Executing real-time constrained control applications modelled in IEC 61499 with respect to dynamic reconfiguration

New fast moving markets demand flexible, adaptable production facilities to allow manufacturing companies a fast reaction on consumer needs. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems provide a solution for these problems. Currently used software architectures have not been designed for providing an infrastructure for such manufacturing systems. With the new standard IEC 61499 the International Electrotechnical Commission provides an architecture for flexible distributed control systems. But it leaves open points regarding real-time execution and reconfiguration in realtime. This work focuses on real-time execution of IEC 61499 applications. It describes all execution elements of IEC 61499 within a device. Different implementation and scheduling approaches are compared and discussed. A first real-time scheduling approach for IEC 61499 control applications allows executing applications with periodic real-time constraints in parallel to unconstrained applications. It serves as a base for an enhanced full featured IEC 61499 real-time execution support.