Support for development and analysis of real time programmable controller applications
Real-time control systems have several features that distinguish them from other computerized systems. The key feature is the timely response requirement: as it is well known, for real-time systems it is important not only the functional correctness (correct results must be obtained), but also the moment when these results are obtained. This means that the timing of a real time control system must be temporally predictable, the knowledge of the timing behavior of tasks being crucial for the design of the system. In the latest years, several academic researches were carried out, but unfortunately, none of the numerous published analysis techniques and several prototype tool implementations triggers any improvements for industrial use. Rather than invent another software engineering technique, this paper describes a pragmatic approach, which fulfils clearly defined needs. The presented approach is based on a specific real-time control architecture that uses PLCs and cyclic paradigm; this is motivated by the fact that a large category of industrial applications are and could be developed using this architectural structure.
real-time control system event/timed triggered model determinism temporal behaviour