Capabilities

Deterministic Control

IEC 61499 control logic as a product surface: modeling, validation, and turning designs into runtime-ready artifacts.

Design intent

Use this lens when adopting Deterministic Control: define success criteria, start narrow, and scale with safe rollouts and observability.

Clear FB interfaces keep systems maintainable and testable
Separate behavior from site-specific mapping to preserve reuse
Snapshots make commissioning and rollback deterministic

What it is

BootCtrl is centered around IEC 61499 applications (function block networks) executed on Eclipse 4diac FORTE runtimes at the edge.

Design constraints

Clear FB interfaces keep systems maintainable and testable
Separate behavior from site-specific mapping to preserve reuse
Snapshots make commissioning and rollback deterministic

Architecture at a glance

IEC 61499 apps define behavior as explicit interfaces and event/data flows
Resources/runtimes execute artifacts; mappings connect real I/O to app ports
Validation prevents unsafe wiring and type mismatches from reaching sites
This is a capability surface concern: control design is a product surface

Typical workflow

Define scope and success criteria (what should change, what must stay stable)
Create or update a snapshot, then validate against a canary environment/site
Deploy progressively with health/telemetry gates and explicit rollback criteria
Confirm acceptance tests and operational dashboards before expanding

System boundary

Treat Deterministic Control as a capability boundary: define what success means, what is configurable per site, and how you will validate behavior under rollout.

Example artifact

Implementation notes (conceptual)

topic: Deterministic Control
plan: define -> snapshot -> canary -> expand
signals: health + telemetry + events tied to version
rollback: select known-good snapshot

What it enables

Reusable function blocks and standard execution semantics
Portable applications across devices/resources
Safer iteration with validation before rollout

Engineering outcomes

Clear FB interfaces keep systems maintainable and testable
Separate behavior from site-specific mapping to preserve reuse
Snapshots make commissioning and rollback deterministic

Quick acceptance checks

Define function block boundaries and interfaces (events/data) clearly
Validate wiring and data types before commissioning

Common failure modes

Drift between desired and actual running configuration
Changes without clear rollback criteria
Insufficient monitoring for acceptance after rollout

Acceptance tests

Verify the deployed snapshot/version matches intent (no drift)
Run a canary validation: behavior, health, and telemetry align with expectations
Verify rollback works and restores known-good behavior

Deep dive

Practical next steps

How teams typically turn this capability into outcomes.

Key takeaways

Clear FB interfaces keep systems maintainable and testable
Separate behavior from site-specific mapping to preserve reuse
Snapshots make commissioning and rollback deterministic

Checklist

Define function block boundaries and interfaces (events/data) clearly
Validate wiring and data types before commissioning
Keep logic portable: separate site-specific mappings from behavior
Snapshot before field tests so results map to an immutable artifact

Next steps

Common questions

Quick answers that help align engineering and operations.

How do we keep logic reusable across sites?

Keep behavior in the 61499 app and push site-specific concerns into configuration (points, endpoints, resource selection). Deploy from snapshots to avoid drift.

What is the most common first-project mistake?

Mixing device-specific addressing and scaling directly into logic. That makes reuse and debugging harder and increases drift risk.

How do we validate before rollout?

Canary a single site/device, verify end-to-end behavior using telemetry and event timelines, then expand with health gates.