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The reutilization of proven automation solutions for automation systems is an essential approach to increase the profitability of engineering services. Additionally, distributed systems are increasingly important in automation systems. For this reason, this paper focuses on the aspect of distributed systems combined with the reutilization of automation tasks and solutions in the domains of process and production automation. To address this purpose the research project “Functional application design of Distributed Automation systems” (FAVA) was launched. This paper presents the objective of this research project, identifies deficits of the state-of-the-art and describes automation systems which have been analyzed in the FAVA project to identify automation tasks and their variants regarding to the distribution.

The home / building automation environment is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity with a large number of systems that need to interoperate, comprising different devices provided by various vendors. A need for greater integration, flexibility and interoperability is increasingly expressed. The current paper presents an architecture that utilizes three predominant state-of-the-art technologies, namely workflows, ontologies and web services in order to address the above need in an efficient way. I. INTRODUCTION Modern design in Building and Home automation has revolutionized the home environment, introducing a plethora of smart appliances as well as various network technologies, mandating an increase in the level of flexibility and interoperability. A great number of systems and applications exist with reference to this technological area, covering the whole range of the home - building automation system hierarchical model. This model comprises three different levers: the automation layer, the control layer and the service provision layer. The model that is described in this paper applies both to home automation and building automation applications; thus henceforward a reference to anyone of them is valid for both of them. The model is depicted in figure 1. The automation layer comprises the building automation equipment, such as sensors, actuators, smart devices and modules, controllers (PLCs) and network controllers. Automation level devices provide device relevant application code, that handles the required preprocessing, supporting the lower layer code for integrated systems addressing the provision of building and home services related to BMS, safety, security and disease management processes. The flow of information between automation level devices is usually characterized by time constraints, thus mandating the utilization of special communication protocols such as Lonworks, EIB, WorldFIP. The control layer includes devices that play the role of the control point of the home systems, wherein reside applications that are traditionally characterized as control automation applications. Control layer devices need to interconnect both with the indoor individual networks of the automation layer, as well as provide the necessary entry point through the internet to the upper layer for the provision of services to the home / building environment by third party Service Providers. The upper layer of our model refers to the various services offered by independent Service Providers that a building automation system can be a client of. A service can be offered either for free or be billed to its clients / users. Each user can be simultaneously a client of various services, while each service provider may have a bundle of services provided to each client. Internet plays a significant role in the overall communications for the enforcement of the presented model. The ubiquity of the internet has led to the emergence of standards that allow the creation of a unifying infrastructure that makes possible the integration of the different systems at whatever layer they may reside in. Nevertheless a conceptual dividing line exists between applications at the lower and the higher levels. The work presented in this paper is associated with a view of the home environment that mandates the integration and interoperability of all the systems / applications that participate in it, independently of their level. Architectural elements of this approach are presented describing home automation integrated services as processes by means of workflows, utilizing the state-of-the-art technology of Web Services in order to open up building automation systems and make available their functionalities. Our approach introduces innovation in the home environment through the incorporation of semantic information related with the home automation process, described in ontologies, increasing the overall degree of

MAP is not suitable in a real-time context. We have made some proposals for making MMS-that is the most important component of MAP-real-time. Our approach focuses on the extension of the services and protocol by integrating some real-time task and message schedulers. This paper addresses the critical issue of scheduling tasks and messages in the framework of real-time MMS. The need for a real-time MMS in manufacturing environments has been addressed in various papers. The timing constraints in the objects and services may be useless unless a scheduler making use of them, is integrated into real-time MMS. This issue is addressed in this paper.

The design of Automation and Control Systems shows a consolidated tendency towards what has been called Distributed Intelligence. This concept has proven to be appropriate to meet the current requirements imposed on production systems, aimed at optimizing the agility to respond to disturbances and productive environment; and enhance the reconfigurability of control systems and processes. Within the theoretical conceptions of the emergent Intelligent Automation, such as Agents, the Holonic Systems, Fractal Manufacturing stand above the rest. The theoretical concept should lead to availability of technological tools that enable its implementation. According to the previous idea, the IEC 61499 standard has been established approaches from intelligent distributed components. This comes as standard programming method that will surely pass the current forms of algorithm design for programmable logic controllers, whose languages are normalized by traditional IEC 61131-3. This paper aims to show how the recent standard is compatible with the adoption of new paradigms of automation, and illustrate the concepts of distributed intelligence and autonomy that could be implemented through algorithms with new structures of Function Blocks, compiled on some programmable controllers such as PLC.

