Formal behavioural models to facilitate distributed development and commissioning in industrial automation

We aim to facilitate semi-automated collaborative distributed development, commissioning, operation and maintenance using formal behavioural models. We are interested in a whole-of-system context, where properties of the physical systems increasingly depend explicitly on software configuration, thus requiring validation. Our models are cyber-physical, comprising not only the control software itself but also mechatronic elements under control involving sensing/actuators, such as pneumatics, hydraulics, and motor drives. We discuss various issues relevant to the problems of collaboration, and we provide requirements for collaboration in a specific experimental context involving elements of a small-scale food packaging plant.