Reducing the model generation effort for the virtual commissioning of control programs

This paper deals with the field of developing and deploying highly automated manufacturing systems. Especially the stage of the control programming suffers from few applicable verification methods, as existing approaches still include drawbacks. The virtual commissioning, as one example, requires additional effort in creating simulation models to being usable. This work presents a method, which reduces the effort of generating simulation models through an automated reuse and transformation of existing development documents. In a detailed case study, a software prototype implementing the method was executed to derive a simulation model of an existing set of information. The used sources, their transformation and the results are described to give a qualified impression of the method's possibilities.