1,283 research outputs found
Towards Self-evolving Context-aware Services
The introduction of new communication infrastructures such as Beyond 3rd Generation
(B3G) and the widespread usage of small computing devices are rapidly
changing the way we use and interact with technology to perform everyday tasks.
Ubiquitous networking empowered by B3G networking makes it possible for mobile
users to access networked software services across continuously changing heterogeneous
infrastructures by resource-constrained devices. Heterogeneity and devices'
limitedness, create serious problems for the development and dynamic deployment
of mobile applications that are able to run properly on the execution context and
consume services matching with the users' expectations. Furthermore, the everchanging
B3G environment calls for applications that self-evolve according to context
changes. Out of these problems, self-evolving adaptable applications are increasingly
emerging in the software community. In this paper we describe how
CHAMELEON, a declarative framework for tailoring adaptable applications, is being
used for tackling adaptation and self-evolution within the IST PLASTIC project
Dynamic Scheduling for Maintenance Tasks Allocation supported by Genetic Algorithms
Since the first factories were created, man has always tried to maximize its production and, consequently, his profits. However, the market demands have changed and nowadays is not so easy to get the maximum yield of it. The production lines are becoming more flexible and dynamic and the amount of information going through the factory is growing more and more. This leads to a scenario where errors in the production scheduling may occur often.
Several approaches have been used over the time to plan and schedule the shop-floor’s production. However, some of them do not consider some factors present in real environments, such as the fact that the machines are not available all the time and need maintenance sometimes. This increases the complexity of the system and makes it harder to allocate the tasks competently. So, more dynamic approaches should be used to explore the large search spaces more efficiently.
In this work is proposed an architecture and respective implementation to get a schedule including both production and maintenance tasks, which are often ignored on the related works. It considers the maintenance shifts available.
The proposed architecture was implemented using genetic algorithms, which already proved to be good solving combinatorial problems such as the Job-Shop Scheduling problem. The architecture considers the precedence order between the tasks of a same product and the maintenance shifts available on the factory.
The architecture was tested on a simulated environment to check the algorithm behavior. However, it was used a real data set of production tasks and working stations
Service-oriented architecture for device lifecycle support in industrial automation
Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em
Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores
Especialidade: Robótica e Manufactura IntegradaThis thesis addresses the device lifecycle support thematic in the scope of service oriented industrial automation domain. This domain is known for its plethora of heterogeneous equipment encompassing distinct functions, form factors, network interfaces, or I/O specifications supported by dissimilar software and hardware platforms. There is then an evident and crescent need to take every device into account and improve the agility performance during setup, control, management, monitoring and diagnosis phases.
Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) paradigm is currently a widely endorsed approach
for both business and enterprise systems integration. SOA concepts and technology
are continuously spreading along the layers of the enterprise organization envisioning
a unified interoperability solution. SOA promotes discoverability, loose coupling,
abstraction, autonomy and composition of services relying on open web standards – features that can provide an important contribution to the industrial automation domain.
The present work seized industrial automation device level requirements, constraints and needs to determine how and where can SOA be employed to solve some of the existent difficulties. Supported by these outcomes, a reference architecture shaped by distributed, adaptive and composable modules is proposed. This architecture will assist and ease the role of systems integrators during reengineering-related interventions throughout system lifecycle. In a converging direction, the present work also proposes a serviceoriented
device model to support previous architecture vision and goals by including
embedded added-value in terms of service-oriented peer-to-peer discovery and identification, configuration, management, as well as agile customization of device resources.
In this context, the implementation and validation work proved not simply the feasibility and fitness of the proposed solution to two distinct test-benches but also its relevance to the expanding domain of SOA applications to support device lifecycle in the industrial automation domain
Novel development of distributed manufacturing monitoring systems to support high cost and complexity manufacturing
In the current manufacturing environment, characterized by diverse change sources (e.g.
economical, technological, political, social) and integrated supply chains, success
demands close cooperation and coordination between stakeholders and agility. Tools
and systems based on software agents, intelligent products and virtual enterprises have
been developed to achieve such demands but either because of: (i) focus on a single
application; (ii) focus on a single product; (iii) separation between the product and its
information; or (iv) focus on a single system characteristic (e.g. hardware, software,
architecture, requirements) their use has been limited to trial or academic scenarios. In
this thesis a reusable distributed manufacturing monitoring system for harsh
environments, capable of addressing traceability and controllability requirements within
stakeholders and across high cost and complexity supply chains is presented. [Continues.
Application of user-centered design in the development of an atomated/assisted testing system for self-service devices
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are sensitive self-service systems that require important investments in security and testing. ATM certifications are testing processes for machines that integrate software components from different vendors and are performed before their deployment for public use.
This project was originated from the need of optimization of the certification process in an ATM manufacturing company. The process identifies compatibility problems between software components through testing. It is composed by a huge number of manual user tasks that makes the process very expensive and error-prone. Moreover, it is not possible to fully automate the process as it requires human intervention for manipulating ATM peripherals.
This project presented important challenges for the development team. First, this is a critical process, as all the ATM operations rely on the software under test. Second, the context of use of ATMs applications is vastly different from ordinary software. Third, ATMs’ useful lifetime is beyond 15 years and both new and old models need to be supported. Fourth, the know-how for efficient testing depends on each specialist and it is not explicitly documented. Fifth, the huge number of tests and their importance implies the need for user efficiency and accuracy. All these factors led us conclude that besides the technical challenges, the usability of the intended software solution was critical for the project success.
This business context is the motivation of this Master Thesis project. Our proposal focused in the development process applied. By combining user-centered design (UCD) with agile development we ensured both the high priority of usability and the early mitigation of software development risks caused by all the technology constraints.
We performed 23 development iterations and finally we were able to provide a working solution on time according to users’ expectations.
The evaluation of the project was carried out through usability tests, where 4 real users participated in different tests in the real context of use. The results were positive, according to different metrics: error rate, efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction. We discuss the problems found, the benefits and the lessons learned in the process.
Finally, we measured the expected project benefits by comparing the effort required by the current and the new process (once the new software tool is adopted). The savings corresponded to 40% less effort (man-hours) per certification. Future work includes additional evaluation of product usability in a real scenario (with customers) and the measuring of benefits in terms of quality improvement
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The use of agents and objects to integrate virtual enterprises
The manufacturing complex for the Department of Energy (DOE) is distributed: design laboratories, manufacturing facilities, and industrial partners. Designers must have a concurrent engineering environment to support all aspects of the cradle-to-grave product realization process across the distributed sites. Engineers must be able to analyze and simulate processes, retrieve and process heterogeneous information, both archived and current, and access multiple databases. Manufacturers must be able to coordinate activities of various manufacturing centers, which may involve a negotiation process. Furthermore, Sandia must be able to export manufacturing capabilities, such as on-machine acceptance, to outside suppliers. A key element to making this a reality is a flexible information architecture. The DOE information architecture must support a wide-area virtual enterprise, with distributed intelligent software components. The architecture must provide for asynchronous communication; multiple programming languages and operating systems; incorporation of geographically distributed manufacturing services; various hardware platforms; and heterogeneous workstations, PC`s, machine tool controllers, and special-purpose compute engines. Further, it is critical that manufacturing facilities are not isolated from design, planning, and other business activities and that information flows easily and bidirectionally between these activities. To accomplish this seamlessly, heterogeneous knowledge must be exchanged across both domain and organizational boundaries. Distributed object and software agent technologies are two methods for connecting such engineering and manufacturing systems. The two technologies have overlapping goals - interoperability and architectural support for integrating software components - though to date little or no integration of the two technologies has been made
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