Structuring Cyber-Physical Systems for Distributed Control with IEC 61499 Standard

With the constant growth in size and complexity of modern industrial applications, it is not suitable to use a unique and centralized controller device for the whole process. Thus, automation solutions need to be designed by distributing control execution across different devices. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are designed to solve networked embedded systems complexities. The IEC 61499 standard fosters developing distributed control applications by defining a platform-independent application model that can be mapped to numerous hardware components. Therefore, a relevant research topic is how to solve the design complexities of industrial CPSs by applying modeling techniques. In that context, this paper proposes an IEC 61499-based model for CPSs to distribute the complexity of control software over numerous small devices. The approach enables the creation of a comprehensive structure that can combine design, simulation, and distributed deployment of automation software. The proposed scheme is validated through a packet sorting system implemented in a commercial IDE platform.