reconfiguration forms in order to cover all possible execution scenarios and to apply an automatic reconfiguration, we define thereafter an agent-based architecture that we model with nested state machines to control the design complexity.

2010

During the last decades production automation research has been focused on improving the flexibility and adaptability in order to cope with the arising challenges of mass customization. Much work was devoted to the higher-planning and scheduling-levels of automation systems. However, the lower level real-time control infrastructure was widely neglected. Therefore, we are currently faced with an adaptive flexible high level control connected to a rigid low level control. This work presents a dynamic reconfiguration architecture for the low level control of industrial automation systems. This architecture allows to reconfigure real-time control applications during full operation of the controlled plant. In an example implementation we prove that this is also possible on small embedded control devices as they are typically used as field devices in industrial automation systems.

Journal of Systems Architecture, 1997

The paper presents a design method aimed ut embedded distributed systems using a dispenser control development based on fail-stop safety model as a running example. The method meets not only design errors elimination but also operational errors management from the beginning of design cycle. The techniques used stem from local time concept (omitting global clocks) and configurations (domain knowledge representation). However, the role of designer is considered dominant and not replaceable by any automated design tools. Key.....ords: Realtime distributed systems; Dependable computing; Fail-stop safety models 2. Local-time method The design and development of small embedded industrial applications, where the system enables to 1333-7621/0165-6074/97/$17.00 © 1997 Elsevier Science a.v. All rights reserved PI1 S 1383-7621/0165-6074(96)00065-3

2022

Deroussi Anass, Abdessalam Ait Madi, Imam Alihamidi, Lalla Amina Charaf, Mohammed Saber, Anass Erraoui, Adnane addaim Department of Advanced Systems Engineering Laboratory, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra, Morocco Department of Automation and Information Technology, NewEraCom Company, Rabat, Morocco Department of Electrical Engineering, Mohammadia School of Engineers, Mohamed V University, Rabat, Morocco

18th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, MED'10, 2010

Actuator systems are employed widely in aerospace, transportation and industrial processes to provide power to critical loads, such as aircraft control surfaces. They must operate reliably and accurately in order for the vehicle / process to complete successfully its designated mission. Incipient actuator failure conditions may severely endanger the operational integrity of the vehicle / process and compromise its mission. The ability to maintain a stable and credible operation, even in the presence of incipient failures, is of paramount importance to accomplish "must achieve" mission objectives. This paper introduces a novel methodology for the fault-tolerant design of critical subsystems, such as an Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA), that takes advantage of on-line, real-time estimates of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) or Time-to-Failure (TTF) of a failing component and reconfigures the available control authority by trading off system performance with control activity. The primary goal is to complete critical mission objectives within a time window dictated by prognostic algorithms so that the fault mode is accommodated and an acceptable level of performance maintained for the duration of the mission. The proposed fault-tolerant control design is mathematically rigorous, generic and applicable to a variety of application domains. An EMA is used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed approach. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.