A growing number of publications address the best practices to use Large Language Models (LLMs) for software engineering in recent years. However, most of this work focuses on widely-used general purpose programming languages like Python due to their widespread usage training data. The utility of LLMs for software within the industrial process automation domain, with highly-specialized languages that are typically only used in proprietary contexts, remains underexplored. This research aims to utilize and integrate LLMs in the industrial development process, solving real-life programming tasks (e.g., generating a movement routine for a robotic arm) and accelerating the development cycles of manufacturing systems.
Industrial automation systems (IAS) need to be highly dependable; they should not merely function as expected but also do so in a reliable, safe, and secure manner. Formal methods are mathematical techniques that can greatly aid in developing dependable systems and can be used across all phases of the system development life cycle (SDLC), including requirements engineering, system design and implementation, verification and validation (testing), maintenance, and even documentation. This state-of-the-art survey reports existing formal approaches for creating more dependable IAS, focusing on sta…
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) employed for Industrial Automation often require the adoption of a hybrid data processing approach mediating between cloud, edge, and fog computing paradigms. Nowadays, it is possible to shift data pre-processing capabilities closer to data sensing to collect environmental measurements locally on the edge or deep edge. In line with the emerging computing paradigms, this work proposes a solution that includes both software and hardware components and which simplifies the deployment of smart measurement systems. The solution stresses also the adoption of standards a…
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…
The integration of industrial automation systems and software agents has been practiced for many years. However, such an integration is usually done by experts and there is no consistent way to assess these practices and to optimally select one for a specific system. Standards such as the ISO/IEC 25023 propose measures that could be used to obtain a quantification on the characteristics of such integration. In this work, the suitability of these characteristics and their proposed calculation for assessing the connection of industrial automation systems with software agents is discussed. Result…
An approach is introduced, which supports a testing technician in the identification of possibly untested behavior of control software of fully integrated automated production systems (aPS). Based on an approach for guided semi-automatic system testing, execution traces are recorded during testing, allowing a subsequent coverage assessment. As the behavior of an aPS is highly dependent on the software, omitted system behavior can be identified and assessed for criticality. Through close cooperation with industry, this approach represents the first coverage assessment approach for system testin…
The Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is considered to be the next generation of intelligent industrial automation systems that integrate computing, communication and control technologies. In CPS, the interoperability requirements between devices and processes are growing rapidly. However, the diversity and heterogeneity of technologies and standards between information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) in industrial systems pose significant challenges. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a software design pattern in which software components are connected only through messagi…
Arrowhead Framework (AHF) is being developed to enable large-scale IoT based automation by providing an interoperability layer for local clouds. This framework aims to create an abstract model for distributed, heterogeneous, and non-linear systems. Managing the variability in such environments plays a key role in handling complex automation tasks such as in smart production systems. However, there is no standard solution available for handling the variability and configuration specifications in such environments. In this paper, we analyze the existing solutions for configuration management in …
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) execute critical control software that drives Industrial Automation and Control Systems (IACS). PLCs can become easy targets for cyber-adversaries as they are resource-constrained and are usually built using legacy, less-capable security measures. Security attacks can significantly affect system availability, which is an essential requirement for IACS. We propose a method to make PLC applications more security-aware. Based on the well-known IEC 61499 function blocks standard for developing IACS software, our method allows designers to annotate critical par…
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…
Embedded systems are ubiquitous and play critical roles in management systems for industry and transport. Software failures in these domains may lead to loss of production or even loss of life, so the software in these systems needs to be reliable. Software testing is a standard approach for quality assurance of embedded software, and many software development processes strive for test automation. Out of the many challenges for successful software test automation, this thesis addresses five: (i) understanding how updated software reaches a test environment, how testing is conducted in the test…
The ongoing fourth Industrial Revolution depends mainly on robust Industrial Cyber-Physical Systems (ICPS). ICPS includes computing (software and hardware) abilities to control complex physical processes in distributed industrial environments. Industrial agents, originating from the well-established multi-agent systems field, provide complex and cooperative control mechanisms at the software level, allowing us to develop larger and more feature-rich ICPS. The IEEE P2660.1 standardisation project, "Recommended Practices on Industrial Agents: Integration of Software Agents and Low Level Automati…
Maintenance of Automated Test Suites in Industry: An Empirical study on Visual GUI Testing
验证与确认（Verification and Validation，V&V）活动在实践中占软件系统总开发成本的20%到50%。测试自动化被提出来降低这些V&V成本，但现有的研究只提供了有限的经验数据，从工业实践中的维护成本的自动化测试和影响这些成本的因素。特别是，这些成本和因素对于基于GUI的自动化测试是未知的。目的：本文通过分析与工业实践中基于GUI的自动化测试维护相关的成本和因素，解决了这种知识的缺乏。方法：在两个公司，西门子和萨博，实证研究报告的采访，和实证工作，可视化GUI测试进行获取数据的技术的维护成本和可行性。结果：观察到13个因素，影响维修，如测试人员的知识/经验和测试用例的复杂性。此外，统计分析表明，开发新的测试脚本比维护成本更高，但频繁的维护比不频繁的大爆炸维护成本更低。此外，成本模型，在以前的工作的基础上，提出了估计的时间，以积极的投资回报率（ROI）的测试自动化相比，手动测试。结论：它的结论是，测试自动化可以降低一个项目的整体软件开发成本，同时也对软件质量有积极的影响。然而，维护成本仍然是相当可观的，公司目前花在手动测试上的时间越少，在自动化之后达到积极的、经济的ROI之前需要的时间就越多。
Current automation approaches in the Industry 4.0 have generated increased interest in the utilization of Integration Platforms as a Service (iPaaS) cloud architectures in order to unify and synchronize several systems, applications, and services in order to build smart solutions for automated and adaptive industrial process management. Existing iPaaS solutions present several out-of-the-box connectors and automation engines for easier integration of customers' projects, but show issues regarding overall adaptation outside their scope, brand locking, and occasionally high prices. Moreover, exi…
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…
