Requirements-reuse using GOPCSD: Component-based development of process control systems

Software reuse, when correctly employed, can make it feasible to extend process control applications with controlled cost and effort. Component-based development is one of the important means to realise software reuse at the different development lifecycle stages. This paper illustrates the component-based development of process control systems using the GOPCSD tool. The GOPCSD tool guides the user to develop flexible requirements specification models for process control components that can be reused in different families of process control applications. The tool automatically generates a B specification corresponding to the corrected requirements. We illustrate the component-based development by examining a case study of a production cell. Finally, we draw conclusions and give directions for future work.