ISO 13281:1997

INTERNATIONAL
IS0
STANDARD
13281
First edition
1997-08- 15
Industrial automation systems -
Manufacturing Automation Programming
Environment (MAPLE) - Functional
architecture
Systhmes d ’automatisation industrielle
- Environnement de programmation
pour I’automatisation industrielle (MAPLE)
- Architecture fonctionnelle
Reference number
IS0 13281:1997(E)

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IS0 13281:1997(E)
Foreword
IS0 (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide
federation of national standards bodies (IS0 member bodies). The work of
preparing International Standards is normally carried out through IS0
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which
a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented
on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-
governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. IS0
collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees are
circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an International
Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting
a vote.
International Standard IS0 13281 was prepared by Technical Committee
lSO/TC 184, industrial automation systems and integration, Subcommittee
SC 5, Architecture and communications.
Annexes A to C of this International Standard are for information only.
0 IS0 1997
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
microfilm, without permission in writing from the publisher.
International Organization for Standardization
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Internet central @ iso.ch
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Printed in Switzerland
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IS0 13281:1997(E)
Introduction
Over the recent past, manufacturing systems have become considerably more flexible and
have acquired greater functionality. The numbers and types of component devices of
manufacturing systems, such as NC machines, robots, automated guided vehicles and
programmable controllers, have increased. Furthermore, there is a definite trend for some of
these devices to be incorporated in manufacturing cells. Manufacturing engineers are thus
required to develop and update programs not only for many kinds of individual devices but also
for combinations of devices and ultimately manufacturing cells. Due to this fact, the difficulty of
integrating and programming the control of manufacturing operations has increased.
Manufacturing programs have an intense need for a large variety of manufacturing data,
including product oriented data, process oriented data, operation oriented data and
management oriented data. This diversity means that manufacturing data has a much more
complicated and varied schema than the usual processing data encountered in other systems,
e.g., business systems. Therefore, the use and management of manufacturing databases
requires a special high-level technology.
MAPLE addresses the following problems that have been traditionally recognized to be within
the domain of manufacturing application programming languages for automated production:
- Manufacturing presents a diversity of tasks with widely varying requirements and
constraints. Often, addressing these tasks requires programming. Because of the diversity of
requirements and constraints, a variety of manufacturing application programming languages
have been found necessary.
- Typically, each manufacturing application programming language has its own unique
environment of development methodologies, development, debug and simulation tools, and
run-time services. Because these environments are stand-alone, it is difficult to achieve
convenient access to the manufacturing databases.
- As a result, it is only with difficulty that an application developer or designer may coordinate
the use of differing manufacturing languages for the individual tasks of a complete project,
though this is a common need.
- Similarly, it is with great difficulty that systems engineers and integrators combine programs
developed using different manufacturing languages, because they use or require different
run-time services.
To address these problems, a language-independent manufacturing automation programming
environment (MAPLE) is being standardized. This International Standard represents the
functional architecture of MAPLE as a first step towards achieving such an environment.
MAPLE is a structured set of capabilities that connects the objects such as data used in
advanced manufacturing technologies to the required user oriented tools.

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13281: 1997(E)
This International Standard for the MAPLE functional architecture specifies the functionality and
interconnection of the components in the environment. It is intended for the technical
committees, subcommittees and working groups of those standardization bodies whose
mandate will be to develop the standards for the MAPLE services and interfaces, as well as for
the commercial developers of MAPLE.
The MAPLE environment can replace existing in-house solutions that have been created by
system integrators during the last decade to solve the above mentioned problems.
This support facility for programming will need a set of functionalities that are typical for the
manufacturing environment, mainly because of the specific requirements of programming
automated devices. Environments to support the programming of other automated devices
outside the manufacturing domain (e.g. a transportation system with unmanned trains) will have
similar architectures to MAPLE. Nevertheless, the functionality and implementation of the
components needed by these other environments will be different from MAPLE.
MAPLE will provide the following benefits, which will lead to considerable time and cost
reduction:
- easy and quick development of manufacturing programs;
- easy and quick updating of manufacturing programs;
- unified access for distributed manufacturing databases;
- unified management of manufacturing databases;
- effective utilization of manufacturing software tools;
- provision of a framework for future manufacturing software tools and data models.

