Modeling Interaction Patterns for Distributed Systems with IEC 61499

IEC 61499 is a proven technique for the model-based engineering of factory automation systems. Due to recent developments in this field like Industry 4.0, however, modern systems rely more and more on distributed computer technology. In this article, we investigate if and to which degree IEC 61499 together with IEC 61131-3 Structured Text as the algorithm implementation language is suited to also model the behavior of these amended systems. To achieve that, we selected three relevant use cases, i.e., mixed initiative mitigation, free-pool, and heartbeat, and exemplarily implemented each of them. This allowed us to get insight about what can be conveniently specified using IEC 61499 and for what an extension of the modeling technique is recommended. In this paper, we introduce the models for the three use cases and report the lessons learned from their implementation. Based on that, we suggest enhancements to IEC 61499.