Developing Modern Industrial Control Applications: On lnformation Models, Methods and Processes for Distributed Engineering

Abstract

Control applications are used in automation and control of manufacturing and processing facilities to run the process. Development of industrial control applications is engineering with multidisciplinary characteristics and it is often performed as a part of a larger project, e.g. constructing a facility. It is closely interwoven with several related engineering disciplines between which information exchange is required. The control domain has several requirements and characteristics that need to be considered when developing new means to improve quality and efficiency of engineering.

In this thesis control application development is studied concerning model information content, methods for enhancing development, and improvement of engineering process management. Based on requirements for information content in control application models, improvements to the UML Automation Profile (UML AP) are presented. UML AP requirement modeling is developed to enable concerns of related engineering to be taken into account. Domain-specific UML AP constructs are also developed for modeling platform independent functions and execution platform features.

To improve development of control applications, model-driven methods are proposed and applied using UML AP elements. In the approach, a workflow from requirements to functional models, and finally to executable applications, is developed. The approach has been designed so that tools can be provided for automating capturing of requirements and assisting in model transformations. For development of control applications the approach promotes reusable, platform independent solutions while maintaining support for existing well-proven implementation platforms.

Methods are proposed for extending modeling with ontology descriptions based on Semantic Web technologies. Using these, a layer is constructed on top of the application model which is used to enhance interoperability and understandability of the concepts. The semantic descriptions enable automatic reasoning and inferences to be used in model analysis and provision of material supporting engineering. As a supplement to traditional modeling the descriptions provide semantics beyond those of a metamodel.

Given that the information content is standardized and the development methods are defined, the engineering processes can be improved concerning information exchange and process management. Organizing engineering tasks into services is proposed, and a service infrastructure is developed to facilitate utilization of these services and integration of information systems. Business process modeling is used to describe the engineering processes and to compose the services. By executing the business processes with information systems the management of engineering activities is improved and automation of some of the tasks is enabled.

Engineering is not limited to the design phase of a facility. It is performed throughout the plant lifecycle in, for example, operation and maintenance (O&M). A service framework providing access to relevant data is also beneficial for O&M tasks. To meet the business demands a business process driven approach for development of O&M information systems is proposed. The approach is based on composition of services, and enables flexible reconfiguration of processes as well as integration of systems.