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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD @ IS0 IS0 13281:1997(E)
Industrial automation systems - Manufacturing Automation
Programming Environment (MAPLE) - Functional architecture
1 Scope
This International Standard specifies the functional architecture of MAPLE, a Manufacturing
Automation Programming Environment. MAPLE is a common vendor-independent neutral
support facility for the programming of multiple manufacturing devices and controls. Thus,
MAPLE offers a single environment for the programming of a number of devices and controls
not necessarily made by the same company. In addition, MAPLE does not require specifying
specific devices and controls at programming time.
To the extent that it is concerned with the programming of manufacturing devices and controls,
MAPLE will support the following areas:
connections between various manufacturing data and manufacturing application programs;
-
- management of several manufacturing databases;
- sharing of manufacturing application programs and manufacturing software tools.
The scope of this International Standard will be relevant to the following users of the MAPLE
standard:
- developers of manufacturing application programs;
- operators editing manufacturing programs;
- engineers who need to refer to manufacturing data.
2 Normative reference
The following standard contains provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute
provisions of this International Standard. At the time of publication, the edition indicated was
valid. All standards are subject to revision, and parties to agreements based on this
International Standard are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent
edition of the standard indicated below. Members of IEC and IS0 maintain registers of currently
valid International Standards.
ISO/TR 110651992, IndustrYa/ automation glossary.

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3 Definitions
For the purposes of this International Standard, the definitions given in ISO/TR 11065 and the
following definitions apply.
3.1 Data Translator: a Manufacturing Software Tool for converting the representation of data.
3.2 Dictionary Manager: a Manufacturing Software Tool to facilitate the manipulation of the
Manufacturing Data Dictionary and the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary.
3.3 Execution Manager: a software tool that controls the sequence of execution of internal
processes of MAPLE and the external Manufacturing Application Programs and Manufacturing
Software Tools.
3.4 Manufacturing Application Program: manufacturing software which has command and
information connections with MAPLE (e.g. CAD systems), but is not registered in the
Manufacturing Software Tools Dictionary.
3.5 Manufacturing Database: a data repository, possibly distributed, containing product,
process, facility and management oriented data.
3.6 Manufacturing Data Dictionary: a collection of data schema (meta-data) describing data
in the Manufacturing Database.
3.7 Manufacturing Data Manager: a Manufacturing Software Tool enabling access to the
Manufacturing Databases.
3.8 Manufacturing Software Tool: a software program registered in the Manufacturing
Software Tool Dictionary, which provides simple or complex, manufacturing related functionality
for the support of Manufacturing Application Programs. (e.g. simulators, editors).
3.9 Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary: a collection of descriptions of the capabilities of
Manufacturing Software Tools and Manufacturing Application Programs.
3.10 MAPLE: a Manufacturing Automation Programming Environment, a common vendor-
independent neutral support facility for the programming of multiple manufacturing devices and
controls.
3.11 MAPLE Engine: part of the standardized core of MAPLE, a software tool for receiving
and handling requests to MAPLE and the initialization of the entire environment.
3.12 Software Tool Linker: a Manufacturing Software Tool to select and sequence other
Manufacturing Software Tools and Manufacturing Application Programs to fulfil MAPLE Engine
requests.
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4 MAPLE functional architecture and its components
The MAPLE functional architecture, its components and interfaces between these components,
and the interfaces to the outside world are shown in figure I. To facilitate the description of the
components, and (in clause 5) the interfaces, the components and interfaces shown in figure 1
are labelled with the appropriate section numbers describing them. Figure 2 shows the
information and control flow between the MAPLE components themselves and the outside
world. The following provides more functional detail on the architecture and components of the
Manufacturing Automation Programming Environment.
The functional architecture of this environment consists of the the MAPLE Engine, the
Manufacturing Data Dictionary, the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary, a Dictionary
Manager, a Manufacturing Data Manager, an Execution Manager and a Software Tool Linker,
which provide standardized functionality and interfaces to the Manufacturing Application
Programs, the Data Translator, the Manufacturing Software Tools and the Manufacturing
Databases. The user interface is through the Manufacturing Application Programs and the
Manufacturing Software Tools.
