Considering IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 in the context of component frameworks

Automation and control systems provide their own programming and modeling paradigms in parallel to theory well known from computer science. Especially the concepts of component-based software engineering highly influence the design of embedded systems, which include automation and control systems. This work analyses what is and is not a “software component” in the context of the two standards IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499. Utilizing the definition of component frameworks and component system architectures, the potentials and problems of an integrative approach in order to utilize both standards within the same platform will be discussed.