Brezi - PLC software generationtool

Project description

The main goal of our project was to develop a piece of software that allows the easy generation of PLC software for the Siemens platform. The starting point should be to make sure that a developer does not have to do a lot of repetitive work.

Our project consists of a web-based front-end, an API that manages communication and a separate application that can control TIA portal to generate code. (Tia is the development environment of Siemens).

Context

Our project takes place in the industrial automation domain.
Our client Actemium is a well-known name when it comes to industrial automation. Actemium has 400 Business Units around the world. Their goal: "Better industrial performance". Actemium helps customers from design to maintenance of their industrial processes.
During the design process a lot of code is written. This can be repetitive work, Actemium wants to automate this process.

Results

The final product consists of three parts.

• The Front-End based on Laravel/Php.
• An API based on .Net Core C#.
• A Communication layer to TIA based on .Net Framework C#.

Placing an API between the front-End and the backend makes us not platform dependent. You can very easily use the API on a platform of your choice.

So now it is possible to generate software according to standards(ISA88). Code that is often used can be made variable and imported into the system. Once the code is imported you can reuse it with the right Inputs and Outputs.

The moment you start a generation the system will notify the users.
The API then starts the communication layer to TIA, which starts generating the project. When the server finishes generating you get another notification. You can follow the process and know when you can continue.

About the project group

Our team has been working together for several semesters, we all come from the field of technology, and we all plan to go back to technology as well. We start our day with a stand-up meeting where we discuss our plans and what we are going to do. We plan several "whiteboard sessions" throughout the sprint to discuss our ideas.