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Automation Systems - Languages and Automation

People | Demos/applications | Courses | Publications | Master Thesis

In this project we investigate domain-specific languages, in particular for industrial automation where the IEC 61131-3 is one commonly used example. In addition to the languages themselves we also study programming environments and run-time systems for these languages. A special focus is the use of modern object-oriented concepts and techniques. One part of this project is performed in collaboration with ABB Automation Technology Products. Here we study object-oriented extensions to SFC (Sequential Function Charts), a state-oriented language within IEC 61131-3, and how the graphical notation of SFC can be integrated with ordinary text-based Java code. A basis for this work are the App-Lab and JastAdd environments developed at LTH which use object-oriented compiler technology. In particular, we have developed the techniques of reference atributed grammars and aspect-oriented grammars which are especially suited for modular implementation of object-oriented and state-based languages. Java-based implementations of Grafchart, a Petri-net based extension to Grafcet/SFC is developed. A graphical editor written in Java/Swing and using the JGo class package is used as the basis for the development. The Grafchart programs can either be interpreted in the host machine or code can be generated for execution in some target.

Another activity in this project concerns the development tools that allows co-simulation of real-time kernels and communication networks with control applications. The aim is to evaluate how the temporal non-determinism caused by preemption, blocking, and communication delays influence the control performance. Two Matlab/Simulink based tools have been implemented. Jitterbug allow numerical analysis of how control loop timing anomalies caused by computing and communication aspects, affect control performance. TrueTime allows simulation of real-time kernels and real-time communication networks in Simulink in parallel with the simulation of controller tasks and controlled plants.

People
Dr Anton Cervin, Dr. Johan Eker, Dr. Torbjörn Ekman, Dr. Görel Hedin, Dr. Dan Henriksson, Prof. Rolf Johansson, Dr. Bo Lincoln, Prof. Boris Magnusson, Lic. Eng Tomas Olsson, Dr. Anders Robertsson, Prof. Karl-Erik Årzén

Contact: Prof. Karl-Erik Årzén

Funded projects	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	Funder
ARTES		x	x	x	x	x	x				SSF
AutoFETT				x	x						EU
CHEM				x	x	x					EU
HYCON							x	x	x		EU
SIARAS							x	x	x		EU
SMErobot							x	x	x	x	EU

Demos and applications
JGrafchart
Jitterbug: A Matlab toolbox for Real-Time Control Performance Analysis
LJRT - Lund Java-based Real Time
TrueTime - Simulation of Distributed Real-Time Control Systems

Postgraduate or industry courses
Programming Language for Automation (2000)

Publications

2005

Karl-Erik Årzén, Anton Cervin Control and Embedded Computing: Survey of Research Directions In Proc. 16th IFAC World Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, July 2005

Martin Otter, Karl-Erik Årzén, Isolde Dressler StateGraph-A Modelica Library for Hierarchical State Machines In Proceedings of European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 15, May 2005

Rasmus Olsson Batch Control and Diagnosis PhD thesis, June 2005. Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden.
Estanislao Musulin, María J. Arbiza, Anna Bonfill, Luis Puigjaner, Rasmus Olsson, Karl-Erik Årzén Closing the Information Loop in Recipe-Based Batch Production In Proceedings of European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering - ESCAPE 15, May 2005.
Karl-Erik Årzén, Anders Blomdell, Björn Wittenmark Laboratories and Real-Time Computing IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 25:1, pp. 30-34, February 2005
Haage, M. Restructuring TrueTime PECTs Submitted to Euromicro ECBSE 2005

2004

Anton Cervin, Johan Eker Control-Scheduling Codesign of Real-Time Systems: The Control Server Approach Journal of Embedded Computing, 1:2, 2004
Tomas Olsson, Rolf Johansson, Anders Robertsson Flexible Force-Vision Control for Surface Following using Multiple Cameras In Proceedings of 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2004, pp. 798-803, Sendai, Japan, October 2004.
Dan Henriksson, Anton Cervin Multirate Feedback Control Using the TinyRealTime Kernel In Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences, Antalya, Turkey, October 2004
Tarek Abdelzaher, Ying Lu, Ronghua Zhang, Dan Henriksson Practical Application of Control Theory to Web Services In Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Boston, MA, June 2004. Invited paper.
Cervin, A., Lincoln, B., Eker, J., Årzén,K.-E., and Buttazzo, G. The Jitter Margin and Its Application in the Design of Real-Time Control Systems 10th International Conference on Real-Time and Embedded Computing Systems and Applications (RTCSA), Göteborg, Sweden, August 2004

