Automated Code Generation for Programmable Logic Controllers based on Knowledge Acquisition from Engineering Artifacts: Concept and Case Study

Abstract

The effort for design and implementation of process au- tomation systems increases with the complexity of modern production plants. To shorten the implementation phase we propose a conceptual approach for automated code generation for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) based on knowledge acquisition from standardized engi- neering artifacts and their corresponding tool database. Ontologies are defined for each engineering domain ar- tifact, representing the concepts and relations specified in the associated domain standards. An automated data extraction and population of the domain-specific ontolo- gies together with semi-automated mapping definitions be- tween common engineering objects then enables a rule- based code generator to query the ontologies. The query results are translated afterward into PLC code by apply- ing a rule transformation algorithm.