IEC1131-3 Programming Standardization for Open Modular Architecture Controllers

Industrial users of automation control systems have come to realize the significant non-recurring engineering costs involved with proprietary, or non-standardized, automation control languages. Recent requirements call for standards-based languages to be used when designing modern control systems. There is a simultaneous shift towards open modular factory floor computing platforms based on standardized hardware and “Windows”-based development tools. This paper explores the emergence of methods and strategies which allow for hardware independent program execution of automation control projects written in one or all of the IEC1131-3 Standard Programmable Controller languages.