Integration of Scalable Safety and Security Actions in IEC 61499 Control Applications

Abstract In the last decade, manufacturing automation systems have experienced a strong trend towards an increasing complexity, variability and flexibility caused by growing product spectra and declining lot sizes. To cope with the growing requirements of today's automation system, the application of modular mechatronical units have been explored resulting in distributed control systems. An upcoming standard, the IEC 61499 Function Blocks, provides the according programming technologies for the engineer to handle such systems. With the application of distributed control systems and the integration of new communication technologies as for example Industrial Ethernet communication systems the communication within control systems grows up and reaches a new level were system safety and security get a higher impact on the applicability of manufacturing systems. These two aspects are not yet directly covered by the IEC 61499 standard. Within this paper a possible way of integration of necessary activities to ensure system safety and security (so called Safety and Security Actions) in a standard conform way in a distributed control system is described.