IEC 61499 vs. 61131: A Comparison Based on Misperceptions
This is an incremental analysis for industrial automation practitioners, highlighting misperceptions in academic promotion of a standard.
The paper compares IEC 61499 and IEC 61131 standards for industrial automation, arguing that IEC 61499 is promoted with unsubstantiated claims on features like reusability and portability, and does not provide a solid framework for next-generation systems.
IEC 61131 has been widely accepted in the industrial automation domain. However, it is claimed that the standard does not address today the new requirements of complex industrial systems, which include among others, portability, interoperability, increased reusability and distribution. To address these restrictions, IEC has initiated the task of developing IEC 61499, which is presented as a mature technology to enable intelligent automation in various domains. This standard was not accepted by industry even though it is highly promoted by the academic community. In this paper, a comparison between the two standards is presented. We argue that IEC 61499 has been promoted by academy based on unsubstantiated claims on its main features, i.e., reusability, portability, interoperability, event-driven execution. A number of misperceptions are presented and discussed. Based on this, it is claimed that IEC 61499 does not provide a solid framework for the next generation of industrial automation systems.