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Dear Eclipse ESCET community members,
Here are the minutes for the first community meeting.
Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1 – Meeting minutes
Date: March 30, 2022
Topic: Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) of supervisory controllers
Presentations:
- Eclipse ESCET and Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) [slides],
by Dennis Hendriks, Eclipse ESCET project lead, ESI (TNO) / Radboud University
- Synthesis-Based Engineering at Rijkswaterstaat [slides,
in Dutch], by Harry Lammeretz, Rijkswaterstaat
Following the presentations, there was a lively discussion:
Value of SBE: There is general agreement on the value of SBE and the potential for applying
it in industry:
-
Getting more automation and assistance in software design and development is considered a logical next step.
-
Rijkswaterstaat considers integrating SBE into industrial practice utmost profitable for the future, to tackle the enormous challenges they face in replacing all control software in
the field in the next 30 years, despite aging among engineers.
Current use of ESCET/SBE: Eclipse ESCET is being used or has been tried out in various places,
and the open source project is gaining some traction as well. The following was discussed during the meeting:
-
At Rijkswaterstaat making models in projects sometimes take years, while students from TU/e are able to construct reliable models in only six weeks using SBE.
- At ASML, various experiments have been done throughout the years.
-
The Eclipse Logistics Specification and Analysis Tool (LSAT), applied at among others ASML and Nexperia, uses Eclipse ESCET for requirement specification and synthesis, and allows to
obtain performance-optimal controllers.
-
The Eclipse ESCET project currently has 2 project leads, 4 committers, and several contributors.
-
We track download statistics only since our previous quarterly release. So far, release v0.4 from 2021-12-17 has been downloaded 82 times, and release v0.5 from 2022-03-29 has been
downloaded 29 times.
Technical challenges: Several technical challenges were discussed.
For some of them research is ongoing, while for others significant progress has been made over the years:
- Scalability was insufficient some years ago to tackle complex ASML
systems. It has however been significantly improved over the years. For instance, Rijkswaterstaat successfully uses multi-level synthesis, where the system is automatically decomposed into smaller parts with separate controllers.
- ASML considers it essential that it is
easy to specify requirements. Rijkswaterstaat and TU/e have done research on this, finding
ways to specify requirements for those who are not experts in mathematics.
- In earlier ASML pilots, SBE worked well with good-weather scenarios, but less well in
bad-weather scenarios. Research has been done by Rijkswaterstaat and TU/e on how to
synthesize fault-tolerant controllers.
- Understandable results: To get techniques like SBE to be accepted
and thrusted, it is important that the results are and stay human understandable. Rijkswaterstaat and TU/e have results here as well, to be contributed to Eclipse ESCET later this year.
Organizational challenges: The following organizational
challengers were discussed during the meeting:
- Being ready: Introducing model-driven engineering (MDE) in general, as well as to SBE specifically,
into a company is considered a big step. Some organizations may not be ready for it (yet). Companies must face the challenges that the new approaches address for it to be successful.
- New way of working: You have to get people along with the new way of working. This has
to be approached in a well-thought-out way, properly managing the potential pitfalls. Still, it can take many years for it to be fully embedded into an organization. Cordis Automation experiences this as particularly challenging in embedding their MDE solutions
at customers.
- Support: Companies require, especially for the longer term, commercial support. Both the
ICT Group and Capgemini Engineering have experience with this, and could provide such support.
- Knowledge retention: Retaining knowledge is difficult when people leave or retire. Rijkswaterstaat
considers modeling to capture the knowledge. Capgemini Engineering captures knowledge at multiple levels, using domain-specific languages. Capturing intention and design decisions is considered a next step.
- The Eclipse ESCET website has
some information
on organizational challenges.
Next steps: For people to gain trust in SBE, but also to see where
we are regarding the various challenges, requires applying SBE more in practice:
- Rijkswaterstaat is looking for other parties to collaborate on answering open questions (see the slides), share
experiences, and grow the community.
- TNO will work with Cordis Automation on a first pilot.
-
ASML is interested in doing another pilot.
Additional next steps, including follow-up meetings, are also being discussed.
Kind regards,
Dennis Hendriks
Eclipse ESCET project lead
Van: escet-dev <escet-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> namens Dennis Hendriks <dh_tue@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Verzonden: donderdag 31 maart 2022 11:38
Aan: escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Re: [escet-dev] Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Dear Eclipse ESCET community members,
Yesterday was our first community meeting. The hybrid meeting was attended by about 30 people. Please find attached the two presentations. Note that one of them is in English and the other one is in Dutch.
Regards,
Dennis Hendriks
Eclipse ESCET project lead
Van: escet-dev <escet-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> namens Dennis Hendriks <dh_tue@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 maart 2022 12:22
Aan: escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Re: [escet-dev] Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Dear Eclipse ESCET community members,
Coming wednesday, we have our first community meeting. You can still join!
The meeting will be hybrid. We'd love for you to join us physically in Eindhoven, if possible. But you can also join via MS Teams. If you want to join online, let me know, and I'll forward
the Teams invite.
