Thesis Work: Evaluate parsers and integration with JastAdd i Malmö

Join ABB and work in a team that is dedicated to creating a future where innovative digital technologies allow greater access to cleaner energy.

You will be a part of Industrial Automation, Process Control Platform in Malmö. Process Control Platform is a unit within ABB’s Industrial Automation division. The unit is responsible for development of automation products – hardware and software – and for monitoring, control and optimization. The unit has automation products for all types of industry. Digitalization offers unique opportunities to combine data from the manufacturing process with other information systems within the company and make information available in real time.

ABB Ability System 800xA is our flagship product for industrial automation and it includes AC800M, a controller family for process control. Control applications for the AC800M controllers are developed in Control Builder which contains a compiler for the control applications. These control applications are typically developed using different languages depending on situation. Some of these languages are defined by the IEC 61131-3 standard (e.g. Structured Text and SFC) but there is also one ABB specific language developed by ABB in Malmö.

The JastAdd compiler generator tool developed at LTH provides an efficient way to implement an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) with compiler checks and backends for code generation. Today JastAdd supports only one parser to build the AST. To be able to use JastAdd for all our different languages and only create one common AST several different parsers needs to be used.

Details:

• Period – January/Febrary – May/June 2020.
• This master thesis is equivalent to 30 ECTS/ högskolepoäng (hp).
• The thesis is recommended for one or two students.
• The work is recommended to take place on site at ABB Malmö.
• The Master Thesis will be in cooperation with the Department of Computer Science at LTH.

• Investigating different techniques for parsing composed languages, and evaluating different open source parser generators like JavaCC, neoBeaver, Antlr, etc. to find the best suitable parser generator for this problem.
• Finding the best solution for how to integrate several parsers into JastAdd.
• Using existing source code, the implementation can be performed to validate the results.
• Living ABB’s core values of safety and integrity, which means taking responsibility for your own actions while caring for your colleagues and the business.

• Master Program in Engineering, including advanced level courses in computer science, including a compilers course.