New structured and hierarchical network model for designing FA control system

This paper proposes a new method for FA system software development. As computer technology continues to be upgraded yearly to higher levels, factory automation systems are becoming larger and more complex. The system architecture has changed from centralized processing to distributed processing to reduce the development cost and improve reliability. When we develop distributed processing systems, sometimes we encounter difficulties; for instance, inadequate expression methods, and not yet established analyzing techniques for the control mechanism. These difficulties are derived from non-deterministic characteristics of FA systems, and there are a large number of combinations of control conditions based on the characteristics. Our research proposes a new development method for FA system software to solve the above problems. The main idea behind our method is to delineate the total control logic in a structured and hierarchical network model. We have also developed a software engineering system based on the proposed method.