Technical Notes

Here you can find all published technical notes, sorted into three categories:
Software Engineering | State Machines | StateWORKS Basics

Software Engineering

• Specifying control software instead of coding
  the only reasonable way of dealing with complex applications
• Why UML will not do?
  the most talked about modeling methods are not suitable for specifying an application

State Machines

• About State Machines
  State machines in the (software) control world
• A Flowchart is not a State Machine
  a flowchart is merely a means to shows code flow
• Moore or Mealy model: that’s the question
  the finite state machine has two basic models called Moore and Mealy
• Overcoming Limitations in PLC Programming
  standard IEC 61131-3 is an incomplete specification of a state machine
• StateWORKS IO-Unit for Velleman K8055 (or VM110) boards
  programming the K8055 board without writing a single line of code
• Handling Unknown/Undefined States in Control Systems
  full specification of a control system requires completeness of information
• Understanding State Machines - Definitions, Models, and Applications
  a concept of finite state machines is the strongest idea in the design of software control flow
• Lifetime of control signals and generating events, illustrated by a Turing machine
  an input signal is not only an event; it has a well-defined lifetime
• Event driven state machines
  a parser is a specific type of a finite state machine

StateWORKS Basics

• The Virtual Environment
  a new approach to control specifications
• What is StateWORKS?
  a specification tool and a run-time environment
• Hierarchical System of State Machines
  the only known concept of well organized system of state machines
• Usage of commands (CMD) and inter-VFSM communication
  the command-state interface makes systems of state machines a reality
• Usage of the String Object (STR)
  a description of the RTDB string object
• How to Write GUI for a StateWORKS Application
  The RTDB TCP/IP server is the base of a GUI design
• Standard Interface for StateWORKS Standard Executor
  demonstrates the basic idea of writing an I/O handler for RTDB
• Debugging of state machines
  replaces debugging of program code
• Password for StateWORKS run-time systems
  TCP/IP communication with RTDB may be safeguarded against malicious attacks
• Testing with StateWORKS
  StateWORKS allows powerful automatic testing of application control
• Integrating external finite state machines into a StateWORKS System
  a distributed application is considered as a single entity
• Complement control values in the VFSM concept
  a useful extension to multivalued control signals
• VFSM executor library
  can be integrated into an application where it is used to process the state machines
• Using TCP/IP channels as an I/O interface
  All attributes of each object in RTDB can be accessed by TCP/IP clients
• Break states in the VFSM Executor
  when specifying a state machine to be realized by a StateWORKS run-time system
• PID Regulator
  StateWORKS is a system to develop & implement control systems e.g. closed loop regulators
• Simplified Traffic Light State Machine
  Alternative solution not using Complex Expressions