Using the Function Block Model for Robotic Arm Motion Control

The IEC 61499 standard enhances the 1131 function block (FB) concept to support the development of open, interoperable, distributed control applications. The first prototype software tools that support the FB model have already appeared in the market. The industry shows a growing interest in the function block model but more research and reference implementations are required to investigate and demonstrate the applicability of the new paradigm in this domain. In this paper the applicability of the IEC 61499 model in a well known PID-based control application for robotic arms is examined. To prove the correctness of the FB-based design specs, a specific code generator was developed to automatically produce the executable model of the application for a prototype Linux-based FB execution environment. The system was demonstrated successfully, proving the effectiveness of the FB model as well as the usability of the proposed execution environment