The prevailing system and software model in automation systems engineering is defined by the IEC 61131 norm. It is to date the best way we know how to express low-level logic and manipulate electrical hardware signals. However, the exponential technological growth is continuing to raise the expectations on what automation systems are supposed to be capable of doing. Fulfilling rising requirements and managing the exploding complexity requires a systematic support for high-level descriptions, structuring, and communication, which the original approach was not built to provide. This work proposes the introduction of an abstraction layer, a component-container infrastructure, defined on top of standard system and software models in automation and mirroring the world of cyber–physical systems, where independent components are interconnected to realize the systems’ purpose by using each other’s functionalities. The concept is implemented in the form of a domain-specific modeling language, applying a classical two-level Model-driven Software Engineering (MDSE) approach. By engineering distinct industrial use cases in accordance with the proposed approach, it is shown that the defined abstractions and mechanisms are capable of expressing the nuances of software design in different domains and can enable the streamlining of the automation systems engineering workflow into a virtual plug&produce process.

自动化系统工程中流行的系统和软件模型由 IEC 61131 规范定义。这是迄今为止我们知道如何表达低级逻辑和操纵电子硬件信号的最佳方式。然而，指数级的技术增长继续提高对自动化系统应该能够做什么的期望。满足不断增长的需求和管理爆炸性的复杂性需要对高级描述、结构化和通信的系统支持，而最初的方法并没有提供这些支持。这项工作建议引入一个抽象层，一个组件容器基础设施，定义在自动化的标准系统和软件模型之上，并反映了网络物理系统的世界，其中独立的组件相互连接，通过使用彼此的功能来实现系统的目的。该概念以特定领域建模语言的形式实现，应用经典的两级模型驱动软件工程 (MDSE) 方法。通过根据所提出的方法设计不同的工业用例，表明定义的抽象和机制能够表达不同领域中软件设计的细微差别，并且可以将自动化系统工程工作流简化为虚拟的即插即用过程.