This paper proposes an innovative approach for the advanced control of an industrial process via an automation cloud platform. Increased digital transformation and advances in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies make it possible for multiple vendors to compete to control an industrial process. An industrial automation cloud platform facilitates the interaction between advanced process control (APC) vendors and the process. A selector, which forms part of the platform, is used to determine the best controller for a process for any given time period. The article starts with a general overview of platform businesses, platforms aimed at industry, and the steps required to build such platforms. Issues that need to be addressed to make APC via an automation platform practically viable are discussed including what process information to provide to APC vendors, continuous evaluation of controllers even when not in control of the process, bumpless transfer, closed-loop stability, constraint handling, and platform security and trust. A case study is given of competing APCs via an industrial automation cloud platform. The process used in the study is a surge tank from a bulk tailings treatment plant, the aim of which is to keep the density of the tank out flow constant while maintaining a steady tank level. A platform facilitates the competition of three vendors for control of this process. It is shown that the cloud platform approach can provide the plant access to a superior controller without the need for directly procuring the services of an exclusive vendor.
Agent-technologies have been used for higher-level decision making in addition to carrying out lower-level automation and control functions in industrial systems. Recent research has identified a number of architectural patterns for the use of agents in industrial automation systems but these practices vary in several ways, including how closely agents are coupled with physical systems and their control functions. Such practices may play a pivotal role in the Cyber-Physical System integration and interaction. Hence, there is a clear need for a common set of criteria for assessing available pra…
With ever-expanding computation and communication capabilities of modern embedded platforms, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enable development of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems---a new generation of highly modularized industrial equipment suitable for highly-customized manufacturing. Sequential control in these systems is largely based on discrete events, while their formal execution semantics is specified as Control Interpreted Petri Nets (CIPN). Despite industry-wide use of programming languages based on the CIPN formalism, formal verification of such control applications in the…
This paper presents a design and automation environment to study the control trajectory for new CDPR architectures, for instance CDPRs with an unusual number of cables or different motor location in the robot frame. In order to test the environment capabilities, an architecture of a planar under-constrained CDPR was designed, simulated, and implemented using standard industrial hardware. Both the simulated model and industrial prototype were running the same trajectories to determine the time delay and the error position between them. The tests have demonstrated that the simulated model of the…
Autonomous agents are seen as a prominent technology to be applied in industrial scenarios. Classical automation solutions are struggling with challenges related to high dynamism, prompt actuation, heterogeneous entities, including humans, and decentralised decision-making. Besides promoting concepts, languages, and tools to face such challenges, agents must also provide high reliability. To assess how appropriate and mature are agents for industrial applications, we have investigated its application in two scenarios of the gas and oil industry. This paper presents the development of systems a…
Industry is moving towards advanced Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), with trends in smartness, automation, connectivity and collaboration. We examine the drivers and requirements for the use of edge computing in critical industrial applications. Our purpose is to provide a better understanding of industrial needs and to initiate a discussion on what role edge computing could take, complementing current industrial and embedded systems, and the cloud. Four domains are chosen for analysis with representative use-cases; manufacturing, transportation, the energy sector and networked applications in th…
The rapid technological leaps of Industry 4.0 increase the pressure and demands on humans working in automation, which is one of the main motivators of Industry 5.0. In particular, automation software development for mechatronic systems becomes increasingly challenging, as both domain knowledge and programming skills are required for high-quality, maintainable software. Especially for small companies from automation and robotics without dedicated software engineering departments, domain-specific low-code platforms become indispensable that enable domain experts to develop code intuitively usin…
The development of an aircraft industrial system is a complex process which faces the challenge of digital discontinuity in multidisciplinary engineering due to various interfaces between different digital tools, leading to extra development time and costs. This paper proposes an ontology-based system, aiming at functionality integration and design process automation, by Models for Manufacturing methodology principles. A tool-agnostic modelling, simulation and validation platform with Discrete Event Simulation and 3D simulation is enabled and demonstrated in a real case study. An ontology laye…
We elaborate on a metamorphic approach for testing industrial control systems. The proposed approach consists of two phases: an exploration phase in which we learn about fault patterns of the system under test and an exploitation phase where the observed fault patterns are used for targeted testing. Our method extracts metamorphic relations and input space of the system from its requirements. The seed input used for testing is extracted from the execution logs of the system and used to generate source tests and follow-up tests automatically. The morphed input is constructed based on the seed i…
The Dos and Don'ts of Industrial Network Simulation: A Field Report
Intelligent Networks Research Group\ Research Center for Artificial Intelligence Kaiserslautern Germany 67663；Institute for Wireless Communication；Navigation\ University of Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern Germany 67663；Intelligent Networks Research Group\ Research Center for Artificial Intelligence；Navigation\ University of Kaiserslautern
Automated Production Systems (aPS) have lifetimes of up to 30-50 years, throughout which the desired products change ever more frequently. This requires flexible, reusable control software that can be easily maintained and evolved. To evaluate selected criteria that are especially relevant for maturity in software maintainability and evolvability of aPS, the approach SWMAT4aPS+ builds on a questionnaire with 52 questions. The three main research questions cover updates of software modules and success factors for both cross-disciplinary development as well as reusable models. This paper present…