Here the complete invite:
Dear Eclipse ESCET community members,
You, the community of the Eclipse Supervisory Control Engineering Toolkit (ESCET) project, are hereby invited to the first ever Eclipse ESCET community meeting.
Meeting: Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Topic: Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) of supervisory controllers
Date/time: March 30, 2022, 10:00-12:00 CEST (UTC+2).
Location: This is a hybrid meeting.
-
You can join via Microsoft Teams, but if possible we prefer you join us physically.
-
The physical location is in room 0.05 of the Gemini Zuid building at the Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. After entering the building you are on floor 1. Go
down to floor zero. Room 0.05 is opposite room 0.129. See also the location
of the Gemini Zuid building (Google Maps), the TU/e campus map with a red arrow indicating where to enter the Gemini Zuid building (see attachment), and the
TU/e
Campus webpage for more general information.
The agenda is as follows:
1) Eclipse ESCET and SBE introduction
Speaker: Dennis Hendriks from ESI (TNO), Eclipse ESCET project lead
This presentation will introduce Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) of supervisory controllers, explaining what it is, what value it can bring, and how it relates to other engineering approaches.
It also shortly discusses the Eclipse ESCET project and its CIF language and toolset, which support the SBE approach, and the progress and current status of this open-source project.
2) Eclipse ESCET and SBE at Rijkswaterstaat
Speakers: Harry Lammeretz and Han Vogel from Rijkswaterstaat
This presentation will focus on the vision of Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management) on the development of control software for their public
works, such as water locks. It will explain the value of SBE for Rijkswaterstaat, but will also discuss the challenges that still lie ahead, in terms of tool needs, commercial support and ecosystem expansion.
3) Discussion about needs and next steps for SBE and Eclipse ESCET
A good part of the meeting is reserved for discussion, to answer the following questions:
-
Do you see the value of Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE)?
-
What is the reason you’re interested in SBE and Eclipse ESCET?
-
What are your needs, now and towards the future?
-
What should be next steps for the Eclipse ESCET project?
-
How can we as a community take these next steps?
Kind regards,
Dennis Hendriks
Eclipse ESCET project lead
Van: escet-dev <escet-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> namens Dennis Hendriks <dh_tue@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Verzonden: vrijdag 25 februari 2022 09:54
Aan: escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Re: [escet-dev] Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Hi all,
A date has been selected for the first Eclipse ESCET community meeting. The meeting will take place March 30, 2022, 10:00 - 12:00 CEST (UTC+2).
More information will follow at a later time. For now, please reserve this time slot in your calendar.
Regards,
Dennis
Van: escet-dev <escet-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx> namens Dennis Hendriks <dh_tue@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Verzonden: donderdag 24 februari 2022 10:37
Aan: escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Re: [escet-dev] Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Hi all,
Tomorrow morning (Friday morning) I'm going to select a date for the community meeting. Until then you can still indicate your availability. Once the date is selected, I'll announce it here. Everybody is of course welcome to join, regardless of whether you
filled in your availability or not.
Regards,
Dennis
Van: Dennis Hendriks <dh_tue@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Verzonden: woensdag 16 februari 2022 16:09
Aan: escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx <escet-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Onderwerp: Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Dear Eclipse ESCET community members,
You, the community of the Eclipse Supervisory Control Engineering Toolkit (ESCET) project, are hereby invited to the first ever Eclipse ESCET community meeting.
Meeting: Eclipse ESCET community meeting #1
Topic: Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) of supervisory controllers
Date/time: The meeting duration is two hours. For now, this is an online meeting, but it may become a hybrid online/face-to-face meeting. If you’re interested in joining the meeting, please
indicate your availability (https://datumprikker.nl/psxfabu7t5xin47e).
Feel free to share this message with others that may be interested in this meeting.
The preliminary agenda is as follows:
1) Eclipse ESCET and SBE introduction
Speaker: Dennis Hendriks from ESI (TNO), Eclipse ESCET project lead
This presentation will introduce Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE) of supervisory controllers, explaining what it is, what value it can bring, and how it relates to other engineering approaches. It also shortly discusses the Eclipse ESCET project and its CIF
language and toolset, which support the SBE approach. Finally, the progress and current status of the Eclipse ESCET open-source project is briefly discussed.
2) Eclipse ESCET and SBE at Rijkswaterstaat
Speakers: Harry Lammeretz and Han Vogel from Rijkswaterstaat
This presentation will focus on the vision of Rijkswaterstaat (the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management) on the development of control software for their public works, such as water locks. It will explain the value
of SBE for Rijkswaterstaat, but will also discuss the challenges that still lie ahead, in terms of tool needs, commercial support and ecosystem expansion.
3) Discussion about needs and next steps for SBE and Eclipse ESCET
A good part of the meeting is reserved for discussion, to answer the following questions:
- Do you see the value of Synthesis-Based Engineering (SBE)?
- What is the reason you’re interested in SBE and Eclipse ESCET?
- What are your needs, now and towards the future?
- What should be next steps for the Eclipse ESCET project?
- How can we as a community take these next steps?
Kind regards,
Dennis Hendriks
Eclipse ESCET project lead
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