References
The VFSM concept has been tested in several environments, proving its usefulness. It has been applied to the design of large industrial software projects, particularly in industrial machine control and telecommunication systems, over several years.
Below we list some of the projects we have completed, each of which contains a sizeable system of state machines. In addition, several smaller projects with a few state machines have been undertaken. Some projects must remain confidential for the time being.
Projects
Section titled “Projects”Telecommunication
Section titled “Telecommunication”AT&T 🌎
Section titled “AT&T 🌎”At AT&T, USA (now Lucent Technologies), hundreds of projects have been implemented. VFSM technology was introduced at several Lucent Technologies development centers, including: Naperville, USA; The Hague, Holland; Malmesbury, England; and Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Rhode & Schwarz 🌎
Section titled “Rhode & Schwarz 🌎”Implementation of a proprietary RS.ITP protocol for data transmission in wireless sets.
Machine Control
Section titled “Machine Control”BALZERS AG, Liechtenstein 🇱🇮
Section titled “BALZERS AG, Liechtenstein 🇱🇮”Control system for SDS (Single Disk Sputtering) machine. This was a large system with distributed hardware and software (a master computer with up to 10 slaves). 4 machines were built.
Control system for Cluster Line machine. This was a large system with approximately 400 state machines and 2,000 inputs and outputs. The control sequences were specified using state machines, which were defined as software templates. BALZERS AG delivered 10 Cluster Lines with this software. Subsequently, the entire production line was bought by MRC, USA, which delivered another 10 Galaxy-1000 systems with this software.
Control system for Virtual Inline Systems VIS-750 at Pfeifer AG, Germany. The system was based on software developed for the Cluster Line machine at BALZERS AG. 5 machines were built.
AUMAT, Austria 🇦🇹
Section titled “AUMAT, Austria 🇦🇹”Control system for a Coffee Roaster Factory (Zumtobel, Dornbirn, Austria). The system contains approximately 70 state machines and 1,000 objects. StateWORKS RTDB was used as the runtime system. The user interface was built using Visual Basic.
Measurement Systems
Section titled “Measurement Systems”UBM, Germany 🇩🇪
Section titled “UBM, Germany 🇩🇪”Control system for optoelectronic measurement devices. The system comprises approximately 70 state machines and 2,000 objects (inputs, outputs, and internal resources). StateWORKS RTDB was used as the runtime system. The user interface was built from ActiveX components (Visual C++) and contains an Autoscan table to enable the user to automate measuring sequences.
Agilent, Germany 🇩🇪
Section titled “Agilent, Germany 🇩🇪”StateWORKS was used to specify the control system. The system consisted of 10 state machines in a hierarchical structure.
DataPhysics, Germany 🇩🇪
Section titled “DataPhysics, Germany 🇩🇪”Robot control system for measuring devices. This was the first application of RTDB as a COM server. The user interface was built using Visual Basic and contains an Autoscan table to enable the user to automate measuring sequences.
Technodoor, France 🇫🇷
Section titled “Technodoor, France 🇫🇷”Design and implementation of TechnoDoor, a control system for blower doors using an RTDB-based application and the RtdbUI library (WinForms). The I/O interface is built using IOboard.net ↗ components.
Building Control
Section titled “Building Control”AUMAT, Switzerland 🇨🇭
Section titled “AUMAT, Switzerland 🇨🇭”Building control system (Büro Fürrer and Sihl+Eika, Zürich, Switzerland). The system contains approximately 100 state machines and 1,000 objects. StateWORKS RTDB is used as the runtime system. The user interface is built using Visual Basic.