From Grafcet Diagrams to IEC 61499 Control Applications: A Unified Function Block Approach

GRAFCET diagrams are powerful modeling tools that enable the detailed definition of discrete event system behaveior through structured and hierarchical designs. These diagrams incorporate partial GRAFCET and facilitate interaction between them through forcing or encapsulation. GRAFCET are widely recognized and extensively used in automation engineering. Methodologies that automatically generate control software from GRAFCET diagrams allow engineers to focus on optimizing system performance and significantly reduce sources of error during the implementation stage. Several methodologies exist for code generation from GRAFCET using the IEC 61131-3 programming standard, effectively addressing scenarios involving a single programmable device. However, the issue remains open for the more recent IEC 61499 programming standard, which is designed to simplify the development of distributed control applications that operate on multiple devices. This paper aims to contribute to the development of methodologies that facilitate the generation of control code from discrete event system models, particularly GRAFCET, resulting in IEC 61499 standard compliant code. The goal is to produce code that supports straightforward and transparent distribution across multiple control devices within a plant.