Cyber-Physical Programmable Logic Controllers

Abstract

Automation applications such as flexible manufacturing, smart energy management, and mobility are moving towards a complex and geographically distributed topology of physical processes (e.g. electro-mechanical, chemical, etc.) and computational processes (e.g. controllers and software). We provide additional functionality to the very successful programmable logic controller (PLC) architecture in order to improve the interaction with its environment. Our novel architecture, referred to as cyber-physical systems programmable logic controller (CPS-PLC), enables communication with external and geographically distributed devices and physical processes in addition to the traditional automation pyramid of locally networked devices. External communication allows the CPS-PLCs to interact with complex information from remote sources and react intelligently to unexpected events. Additionally, we present a model-based design approach for engineering of CPS-PLC applications where the physical behaviour of the system under control is as important as the embedded control hardware/software. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach with a Smart Grid CPS application.