The MAPLE Engine is the driver of the whole environment. To keep track internally of the
variety of types of data being used in the Manufacturing Data Bases, a Manufacturing Data
Dictionary, describing standard manufacturing data models, is provided. Similarly, to facilitate
the use of Manufacturing Software Tools and Applications connected to MAPLE, especially if a
number of such Tools and Applications have to be linked to accomplish a given task, a
Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary, describing the Tools’ functionalities as well as their
input and output requirements, is provided. The actual data handling is achieved through
MAPLE ’s Manufacturing Data Manager.
4.1 MAPLE Engine
The MAPLE Engine provides the following functionalities:
- allow for the initialization of the entire environment;
- provide the MAPLE Interface between the MAPLE and the outside world;
- accept external requests for services of the environment, related to the Software Tool
Linker, Manufacturing Data Manager, Data Translator and Dictionary Manager or any other
Software Tool or Application Program connected to MAPLE;
- interpret and process external requests by calling on either the Software Tool Linker or the
Execution Manager directly;
- provide status information to the user on request through a Manufacturing Application
Program or a Manufacturing Software Tool;
- pass commands coming from the Execution Manager and directed to an external
Manufacturing Software Tool or Application Program through the MAPLE Interface;
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IS0 13281:1997(E)
MAPLE
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Figure 1 - MAPLE functional architecture and interfaces
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- pass data between the Execution Manager and external Manufacturing Software Tools or
Application Programs through the MAPLE Interface.
The MAPLE Engine is responsible for the handling and the control of external requests to
MAPLE. For this purpose the MAPLE Engine provides an interface to all user applications and
software tools connected to MAPLE. The external requests to MAPLE are interpreted by the
MAPLE Engine, which decides which actions should be taken. If the external request can be
handled by one single action of a software tool or application (simple request) then a request for
this action is passed to the Execution Manager who will take care of the execution. If the
external request involves more complex actions, the MAPLE Engine issues a request to the
Software Tool Linker to create a task list of actions that will fulfil the original request. The
execution of the actions appearing in the task list is managed by the Execution Manager. In
reply to the original request issued to MAPLE, the MAPLE Engine will provide the requested
information, data or action as well as status information on the success or failure of handling the
particular request made.
4.2 Dictionary Manager
The Dictionary Manager permits manipulation of the Manufacturing Data Dictionary and the
Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary through the provision of the following functions for
either one of the two dictionaries:
- adding an entry to the dictionary;
- deleting an entry from the dictionary;
- editing an item in the dictionary;
- searching for and retrieving a dictionary entry.
All activities involving either the Manufacturing Data Dictionary or the Manufacturing Software
Tool Dictionary are solely handled by the Dictionary Manager. These activities consist of
adding, deleting, editing and search for and retrieving of entries in either one of these two
dictionaries. The requests for such activities, including any associated data, come to the
Dictionary Manager from the Execution Manager, triggered by requests from a user; the
Manufacturing Data Manager, which may require information regarding a Manufacturing
Database access; the external Data Translator, which requires format information for one of its
input or output files; or the Software Tool Linker, which requires information about the
capabilities and needs of Manufacturing Software Tools, and the required formats of inputs and
outputs of these tools. All these requests are controlled by the Execution Manager, who is in
fact the process invoking the Dictionary Manager and taking care of data passing from the
requestor to the Dictionary Manager and vice versa. The interfaces between the Dictionary
Manager and the Manufacturing Data Dictionary and the Manufacturing Software Tool
Dictionary are described in 5.10.
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4.3 Manufacturing Data Manager
The functionalities of the Manufacturing Data Manager can be summarized as follows:
- access data in the Manufacturing Databases (select, insert, delete, update);
- provide information concerning Manufacturing Databases;
- control user access to the Manufacturing Databases (security);
- control database integrity;
- allow maintenance of the Manufacturing Databases (e.g. create database)
The programming and control of the different component devices of manufacturing systems
requires an extensive amount of manufacturing data. This data, including product oriented data,
production oriented data, operation oriented data and management oriented data, tends to have
a very complex data structure. As a result of this, actual manufacturing databases in most
companies tend to have also a complex physical structure (e.g. distributed databases) requiring
high level and special technology for the transparent use and management of this data.
The Manufacturing Data Manager provides the means of access to the Manufacturing
Databases in response to requests from the Execution Manager. Requests for access to data in
the Manufacturing Databases can come from the MAPLE Engine, the Software Tool Linker and
the Data Translator. It accesses any required information from the Manufacturing Data
Dictionary via a request to the Execution Manager. It includes the regular functions of a
Database Manager such as user access control and security as well as maintenance of
database integrity. It also provides information concerning the Manufacturing Databases.