2003

Magnus Gäfvert, Björn Wittenmark, Örjan Askerdal On the Effect of Transient Data-Errors in Controller Implementations In Proc. of the American Control Conference, pp. 3411–3416, Denver, Colorado, 2003
Ricardo Sanz, Karl-Erik Årzén Trends in Software and Control IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, pp. 12–15, June 2003
Anton Cervin, Dan Henriksson, Bo Lincoln, Johan Eker, Karl-Erik Årzén How Does Control Timing Affect Performance? IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, pp. 16–30, June 2003
Magnus Gäfvert, Karl-Erik Årzén, Bo Bernhardsson, Lars Malcolm Pedersen Control of Gasoline Direct Injection Engines using Torque Feedback: A Simulation Study In R. Johansson and A. Rantzer (Ed.): Nonlinear and Hybrid Systems in Automotive Control, Springer, 2003
Cervin, A., Henriksson, D., Lincoln, B.,Eker, J., Årzén, K.-E., How Does Control Timing Affect Performance? IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, pp. 16--30, 2003
Cervin, A., Eker, J., The Control Server: A Computational Model for Real-Time Control Tasks In Proceedings of the 15th Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems, Porto, Portugal, 2003
Gäfvert, M. Topics in Modeling, Control, and Implementation in Automotive Systems Doc. thesis dissertation, ISSN 0280-5316, ISRN LUTFD2/TFRT--1066--SE, May 2003
Sanz, R., Årzén, K.-E., Trends in software and control IEEE Control Systems Magazine, 23:3, 2003
Henriksson, D., Cervin, A., Årzén, K.-E., TrueTime: Real-time Control System Simulation with MATLAB/Simulink Proceedings of the Nordic MATLAB Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2003
Cervin, A. Using Jitterbug to Derive Control Loop Timing Requirements Proceedings of CERTS’03, Co-Design of Embedded Real-Time Systems Workshop, Porto, Portugal, 2003

2002

Björn Wittenmark, Karl Johan Åström, Karl-Erik Årzén Computer Control: An Overview Technical report 0 2002. IFAC Professional Brief
Rasmus Olsson, Karl-Erik Årzén Exception Handling in S88 using Grafchart In Proc. of World Batch Forum North American Conference, Woodcliff Lake, NJ, USA, April 2002
Karl-Erik Årzén JGrafchart: Sequence Control and Procedure Handling in Java In Proceedings of Reglermötet 2002, May 2002
Bo Lincoln, Anton Cervin Jitterbug: A Tool for Analysis of Real-Time Control Performance In Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Las Vegas, NV, December 2002
Mikael Petersson, Karl-Erik Årzén, Henrik Sandberg, Lena de Maré Implementation of a Tool for Control Structure Assessment In Proceedings of the 15th IFAC World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, July 2002
Anton Cervin, Johan Eker, Bo Bernhardsson, Karl-Erik Årzén Feedback-Feedforward Scheduling of Control Tasks Real-Time Systems, 23:1–2, pp. 25–53, July 2002
Årzén, K.-E., Olsson, R. and Åkesson, J., Grafchart for Procedural Operator Support Tasks Submitted to IFAC World Congress 2002
Henriksson, D., Cervin, A., Årzén, K.-E., True-Time Simulation of Distributed Computer Control Systems In Proceedings of the 15th IFAC World Congress on Automatic Control, Barcelona, Spain, 2002

2001

Johan Eker, Anton Cervin, Andreas Hörjel Distributed Wireless Control Using Bluetooth In Proceedings of the IFAC Conference on New Technologies for Computer Control, Hong Kong, P.R. China, November 2001
Hedin, G. and Magnusson, E., JastAdd - a Java-based system for implementing front ends Proceedings of LDTA01, First Workshop on Language Descriptions, Tools and Applications (in conjuction to ETAPS), Genova, Italy April 2001

2000

Eker, J. and Blomdell, A., A Contract-Based Language for Embedded Control Systems Proceedings of the 25th IFAC/IFIP Workshop on Real-Time Programming, May 2000
Eker, J. and Blomdell, A. A Flexible Interactive Environment for Embedded Controllers Control Engineering Practice, 2, February 2000
Olsson, R., and Karl Erik Årzén, Exception handling in recipe-based batch control In Proc. of ADPM2000 The 4th International Conference on Automation of Mixed Processes., 2000
Persson, P., Cervin, A., and Eker, J., Execution-time properties of a hybrid controller Report ISRN LUTFD2 / TFRT-7591- -SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden, April 2000
Magnusson, E., Hedin, G., Program Visualization using Reference Attributed Grammars Nordic Journal of Computing 7(2000) 67-86
Hedin, G., Reference Attributed Grammars Informatica 24(2000) 301-317, Slovenia
Cervin, A., The real-time control systems simulator Reference manual Report ISRN LUTFD2 / TFRT-7592-SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden, April 2000
Cervin, A., Towards the Integration of Control and Real-Time Scheduling Desig Lic Tech thesis ISRN LUTFD2 / TFRT-3226-SE, Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund, Sweden, 2000

Master Thesis Projects

2005

Hardware simulation for testing IEC 61131-3 by Adrian Ulander and Johan Holmqvist at Alfa Laval,Tumba

2004

Code Generation from JGrafchart to Modelica by Isolde Dressler

Last update: Wednesday, 04-Apr-2007 11:45:41 CEST