Sprache:
English

Zielgruppe:
Developers and decision-makers in the fields of control engineering, automation, software development, and testing and commissioning in mechanical and plant engineering

Voraussetzungen:
None

Überblick und Zusammenfassungen:
The most expensive thing about a production plant is downtime.

Yet machine control software is still very often developed directly on the real plant. This leads to long commissioning times, high costs, and a high risk of detecting errors too late. Software changes typically require the plant to be shut down. Even for small to medium-sized plants, the costs of such downtime can amount to several hundred thousand euros.

In the special-purpose machine building sector and for low volume in particular, developing a full 3D plant simulation is far too expensive and requires specialist know-how. Moreover, a 3D simulation is not strictly necessary for commissioning to benefit from virtual development and testing.

Based on the Real-Time Object-Oriented Modeling (ROOM) methodology and the open-source toolchain eTrice, we demonstrate how control software can be developed and tested earlier and more reliably — even without a 3D simulation.

Compared to microcontroller-based embedded systems, mechanical engineering has a significant advantage: the vast majority of components are standardized. Most controlled components are connected via standardized bus systems such as EtherCAT or PROFINET. Individual components are likewise highly standardized — for example 5/3- and 3/2-way directional control valves or servo drives (SERCOS, CANopen, PROFIdrive). ROOM enables the rapid construction of simulation models based on these standardized components, which can easily be adapted to the real plant.

Control software can then be developed, commissioned, and fully automatically tested against a simulated machine model (Digital Twin) — including fault scenarios that are difficult to reproduce on complex real-world plants. Where non-standard components are in use, they can be replaced by simple simulation models and tested at component level. The resulting Software-in-the-Loop (SiL) or Hardware-in-the-Loop (HiL) tests can be fully automated, integrated into CI/CD pipelines, and executed on every commit or pull request. Classical PLC controllers (IEC 61131) can also be connected and tested via standardized bus systems or virtual control platforms.

The presentation concludes with a live demonstration using a Fischertechnik model, showing how virtual development and testing can be put into practice.


Art der Vermittlung:
Presentation with live demonstration

Nutzen:
How can I develop control software faster, more robustly, and more cost-effectively through virtual development and automated testing?
What methods, tools, and approaches do I need?
What advantages does this approach offer?