Virtual Commissioning with TIA Step7 and Simulink without S‐Functions

Abstract

This paper presents the development and validation of a custom MATLAB library, designed to facilitate seamless and efficient real‐time communication between the Siemens S7‐PLCSIM Advanced simulator and MATLAB/Simulink. The library uses Siemens.Simulation.Runtime.API to enable this integration and its architecture is structured into three classes—PLCSimAdv, PLCSR, and PLCSW. To demonstrate the library’s capabilities, we have chosen the validation parameters and conducted functional experiments including real‐time communication at the millisecond level, integration and control of a simulated industrial process, and simultaneous operation with multiple virtual controllers. One of the library’s preliminary conditions was to avoid the requests for regenerating of any version of control program or Simulink model as it is presently by S‐functions in TIA portal. The results suggest that the proposed library provides a robust tool for various applications in industrial automation, from the digital twin modelling or simulation of advanced technologies to the operation of traditional control systems. This work has the potential to significantly streamline the simulation, control, and validation of automated processes and opens new ways for research and development in automation and control systems.