In this paper a new model for controlling and monitoring industrial Automation Systems will be described. The architecture of this model does not limit it to be connected to only one specific Industrial Automation System, but enables it to be connected to different systems simultaneously, as well as reused for new systems, packing any industrial communication protocol. Controlling and monitoring is then done through a network service that allows remote devices to access the Automation Systems. The basic components have their hardware and software described, as well as the interfaces with the industrial Automation System and components in between. Thus, the proposed structure is presented and later it is shown how it is possible to reuse this system for other applications.

In today's automation industry, agent-oriented development of system functionalities appears to have a great potential for increasing autonomy and flexibility of complex operations, while lowering the workload of users. In this paper, we present a reference model for the harmonious and systematical integration of agent-orientation in industrial automation. Considering compatibility with existing automation systems and best practice, this model combines advantages of function block technology, service orientation and native description methods from the automation standard IEC 61131-3. This approach can be applied as a guideline for the engineering design of future agent-oriented automation systems.

Modern automation is measured in terms of interoperability and easy administration. Introducing technology focussing on these criteria, however, induce new security risks to existing and future automation installations. Current security approaches in automation do not keep pace with the rising security challenges. Prevalent in automation is the use of access control to protect the system from malicious activity, such as extern attacks. Means to inspect the automation traffic to identify attacks that already have overcome access control or are initiated from inside the automation system are not available, yet. For filling this gap, we investigate in the application of intrusion detection techniques on industrial automation. In this paper, we present the current state of an intrusion detection system tailored to the analysis of operation down to traffic between automation devices on field layer.

The main purpose of a home automation system is to monitor and control devices from a central location. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of low-cost, flexible and secure home automation system based on SNMP standard protocol, now widely supported by device vendors for their products, such as routers, bridges and printers. Communication between SNMP agents is done on Ethernet and wireless networks. The protocol implemented between the agents is optimized to be suitable for most applications. The system is designed for low-cost and flexibility in order to reuse existing local data communication network.

Security incidents are becoming more serious and more common not only in computer networks, but also in automation networks. Automation devices are still more and more based on computers and they have the same weak points like standard computers. Actual trends in automation networks are among others wide automation networks covering several manufacture divisions or remote controlling of automation networks through the Internet. Necessity of the remote connection to the automation networks covers all security vulnerabilities and risks which originate from the Internet. Analogically the automation network can be secured by the conventional way through firewalls and VPN tunnels. For this reason new automation firewall device was designed. The VAN firewall includes messaging system for logging all events and alerts. As a basis for VAN (Virtual Automation Network) firewall messaging system IDMEF (Intrusion Detection Message Exchange Format) is used. This paper describes the intrusion detection system and its implementation within the VAN.

Distributed automation is the highest level of automation and the main trend of distributed automation lies at self-organizing and re-configurable systems by means of distributed intelligence. This paper presents the state of art of self-organizing and re-configurable systems. Then, a new framework is put forward for re-configurable industrial automation, which combines the latest advances of computer science in service-oriented architectures.

This paper attempts to bring out the emerging European trends, developments, and perspectives on the role of wireless technologies in industrial environments as being currently considered within the virtual automation networks research and development project The major emphasis is on the investigation, identification, specification, design, and implementation of feasible wireless technologies and standards to provide a solid base for enabling the development of components, devices and systems catering to the specific needs of different industrial automation domains. An application scenario describing modern manufacturing systems in factory automation is also included here to illustrate a possible VAN approach.

The word "automation" is used frequently in modern discourse to describe all manner of things that involve machines and electronics performing tasks previously performed by humans. Nonetheless, automation still has a finite and quantifiable meaning when referring to its implementation in a modern cement manufacturing facility. This paper is written for the technical professional who is not a degreed electrical engineer, programmer, or automation practitioner. In it, we provide a brief overview of the modern plant automation architecture, as well as some selected details concerning the pieces that comprise the overall system. Our review runs from the sensors and actuators, through the process control, operator interface, and information technology, to the tie-ins with the enterprise business systems. We address subjects such as: 1) overview: what is the architecture of a current plant automation system, what are the current hardware and software platforms available and what are some of the typical capabilities and applications? 2) Technology: what are the current technologies utilized at the various automation levels, and what functionality is available? 3) Implementation: what are some of the key considerations that need to be addressed when implementing a system?

