Smart phones as system integration development tools: (Android SCL simulation environment as prototype)

Smart phones and cloud computing were introduced to automation industry as components of connected enterprise integration systems. The established protocols and interfacing done in that area, beside the rapid growth of the hardware specification of those devices, was behind the motivation to think of smart phones as programming and simulation devices. This paper proposes a conceptual design of a system integration work structure based on smart phones and cloud computing. The conceptual design is supported by prototype of an Android application for Siemens SCL programming and simulation. The proposal assumes a private cloud with a SAAS/PAAS/IAAS cloud model owned by an Automation solutions vendor (provider) whereas the handheld portable computing devices (e.g. smart phones) performs typical POUs (Project organization units) configuration and/or programming of preconfigured device (controller) and uploading the generated and tested-by means of simulation-code as (.prj files) or .txt files to the cloud. As part of the design, the paper will present a smart phone based automation application which will be capable of parsing the IEC 61131-3 SCL PLC programming language code, interpreting and checking validity by means of a high level simulator (Java based), generating a .txt file, this will assume a private cloud model and a coding (Engineering) management application on the server side.