MAPLE and the applications relying on it, performs all its Manufacturing Database accesses
(select, insert, delete, update) through the Manufacturing Data Manager.
4.4 (External) Data Translator
The Data Translator is a software tool external to the MAPLE environment, invoked by the
Execution Manager and translates data from one specified data model to another. In order to
perform this task, the Data Translator accesses both the input and output data models stored in
the Manufacturing Data Dictionary through requests to the Execution Manager.
Typically the Software Tool Linker will have identified the need for translation and will invoke the
Data Translator through the Execution Manager to perform a particular data translation task.
The formats to be used within the data translation mechanism are held within the Manufacturing
Data Dictionary, hence there is a bi-directional communication initiated between the Data
Translator and the Dictionary Manager via the Execution Manager, to obtain the necessary
format information. This activity is controlled by the Execution Manager. The next stage of the
Data Translator phase is to read the data which is to be translated and to write the translated
output. These data sets can be residing at intermediate storage spaces controlled by the
Execution Manager or can be in the Manufacturing Databases. In the latter case the
Manufacturing Data Manager is invoked.

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The method utilized for data translation is considered an implementation issue. The Software
Tool Linker passes the two data formats and the Data Translator implementor may select any
means to achieve the required translation (i.e. single phase [source + destination], double
phase [source + neutral format, neutral format -+ destination] are valid).
A special case of the Data Translator is a data filter, a Manufacturing Software Tool which
performs selective data translation.
4.5 Software Tool Linker
The Software Tool Linker responds to requests from the MAPLE Engine to select and sequence
other Manufacturing Software Tools. The Software Tool Linker, a special manufacturing
software tool itself, creates one virtual manufacturing software tool from multiple manufacturing
software tools. Using this special manufacturing software tool, users can implement ‘new’
manufacturing software tools, by combining manufacturing software tools which have already
been developed and catalogued within the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary.
The Software Tool Linker provides the following functionalities:
- interpret MAPLE Engine requests to determine requested functionality;
- examine through the use of the Dictionary Manager, the Manufacturing Software Tool
Dictionary to identify the Manufacturing Software Tools required to achieve the requested
functionality;
- provide to the Execution Manager a task list of subsequent actions to be taken to achieve
the original request of the MAPLE Engine. A task description will typically contain the name of
the tool to be used, the commands to be given to this tool, the location of the input data and the
location where to provide the output data;
- provide status information on the linking process to the MAPLE Engine.
4.6 Execution Manager
The Execution Manager is responsible for the execution of tasks issued by the MAPLE Engine
or task lists issued by the Software Tool Linker. Its functions are :
- accept tasks from the internal MAPLE components or task lists from the Software Tool
Linker;
- for each single task requested by an internal MAPLE component issue control commands to
the Manufacturing Software Tool selected, in order to achieve the requested functionality;
- for task lists requested by the Software Tool Linker, issue control commands in the proper
sequence to the Manufacturing Software Tools selected, in order to achieve the requested
functionality. In the case of Software Tools invoked external to MAPLE, the control commands
are transferred through the MAPLE Engine and the MAPLE Interface;
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accept status information from the tools running. In the case of Software Tools external to
-
MAPLE, the status information is transferred through the MAPLE Interface and the MAPLE
Engine;
- provide status information to the requesting MAPLE component or to the Software Tool
Linker concerning the execution of respectively a task or a task list;
- set aside any intermediate storage space required for data to be exchanged between
successive Manufacturing Software Tools. Intermediate storage for data and associated data
models can be assigned either internally to the Execution Manager, or in the Manufacturing
Databases and Manufacturing Data Dictionary, respectively;
- manage the data flows between Manufacturing Software Tools and intermediate storage
space provided by the Execution Manager. In the case of Software Tools external to MAPLE,
the data is transferred through the MAPLE Engine and the MAPLE Interface;
- keep track of the stack of tasks to be executed, following an original external request. Note
that the original task can lead to several sub-tasks, to be executed before the original task can
be completed. For example, a single task to call the Data Translator can lead to several sub-
tasks issued by the Data Translator to receive information from the Dictionary Manager.
