Wrote my master thesis of chemical engineering in the ninetees about an attempt to model a chemical plant in state charts to assist safety analysis. State charts allow for formal verification of a model which can be beneficial for embedded, safety critical software like central locling of cars or airbags. VSDL can be generated from Statemate.

We managed to model a significant part of the demo plant, the vessels and valves and such, not any software, but failed with an attempt of verification of properties with temporal logic and theorem provers.