Programming reactive systems with statecharts

The authors look at methods and tools for fast delivery of applications in the context of factory automation; more specifically in the field of industrial robotics and for numerical controllers of machine-tools. They introduce a scheduling language and a general framework in which both kinds of applications can be expressed. Its purpose is to generate a real-time controller, tuned for the application described. It is shown how this tool is used for the specification, simulation, and implementation of the control-command systems. The language extends the statecharts introduced by D. Harel (1987) for the purpose of flexible manufacturing and robot control. It inherits from the statecharts most of their features, such as the visual formalism, semantics, and modularity.<
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