A cyber–physical system-based approach for industrial automation systems

•System-based approach for the development of industrial automation systems.•UML modeling of the software part of Mechatronic component.•Semi-automatic transformation to object oriented IEC 61131.•Semi-automatic transformation to Java code as alternative to use embedded boards.•The case study is developed as a lab exercise.

Industrial automation systems (IASs) are commonly developed using the languages defined by the IEC 61131 standard and are executed on programmable logic controllers (PLCs). Their software part is commonly considered only after the development and integration of mechanics and electronics. However, this approach narrows the solution space for software; thus, it is considered inadequate to address the complexity of today's systems. In this paper, we adopt a system-based approach for the development of IASs. Based on this, the UML model of the software part of the system is extracted from the SysML system model and it is then refined to get the implementation code. Two implementation alternatives are considered to exploit both PLCs and the recent deluge of embedded boards in the market. For PLC targets, the new version of IEC 61131 that supports object-orientation is adopted, while Java is used for embedded boards. The case study used to illustrate our approach was developed as a lab exercise, which aims to introduce to students a number of technologies used to address challenges in the domain of cyber–physical systems and highlights the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a glue for their cyber interfaces.