Shaker Verlag, Aachen (ISBN 3-8322-0043-6), 152 pages, April 2002.
Abstract: The development of logic control algorithms lies outside the realm of classical continuous Control Theory with its strong mathematical foundations and purely formal design approaches. Logic controller development is closer to software development, in the sense that a special algorithm has to be developed for every new problem. However, Computer Science offers a variety of formal methods that help to avoid errors in the software development process and allow checking and evaluating the resulting algorithms. In this thesis, concepts from Discrete Event Control Theory and Software Engineering are combined to a formal development approach for logic controllers. Based on Petri Nets the complete controller development process from an informal specification to the final implementation on a programmable logic controller is discussed. This process includes the steps of design, verification, validation, evaluation (measurement of quality), and implementation. Special emphasis is put on the evaluation step that is new to logic controller development.
Keywords: control.