Modeling and Validation of PLC-Controlled Systems: A Case Study

Programable logic controllers (PLCs) are complex cyber-physical systems which are widely used in industry. This paper shows the modeling and validation work of a typical PLC control system using the Behavior-Interaction-Priority(BIP) component framework. The gate control system based on PLC is a real industry application. We design general system architecture for this kind of device control system. The control software and hardware of environment are all modeled as BIP components. Their interactions are described by BIP connectors. System requirements are formalized as monitors. Simulation is applied on the system model. We found a couple of design errors in simulation, which help us to improve the dependability of the original systems.