PLC code generation based on a formal specification language

The complexity and quality needs of PLC-based control system software have largely increased. Formal specification methods can help to cope with these needs. Besides formal verification, another benefit of a formal specification language is the possibility to provide automatic generation of the final source code. This paper overviews PLCspecif, our formal specification language for PLC programs and presents a code generation method for the language. The result of the code generator is a Structured Text (ST) code that not only corresponds to the formal semantics of the specification, but is also configurable, readable, understandable, and follows development conventions and standards. The code generation method shows that PLC-specif is applicable and well-adapted to the PLC domain.