A PC-BASED OBJECT SIMULATOR FOR SUPPORTING PLC SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

The paper discusses hardware and software tools used to support Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) program testing and verification. An idea of a PC-based object simulator is presented. The simulator consists of a PC equipped with an appropriate I/O card, and a simulator program running on the PC. The simulator is capable of emulating behavior of real industrial objects. Thus a significant part of software tests can be performed with the use of the simulator, instead of a physical object. This can significantly facilitate, and accelerate development of an application.