The CAN bus has had great acceptance in several areas such as industrial automation processes. Different solutions and profiles for standardising the communication between devices and systems have been well accepted. This paper presents a general introduction based on different areas in which the CAN protocol has been applied. In addition, a definition of the protocol's architecture and a description of the tools and devices of the system are presented. Finally, a development of methodology in the application to the automation and the results obtained in this work are shown. Thus, based on earlier experiences in the development of applications using the CAN protocol, principally with academic purposes, the authors present a study of the analysis of the CAN protocol applied to a real application like robotic arm automation. The importance of this work increases due to the limited knowledge of the protocol implemented and the difficulty that the analysis carried out has into this real application.

The paper introduces a novel video transmission system designed to work over a MAP stack using the MMS protocol. The transmission of images allows powerful remote monitoring capabilities in industrial environments, while the utilization of the versatile MMS protocol gives the system great flexibility and tight integration into factory networks. The main characteristics of the system and the devised protocols are described. Then, a first implementation developed by the authors is presented, demonstrating the viability of the proposal. A preliminary study on the impact of video transmission over network traffic is also presented.

The use of local area networks (LANs) for plant automation is discussed. Consideration is given to the use of communication networks as integration tools, LAN services, network types, the solution of the integration problem, the Open System Interconnection model, the IEEE 802 project, upper-layer standards, the MAP (manufacturing automation protocol) support of more than one network type. process control influence on MAP, and standard and proprietary LANs. >

An approach that permits the networking of broadband data over optical fiber is presented. This local area network (LAN) is a broadband network that allows the use of multiple carrier frequencies and thus multiple services. For example, multiple network formats, such as the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP), broadband Ethernet, and the PC network, can coexist on the same optical fiber in addition to other broadband services such as video. >

This paper studies a CDMA wireless access infrastructure for a factory with several mobile terminals. Factory manufacturing floor usually forms several "islands of automation" with each having multiple mobile terminals. Each island of automation can then be covered by a base station which is attached to the supervisory computer (command center). Based on a priority structure, we propose a wireless access protocol and develop a mathematical model to evaluate its performance. The mathematical model uses several Markov chains which can model the dynamic behavior of the CDMA channel. The numerical results show that it performs much better than other random access schemes such as the Aloha protocol in terms of the packet lost rate and delay performance.

Because of the improvement of computer technology, automation has been used in lots of places, such as office automation (OA), mechanical automation (FA), etc. Among the variety of automation applications, the monitor center plays a very important role in automation. In this paper, a computer monitor system is developed. The design of this system will directly affect the performance of the automation system. This monitor system includes several advantages which are: using RS-485 as the interface for the connection of central computers, transmitting data with 64 transceivers at the same time, transmission distance up to 4000 feet, use of a modal transceiver design and providing variety of place.

The computer integrated automated factory is characterised by several intelligent devices distributed in the factory communicating with each other. The communication network used in the factory should be designed to satisfy disparate communication requirements. IEEE 802.4 token bus has been chosen as the standard by the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP). In this paper we model and analyse a typical token bus network used in a factory environment. We model the network as a multiqueue system and derive the performance measures in terms of the network parameters.

This paper is concerned with GM's Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP). It reviews the components involved in MAP. It will describe the important issues in MAP and will provide a status report of the program.

The delivery of critical messages within delay constraints is an important criterion in the design and management of computer communication networks in the manufacturing environment. This environment is generally characterized by a large number of disparate data groups, each with their own network statistics and delivery requirements. The study and analysis of the token passing bus is of particular importance to this environment due to its selection by the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) as the standard at the physical and data link layers. In this paper we apply an analytical model to predict the performance of the token bus network in satisfying the delay constraints of frames assigned to the highest priority class. Several examples are given which illustrate the application of the analytical work and also give insight into the relationship between network performance and parameter values of the protocol. Results from a discrete event simulation study of the token bus are included for comparison.