Building process control simulations with Easy Java Simulations elements

This work presents a library of Java classes and Easy Java Simulation (EJS) elements, developed to provide a framework to allow an easy building of a wide range of process control related simulations. The potentiality of the framework is illustrated with an application example built by combining several elements of the library: the simulation of control loops composed of a SISO process and a PID controller with send-on-delta sampling. The framework has been designed to be somewhat similar to a block diagram editor, where the user can create a control loop simply by adding the constructive elements and interconnecting them as needed. The model creation is thus made much more intuitive and robust, mainly because the lines of code needed are reduced, if not at all, depending on the complexity of the simulation. The library provides the user with the implementation of the most frequently used control elements, such as a system described by state-space expressions, PID controllers, non-linear systems, etc. In addition, an extension mechanism is provided for advanced users, which can extend the functionality of the built-in blocks either by adapting them or by defining completely new blocks.