Control software development in Industrial Automation

Classical programming approaches are no longer enough to implement and integrate evolved control software for Industrial Automation Systems (IASs). The multidisciplinary implementation of increasingly-sophisticated IAS capabilities makes developers look for more effective methodologies to efficiently design, build, and evaluate such software. This paper identifies gaps in the development process of IASs. Filling these gaps can help improving the coding of IAS control applications by overcoming current development limitations. This paper argues for a requirements-driven development process and an interactive integration framework to mitigate drawbacks set by engineering tools. It shows gaps given by what current tools can provide and what is needed.