Design of real time software for industrial process control

The paper describes the details of, and the experiences gained from, a case study undertaken by the authors on the design and implementation of a complex control system for a dosage industrial process used in a manufacturing industry. The goal was to demonstrate that industrial real time control systems could be implemented using a high level programming language and some suitable operating system. The software was designed using Harel's State Charts as the main tool and implemented on an Intel Pentium based system. Our results indicated that system works correctly and is very flexible. The system has been successfully tested and now is in full production at Lignotok S.A., a large manufacturing company in Vigo, Spain.