Prioritized Deterministic Real-Time Execution Semantics for Industrial Edge Applications Based on IEC 61499 Event Types

Industrial edge computing brings intelligent applications to traditional industrial automation systems. The support of multi-core processors has dramatically enhanced the computational capabilities of these edge devices. An edge device can simultaneously execute multiple tasks with diverse real-time constraints, from motion control to machine learning-based fault prediction. The IEC 61499 function blocks (FBs) have been adopted for the system-level modeling language for industrial edge applications. To provide prioritized deterministic concurrent execution for real-time control, computational, and other tasks, event types are enhanced with different priorities and real-time attributes in accordance with the IEC 61499 standard. The concurrent scheduling algorithm with event types is proposed to ensure determinism for the real-time execution of IEC 61499 FB networks. Finally, the proposed execution semantics are proven to significantly reduce execution time while guaranteeing the determinism of both operations and information technology tasks with multicore support.