SIMATIC AX was adopted as the core PLC development platform, enabling object-oriented programming, text-based source code management via Git repositories, and npm-style package management for reusable building blocks. The team implemented CI/CD pipelines to automate testing, code review, and deployment for cryogenic and vacuum control systems. A unified engineering approach bridges the gap between PLC programmers and C++ developers working together in cross-functional teams.
Object-oriented PLC development with CI/CD
SCK CEN required a scalable, automated workflow to manage PLC control for the MYRRHA accelerator-driven system to demonstrate nuclear waste transmutation. They needed continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) capabilities for PLC development comparable to their C++ software domain.
How SCK CEN uses SIMATIC AX
Benefits of SIMATIC AX for SCK CEN
Continuous integration / continuous deployment
Continuous integration makes sure PLC program tests are run automatically and the code is reviewed by other teammates. This ensures high code quality.
Text-based engineering
The text-based source code allows easy versioning via git repository and the creation of tools that help generate some parts of the source code. AI integration works well with text-based files.
Open-source approach
Working with the open-source community is easier than doing everything on your own. If the engineers need a piece of code, they check the SIMATIC AX GitHub community to see if they can help them – or share something themselves.
There was nothing on the market at that time to do continuous integration, continuous deployment or delivery as we do it. And when we heard about SIMATIC AX, we were really pleased.
Every time we have to do something new, we are looking into the SIMATIC AX GitHub community and see if somebody else encountered this problem before. Or we find some good examples on that page. So far, we almost every time found some good piece of information that we can integrate in a project. It will be maintained by many people, the community not just ourselves.