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International Conference on Software Engineering and Formal Methods

SEFM 2011: Software Engineering and Formal Methods pp 58–73Cite as

Verification of PLC Properties Based on Formal Semantics in Coq

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Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNPSE,volume 7041)

Abstract

Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) are widely used in embedded systems for the industrial automation domain. We propose a formal semantics of two languages defined in the IEC 61131-3 standard for PLC programming. The first one is the Instruction List (IL) language, an assembly like language. The second one is the Sequential Function Charts (SFC) language, a graphical high-level language that allows to describe the main control-flow of the system. A PLC system description may comprise SFC and IL code. We formalized the semantics in the proof assistant Coq. Furthermore, we present an associated tool for automatically generating SFC representations from a graphical description – the text based IL code can be handled in Coq directly – and its usage for verification purposes. We demonstrate our approach to prove safety properties of a PLC in a real industrial demonstrator.

Keywords

  • Operational Semantic
  • Formal Semantic
  • Action Block
  • Programmable Logic Controller
  • Ladder Diagram

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-24690-6_6
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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. fortiss GmbH, Munich, Germany

    Jan Olaf Blech

  2. INRIA and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Sidi Ould Biha

Authors
  1. Jan Olaf Blech
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  2. Sidi Ould Biha
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fundación IMDEA Software, Facultad de Informatica (UPM), Campus Montegancedo, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain

    Gilles Barthe

  2. Instituto de Computación, Universidad de la República, Facultad de Ingeniería, Julio Herrera y Reissig 565 - Piso 5, 11300, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Alberto Pardo

  3. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers | University of Gothenburg, Kunskapsgatan 3, 41756, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Gerardo Schneider

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Blech, J.O., Ould Biha, S. (2011). Verification of PLC Properties Based on Formal Semantics in Coq. In: Barthe, G., Pardo, A., Schneider, G. (eds) Software Engineering and Formal Methods. SEFM 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7041. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24690-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24690-6_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24689-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24690-6

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