Automatic testing of IEC 61499 automation systems with simulator in the loop in cloud environment

The significance of virtual commissioning for automation control systems is heightened by their increasing complexity and, frequently, their distributed nature. The authors propose a cloud-based testing framework that facilitates remote execution of tests over the Internet. This allows for collaboration among a variety of stakeholders while optimizing the use of computational resources. This framework is based on a scalable and fault-tolerant architecture, which maintains system responsiveness and efficiency even under concurrent usage by multiple users. The integration of this testing framework with the CloViC cloud virtual commissioning platform further increases its capabilities, providing enhancements to existing project administration, performance monitoring of virtual PLCs, and collaborative analysis across teams and projects, with Kubernetes orchestration optimizing system performance. To validate the proposed methodology, a group of students used the automated testing framework as part of their coursework.