4.7 Manufacturing Data Dictionary
The Manufacturing Data Dictionary is basically a facility (database) to store a machine readable
collection of descriptions of data schema. A description is provided for data in the
Manufacturing Databases, as well as for temporary data that the Execution Manager stores as
intermediate data between a set of Manufacturing Software Tools that are concatenated to
achieve a desired functionality. The content of the Manufacturing Data Dictionary provides
instructions on how to read and interpret the data it describes. An entry in this dictionary has
two main aspects: format of the data and meaning of the data. The format of the data is
information that is ultimately needed by the Manufacturing Data Manager, the meaning of the
data is information needed by the Data Translator, the Software Tool Linker and other
Manufacturing Software Tools and Manufacturing Application Programs. The Manufacturing
Data Dictionary is a database with a main table, in which each record represents one
manufacturing data entity, and other related tables needed to describe table structures and
relations between tables of the manufacturing database.
Manipulation of the Manufacturing Data Dictionary is achieved through the interface with the
Dictionary Manager. Essentially the Dictionary Manager reads, writes or edits the dictionary as
required, to achieve the goal of add, delete, edit or search and retrieve commands. The
response of the Manufacturing Data Dictionary consists of the requested dictionary content
information, as well as any status information on the dictionary manipulation.

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4.8 Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary
The Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary provides a facility for storing a machine readable
collection of Manufacturing Software Tool identifications (filenames) and descriptions of the
functionality as well as the input and output requirements of the Manufacturing Software Tools
connected to MAPLE. The principal use of the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary is by the
Software Tool Linker via the Dictionary Manager. The Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary
is examined according to a particular need for information about a Manufacturing Software Tool
to be employed by the Software Tool Linker. The computer readable description of
functionalities is specified and the input manufacturing data and output descriptions of each
software tool and each Manufacturing Application Program is referenced to entries in the
dictionary. The entries will include software tools provided by MAPLE itself, such as the
Dictionary Manager, the Data Translator and the Software Tool Linker.
Maintenance and updating of the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary is achieved through
manipulations of the Dictionary Manager. The Dictionary Manager, in response to requests for
adding, deleting, editing or searching and retrieving of a particular entry in the Manufacturing
Software Tool Dictionary will read or write relevant entries in the dictionary. The Manufacturing
Software Tool Dictionary responds with the requested information as well as status information.
For effective use of MAPLE, all application programs and software tools used in a specific
manufacturing system have to be registered in the Manufacturing Software Tool Dictionary
through an external request from the MAPLE user or an appropriate application program.
MAPLE software and other MAPLE components such as the Dictionary Manager, Software
Tool Linker, Execution Manager, Translator and Manufacturing Data Manager are also
registered. This allows, for example, the Dictionary Manager to be called from a user supplied
application program.
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5 Interfaces
NOTE - Clause 5 and all its subclauses are informative only, in order not to restrict the development of subsequent
International Standards in this series.
The following describes the interfaces between the components of MAPLE and the
Manufacturing Databases, Manufacturing Application Programs and Manufacturing Software
Tools. Figure 1 shows these interfaces with labels referring to sub-clauses in this clause.
Figure 2 provides detail of control and data flow through these interfaces.
5.1 MAPLE interface
This interface is one of the three interfaces between MAPLE and its surrounding. It provides the
interface to Manufacturing Software Tools, Manufacturing Application Programs, and MAPLE
Users who gain access to MAPLE via an appropriate Manufacturing Application Program.
Already existing Manufacturing Software Tools and Manufacturing Application Programs require
an interface layer to enable them to communicate successfully with the MAPLE Engine via the
standardized MAPLE interface 5.1. Any new Manufacturing Software Tools or Manufacturing
Application Programs being developed can be made MAPLE compatible, through conformance
to the MAPLE Interface standard, and thus will not require a separate interface layer.
5.1.1 Control between MAPLE Engine and Manufacturing Application Programs and
Manufacturing Software Tools
The control consists of the following:
a) requests made by a Manufacturing Application Program for the initialization of the entire
environment;
b) reply by MAPLE Engine on status of initialization request;
c) requests made by Manufacturing Application Programs, Manufacturing Software Tools or by
the MAPLE User, via a Manufacturing Application Program to the MAPLE Engine for the
provision of a requested functionality that can be provided by:
1) the Software Tool Linker;
2
...