TABLE OF CONTENTS In this introductory chapter we review the background and reasons behind the development of the IEC 61499 standard. Specifically we will:
review the design of current-day control systems and consider the impact of new technology
look at the reasons for starting the development of the IEC 61499 standard
consider the reasons why function blocks are still an important concept to process and system engineers
show how function blocks have some of the characteristics of object oriented software
and finally show how IEC 61499 models can be used in the control system development life-cycle.
| Note | Every effort has been made to ensure that this book accurately describes the concepts and definitions in the IEC 61499 standard. However, although parts 1 and 2 of the IEC 61499 standard are fairly advanced in their development, they may still be subject to minor changes, which are not reflected in this book. |
As manufacturing companies fight to compete in today's unpredictable and ever changing global markets, there is an increased urgency to improve the agility of manufacturing systems. To produce competitive and innovative products, companies must be able to quickly design and create new forms of advanced automated production. Such levels of automation require the creation of large systems involving an amalgam of industrial control, manufacturing execution and business logistics systems. A key characteristic of all of these new systems will be a built-in ability to rapidly handle change, i.e. agile manufacturing systems. A manufacturing plant will need to be able to quickly switch...
