Software for Next Generation Automation and Control

The current trend in automation and control research has been toward "intelligent" systems that are intended to adapt quickly to change while providing extensibility through a modular, distributed design. The key to integration of these systems lies in their control software; however the main barrier to flexibility lies in the difficulties associated with the development of this software. In this paper, we look at the basic requirements for this next generation of automation and control systems and introduce a new software tool that is based on the IEC 61499 standard that is intended to address the issue of software development.