IoT-based integration of IEC 61131 industrial automation systems: The case of UML4IoT

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) plays a key role in the new generation of industrial automation systems (IASs). Evolving IoT standards if effectively used may address many challenges in the development of IASs. However, the use of the IoT and the REST architectural paradigm that IoT is based on, is not an easy task for the automation engineer. In this paper, a model driven system engineering process is adopted for IASs and it is extended to exploit IoT standardization efforts in IEC 61131 based system. IoT is considered as an enabling technology for the integration of cyber-physical and cyber components of the system and humans, bringing into the industrial automation domain the benefits of this technology. A UML profile for IoT is exploited to automate the generation process of the IoTwrapper, i.e., the software layer that is required on top of the IEC 61131 cyber part of the cyber-physical component to expose its functionality to the modern IoT IAS environment. A prototype implementation and performance measurements prove the feasibility of the presented approach.