Software-Defined Automation and Control A Preliminary Study

The pervasiveness and significance of software have upset its subordinate role in the original software-hardware relationship. Software has become a main factor for defining and differentiating various "things". This has led to a new emerging technology trend called Software-defined Anything (SDx), where a system's functionality and diversity are largely characterized by its software. SDx technologies are now pervading and reshaping many industries. This work initiates the investigation on possible approaches for applying the SDx paradigm in automation and control systems. In particular, a framework consists of commodity control hardware, service-oriented control software, and a cloud computing platform has been proposed. An application in building automation and management system has been developed and deployed to demonstrate the proposed approach's feasibility.