Proposing and Prototyping an Extension to the Adapter Concept in the IEC 61499 Standard

Component-Design Architecture has been in demand based on the growing needs for modularity and flexibility in the automation industry. IEC 61499 standard, a component-based automation architecture, provides various tools and techniques for automation developers to accommodate the need for flexibility in automation sequences. However, the adapter concept, one of the significant features of the standard, remains untouched and undeveloped since its inclusion in the standard and lacks the utilization of its true potential. In this work, we enhance the adapter concept by proposing the addition of logic into them. This proposition advances the adapter technology and gives the automation standard more capabilities to support higher levels of modularization without the increase of applications complexity.