Structural Analysis of GRAFCET Control Specifications

IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA), pp. 1–8

Abstract

The graphical modeling language GRAFCET is used as a formal specification language in industrial control design. This paper proposes a structural analysis that approximates the variable values of GRAFCET to allow verification on specification level. GRAFCET has different elements resulting in concurrent behavior, which in general results in a large state space for analyses like model checking. The proposed analysis approach approximates that state space and takes into consideration the entire set of GRAFCET elements leading to concurrent behavior. The analysis consists of two parts: We present an algorithm analyzing concurrent steps to approximate the step variables and we adapt analysis means from the field of Petri nets to approximate internal and output variables. The proposed approach is evaluated using an industrial-sized example to demonstrate that the analysis is capable of verifying behavioral errors and is not limited by the specification size of practical plants.

Authors 5

1. Aron Schnakenbeck

   Helmut Schmidt University

   Affiliation as printed

   Helmut-Schmidt-Universität,Institut für Automatisierungstechnik,Hamburg,Germany,22043

2. Robin Mroß Aachen Lehrstuhl Informatik 11

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Lehrstuhl Informatik 11,Aachen,Germany,52074

3. Marcus Völker Aachen Lehrstuhl Informatik 11

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Lehrstuhl Informatik 11,Aachen,Germany,52074

4. Stefan Kowalewski Aachen Lehrstuhl Informatik 11

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University,Lehrstuhl Informatik 11,Aachen,Germany,52074

5. Alexander Fay

   Helmut Schmidt University

   Affiliation as printed

   Helmut-Schmidt-Universität,Institut für Automatisierungstechnik,Hamburg,Germany,22043