Virtual start-up of plants using formal methods

Start-up of a manufacturing system is a time-consuming task because control software is usually designed detached from the real plant or a simulation model. Even the most experienced software engineer is not able to consider every possible scenario without having feedback from a plant or its model. So, undesired behavior can occur after transferring software to the controller. At best, the errors are recognized just after starting-up, so that the software can accordingly be corrected. But there can be even worse failures that occur rarely and randomly, but are the more critical and mean danger for human and machine. This problem is of high significance because automated systems get more and more complex, especially if they control parallel operations. Hence, control software bugs are preassigned and should be considered in early project phase. The approach presents an integrated framework that facilitates virtual start-up of a plant. For this, formal methods are applied, so that control software cannot only be simulated but also verified before start-up. This eases control software design and reduces plant downtimes and consequently costs.