Implementation of PLC controller connected Gazebo-ROS to support IEC 61131-3

Abstract

IEC61131-3 is an international standard related to programming languages used to develop PLC control systems. This paper introduces a system that can verify and validate a process automation program developed in compliance with IEC61131-3 using a 3D simulator. Robot driven commands and codes related to object manipulation communicate with Gazebo-ROS system to verify the automation program. To this end, the PLC controller and Gazebo-ROS exchange data using TCP/IP communication protocol and ROS nodes and Linux threads are developed to translate ROS-type messages into PLC controller messages. Gazebo-ROS integrated software architecture is developed after designing the task allocation algorithms using the IEC61131-3 language to verify the developed PLC program. In particular, the task allocation algorithms consist of three static algorithms, each of which is used for a specific scenario, and one dynamic algorithm that interchanges between the three static algorithms given some variation in the task scenarios.