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Announcement - Agenda - Attendees - Projects

General

Free software in general, real-time Linux kernel variants and standard Linux kernels in particular are already widely used for control and automation projects, whether they are embedded or run on desktop computers. The Internet provides a valuable means for the evolution of such projects, and their pioneers guide the development. However, there is a lot of parallel effort going on, and also lot of complementary development in these projects (See a short list;); each single project, however, would not reach a critical mass for a breakthrough and wide acceptance in industry.

During Real-Time Linux Workshop 2002 in Boston a Birds of a Feather session on Linux and open source in control, a session on free software in control and automation was held. The goal of this session was to get people from different control and automation projects together, in order to discuss what developments could be done in common, whether or not a common real-time core is possible, what kind of funding could be found, what technical meetings could be organised, etc. The outcome was that a more detailed technical meeting is to be held, with the participation of core developers, but also end users from interested manufacturer companies.

For this reason a workshop on free software in control and automation, simply entitled "Linux in Control Workshop" will be held on May 9-10 in Leuven, Belgium. The workshop will feature design and develoment discussions on the following topics:

• real-time control core,
• PLC programming and run time environment,
• control file formats and algorithms,
• communication: CAN, Modbus, ...,
• Data aquisition, logging and tracing (Comedi, ...),
• programming tools and support,
• graphical interfaces.

Further on, discussions on the complementary or overlapping nature of projects will be held, aiming at general framework where all projects could have their place. The final result should be a framework for a comprehensive control software library, from where SoftPLC solutions can be built, or robot controllers, or DAQ and SCADA systems.

As bottom line, the goals of this meeting are intensive brainstorming to define a common roadmap for all control projects for the next two to three years.

Practical information

The agenda with its major points is here

The list of attendees is here

Registration can start by sending and email to Peter Wurmsdobler. Registration is free and also for free, but includes nothing more than participation and coffee.

A description of ways to the venue can be found here

Some information about accomodation can be found here

Organization committee

• Herman Bruyninckx
• Nicholas McGuire
• Peter Wurmsdobler

Workshop sponsors