Methods improving software design efficiency for flexible industrial automation

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School of Electrical Engineering | Doctoral thesis (article-based) | Defence date: 2025-06-13
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Authors

Date

2025

Department

Sähkötekniikan ja automaation laitos
Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

79 + app. 87

Series

Aalto University publication series Doctoral Theses, 120/2025

Abstract

The industrial automation world has shifted from mass production to mass customisation. Automation systems need to be flexible, modular, and efficient more than ever before and in order to support these paradigm shifts and changes, the need for software-defined automation has been drastically increasing. This thesis presents methods and tools that help improve the efficiency of software design for flexible industrial automation. The IEC~61499 standard for vendor agnostic distributed automation is used as the technology standard to develop the proposed methods. First, we discuss the need to optimise design efficiency when developing, debugging, testing, and maintaining industrial automation code. Different design patterns and software constructs are proposed that help increase reuse of software components, make systems more flexible and modular, and improve debugging and error handling capabilities. All contributing towards improving the software design efficiency. Next, we discuss the importance and effect of interoperability for flexible industrial automation systems. Vendors need to integrate state-of-the-art technologies in order to keep up with market changes. However, traditional automation systems, being rigid in nature, act as a barrier to higher levels of interoperability. We discuss the use of standardised interfaces that help achieve higher levels of interoperability and analyse its effect on overall system efficiency. Finally, in this thesis, we propose software driven reconfiguration of manufacturing systems aimed at reducing the downtime and error rates when handling systems that are dynamic in nature.

Description

Supervising professor

Vyatkin, Valeriy, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Finland

Thesis advisor

Atmojo, Udayanto, Dr., Aalto University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Finland

Keywords

flexibility, modularity, IEC 61499, software-defined automation

Other note

Parts

  • [Publication 1]: P. Jhunjhunwala, U.D. Atmojo and V. Vyatkin. Applying Skill-based Engineering using OPC-UA in Production System with a Digital Twin. In IEEE 30th International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), Kyoto, Japan, June 2021.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2021112410328
    DOI: 10.1109/ISIE45552.2021.9576342 View at publisher
  • [Publication 2]: P. Jhunjhunwala, A. Zoitl, U.D. Atmojo and V. Vyatkin. Monitoring design pattern for distributed automation systems in IEC 61499 and its formal modelling. In IEEE 31st International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), Anchorage, AK, USA, June 2022.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202209075391
    DOI: 10.1109/ISIE51582.2022.9831470 View at publisher
  • [Publication 3]: P. Jhunjhunwala and V. Vyatkin. Proposing and Prototyping an Extension to the Adapter Concept in the IEC 61499 Standard. IEEE Access, Vol. 10, pp 2564 - 2577, 2021.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202201261460
    DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3137642 View at publisher
  • [Publication 4]: H. Kothalawala, P. Jhunjhunwala and V. Vyatkin. Towards migration from IEC 61131-3 to IEC 61499 in process industry: redesign of visualisation. In IEEE 32nd International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE), Helsinki, Finland, June 2023.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202402072334
    DOI: 10.1109/ISIE51358.2023.10227953 View at publisher
  • [Publication 5]: P. Jhunjhunwala, P. Ovsiannikova and V. Vyatkin. Design Pattern for Industrial Control Applications Based on One-Line IEC 61499 Adapter Connections. In IECON 2023- 49th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Singapore, Singapore, October 2023.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202402072353
    DOI: 10.1109/IECON51785.2023.10312138 View at publisher
  • [Publication 6]: P. Jhunjhunwala, S. Stephen Bitar, K. Zhukovskii, U.D. Atmojo and V. Vyatkin. Interoperability in Software-Defined Process Automation Using the Open Process Automation Standard and IEC 61499. IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, December 2024.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202502052327
    DOI: 10.1109/MIE.2024.3442448 View at publisher
  • [Publication 7]: P. Jhunjhunwala and V. Vyatkin. Proposing Bus Adapter Connections in IEC 61499. In IECON 2025- 50th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Chicago, United States of America, November 2024.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202504163259
    DOI: 10.1109/IECON55916.2024.10905348 View at publisher
  • [Publication 8]: P. Jhunjhunwala and V. Vyatkin. Reconfiguration in real-time using the IEC 61499 standard. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Open Journal, Submitted, March 2025

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https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-2605-1

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[diss] Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu / ELEC