Systematic design of logic controllers for processing plants starting from informal specifications

Abstract In contrast to industrial practice in logic controller design, where manual, experience-based, and thus error-prone procedures are commonly used, this paper proposes a methodology that aims at systematizing the design procedures as much as possible. Given a set of informal specifications and a technical flowchart, the control program is constructed as a sequential function chart (SFC) by transforming the requirements via clearly defined intermediate formats. The resulting SFC can be translated algorithmically into timed automata, composed with an appropriate plant model, and then rigorous verification can be used in order to analyze whether all specifications are satisfied.