Multi-platform and open source development tool for automation

Abstract

This paper presents an open source tool allowing to embed a grafcet onto a micro-controller board. This tool assists the user throughout the entire process, starting from the design of the grafcet, defining and assigning inputs and outputs, generating the code, and finally facilitating its download onto a micro-controller board. The graphical part of this software use a JAVA-based package JGRAFCHART for the definition of the interface, and regarding the code generation, the semantics rules of evolution are precisely presented. An application case illustrates the use of the software from modelling to electronic assembly. Temporal data relevant to the application is provided, discussing the limitations stemming from input-output constraints. All of this information helps delineate the domain and scope of applications suitable for this approach.