ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the main elements of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61499 standard. It discusses the main differences between the first and second editions of the standard, and considers the implementation of automation and control applications. The IEC 61499 automation standard covers a broad range of activities including the specification of different modeling elements for industrial process, measurement and control systems (IPMCS), their analysis and validation. The configuration of devices and their maintenance are covered too. IEC 61499 consists of the following three parts: architecture; requirements for software tools; and rules for compliance profiles. One of the main intentions of IEC 61499 is enabling distributed applications used in IPMCS. The system model consists of devices connected by a communication network and applications. The configuration of a distributed IPMCS applying the IEC 61499 reference model can be carried out using special management functions.
