CODESYS (an acronym for controller development system, previously stylised CoDeSys) is a development environment for programming controller applications according to the international industrial standard IEC 61131-3.
Contents
Introduction
CODESYS is developed and marketed by the German software company 3S-Smart Software Solutions located in the Bavarian town of Kempten. Version 1.0 was released in 1994. CODESYS licenses are free of charge and can be installed legally without copy protection on further workstations. The software tool covers different aspects of industrial automation technology with one surface.
Engineering
All five programming languages for application programming defined in the IEC 61131-3 are available in the CODESYS development environment.
Additional graphical editor available in CODESYS not defined in the IEC standard:
Integrated compilers transform the application code created by CODESYS into native machine code (binary code) which is then downloaded onto the controller. The most important 16 and 32-bit CPU families are supported, such as C166, TriCore, 80x86, ARM/Cortex, Power Architecture, SH, MIPS, BlackFin and more.
Once CODESYS is online, it offers an extensive debugging functionality such as variable monitoring/writing/forcing by setting breakpoints/performing single steps or recording variable values online on the controller in a ring buffer (Sampling Trace).
CODESYS V3.x is based on the so-called CODESYS Automation Platform, an automation framework device manufacturers can extend by their own plug-in modules.
The CODESYS Professional Developer Edition offers the option to add components to the tool which are subject to licensing, e.g. integrated UML support, a connection to the Apache Subversion version control system, online runtime performance analysis, static code analysis of the application code or script based automated test execution.
The free of charge CODESYS Application Composer lets users create complete automation applications with the IEC 61131-3 tool. Machines or plants can be configured based on modules, e.g. defining the mechatronic construction or the used software functionality including the whole functionality of the project. An integrated configurator generates visible IEC 61131-3 code out of this configuration.
Runtime
After implementing the CODESYS Control Runtime System, intelligent devices can be programmed with CODESYS. A charged-for toolkit provides this runtime system as a source and object code. It can be ported to different platforms.
Fieldbus technology
Different field busses can be used directly in the programming system CODESYS. For this purpose, the tool integrates configurators for the most common system such as PROFIBUS, CANopen, EtherCAT, PROFINET and EtherNet/IP. For some systems, additional protocol stacks are available in the form of CODESYS libraries which can be loaded subsequently. By means of a software plugin in the FDT (Field Device Tool) Frame application, additional device-specific user interfaces from third-party suppliers can be integrated. Communication between these interfaces will be realised through a communication Device Type Manager (DTM).
Visualization
An integrated editor helps the user create complex visualization masks directly in the programming system CODESYS and animate them based on application variables. To simplify the procedure, integrated visualization elements are available. An optional toolkit enables the user to create his own visualization elements. The masks created are, among others, used for application tests and commissioning during online operation of the programming system. In combination with optional visualization clients, the masks can also be used to operate machines or plants, e. g. on controllers with integrated display, in web browsers or a portable runtime under Windows or Linux.
SoftMotion
An optional modular solution for controlling complex movements with an IEC 61131-3 programmed controller is also completely integrated in the programming system CODESYS. The modular solution includes:
Safety
To reach the safety integrity level (SIL) required after a risk analysis, all system components have to comply to this level. Pre-certified software components within CODESYS make it much easier for device manufacturers to have their controllers SIL2 or SIL3 certified. Therefore, CODESYS Safety consists of components within the programming system and the runtime system, whereas the project planning is completely integrated in the IEC 61131-3 programming environment.
Industrial usage
Over 250 device manufacturers from different industrial sectors offer intelligent automation devices with a CODESYS programming interface. Consequently, thousands of end users such as machine or plant builders around the world employ CODESYS for all sorts of automation tasks.
The CODESYS Device Directory offers an overview on nearly 400 devices programmable with CODESYS from leading manufacturers from the sectors control engineering, automation components and embedded systems.