An AutomationML model for plug-and-produce assembly systems

This paper aims to support the creation of high performance ‘Plug-and-Produce’ systems by proposing a new semantic model that targets the use of AutomationML (AML). In this direction, the focus is narrowed to the self-description of equipment modules that highlights the use of ‘Skill’ concept. An insight description on how the concept of ‘Skill Recipe’ can be used to execute the equipment ‘Skills’ to fulfil the product's assembly requirements is also provided. This is viewed as a critical concept to achieve high performance in ‘Plug-and-Produce’. To translate the base semantic definitions, we have developed new libraries that are fully compliant with the AML standard. The main purpose of using AML in this context is to bridge production and other engineering domains. An overview of the literature that covers the past and current trends in data exchange and standards is presented, while pointing out the existing challenges and limitations. The vision of this paper is to support the standardization effort of integrating information for design, build, ramp-up and operation of production systems. Hence, this approach elucidates the use of existing AML concepts to model and instantiate Product, Process and Resource (PPR), and the underlying definitions such as: ‘Skills’, ‘Skill Recipes’ and ‘Skill Requirements’. Finally, this paper illustrates the implementation of this approach in AML with a help of an industrial case study demonstrated within the openMOS project

An Approach to Reduce Commissioning and Ramp-up time for Multi-variant Production in Automated Production Facilities

A key requirement for future production facilities is to perform new production processes in a flexible and adaptive way with available and known resources. In this context, a comprehensive description (ontology) of involved components has a high significance. If certain technological aspects are missing during a production process, the production control should respond in a dynamic, versatile and adaptive (agile) manner to the overall value network. The possibility to describe the requirements of products for the necessary processes in the same namespace like the requirements of the necessary processes for the resources is a prerequisite to enable this behavior. Afterwards the different requirements will be placed in relation to the respective requirements. The aim is to define the necessary processes for the production based on the description of the product and the known resources in an agile way. Due to this a framework for a comprehensive description of automated production facilities, products and processes is described in this paper. The idea is that based on this framework a production facility can change the produced products without dedicated commissioning and ramp-up phases

An event-based AutomationML model for the process execution of ‘Plug-and-Produce’ assembly systems

Assembly systems today are facing significant pressure to deliver high performance process executions, while being responsive to the fluctuating market demands. However, the implementation the trending Cyber Physical Systems concepts via ‘Plug-and-Produce’ devices produces some communication overheads. In this direction, the openMOS project aims to decouple the elements that are responsible for adaptation and general operations of the system. This allows the system to have two parallel processes. Towards this end, the priority is to deliver high performance process executions, while the other process focuses on delivering the required agility. The focus of this work is narrowed down to the development of task execution tables that guarantees high performance process executions. In this direction, the definition of task execution table is based on an existing AutomationML (AML) model that highlights the explicit relationships between the Product, Process and Resource (PPR) domains. A new decisional attribute has been added to the existing ‘Skill’ concept, which provides the flexibility to incorporate eventbased process alternatives. An insight description on how the system handles process executions during run-time failures is also provided. Finally, this paper illustrates the run-time implementation of the execution table with a help of an industrial case study that has been used for a demonstration activity within the openMOS projec

Method For Creating A Control Cabinet Model With Realistic Wires

During the assembly of a control cabinet, a major time-consuming step is the wiring of the included components. Hence, automating this step will noticeably reduce production costs. According to the planning, wires are routed through wire ducts and connected to components. While a comprehensive digital twin can be computed for the included components, this twin is missing a proper modelling of the connecting wires. For these, only a rough route through the wire ducts is given. However, a physically plausible model is an important prerequisite to perform reliable path planning for automated assembly. The paper addresses this need for accurate wire path computation during automated cabinet assembly and introduces a method to compute realistic wire paths through the wire ducts. Different models with and without a fixed wire length are presented and compared. An evolutionary algorithm optimizes the corresponding variables of the models. As described, both approaches yield valid paths, although the fixed length model appears to be able to compute more realistic paths

An event-based automationML model for the process execution of ‘plug-and-produce’ assembly systems

Assembly systems today are facing significant pressure to deliver high performance process executions, while being responsive to the fluctuating market demands. However, the implementation the trending Cyber Physical Systems concepts via ‘Plug-and-Produce’ devices produces some communication overheads. In this direction, the openMOS project aims to decouple the elements that are responsible for adaptation and general operations of the system. This allows the system to have two parallel processes. Towards this end, the priority is to deliver high performance process executions, while the other process focuses on delivering the required agility. The focus of this work is narrowed down to the development of task execution tables that guarantees high performance process executions. In this direction, the definition of task execution table is based on an existing AutomationML (AML) model that highlights the explicit relationships between the Product, Process and Resource (PPR) domains. A new decisional attribute has been added to the existing ‘Skill’ concept, which provides the flexibility to incorporate event-based process alternatives. An insight description on how the system handles process executions during run-time failures is also provided. Finally, this paper illustrates the run-time implementation of the execution table with a help of an industrial case study that has been used for a demonstration activity within the openMOS project

Methods for Semantic Interoperability in AutomationML-based Engineering

Industrial engineering is an interdisciplinary activity that involves human experts from various technical backgrounds working with different engineering tools. In the era of digitization, the engineering process generates a vast amount of data. To store and exchange such data, dedicated international standards are developed, including the XML-based data format AutomationML (AML). While AML provides a harmonized syntax among engineering tools, the semantics of engineering data remains highly heterogeneous. More specifically, the AML models of the same domain or entity can vary dramatically among different tools that give rise to the so-called semantic interoperability problem. In practice, manual implementation is often required for the correct data interpretation, which is usually limited in reusability. Efforts have been made for tackling the semantic interoperability problem. One mainstream research direction has been focused on the semantic lifting of engineering data using Semantic Web technologies. However, current results in this field lack the study of building complex domain knowledge that requires a profound understanding of the domain and sufficient skills in ontology building. This thesis contributes to this research field in two aspects. First, machine learning algorithms are developed for deriving complex ontological concepts from engineering data. The induced concepts encode the relations between primitive ones and bridge the semantic gap between engineering tools. Second, to involve domain experts more tightly into the process of ontology building, this thesis proposes the AML concept model (ACM) for representing ontological concepts in a native AML syntax, i.e., providing an AML-frontend for the formal ontological semantics. ACM supports the bidirectional information flow between the user and the learner, based on which the interactive machine learning framework AMLLEARNER is developed. Another rapidly growing research field devotes to develop methods and systems for facilitating data access and exchange based on database theories and techniques. In particular, the so-called Query By Example (QBE) allows the user to construct queries using data examples. This thesis adopts the idea of QBE in AML-based engineering by introducing the AML Query Template (AQT). The design of AQT has been focused on a native AML syntax, which allows constructing queries with conventional AML tools. This thesis studies the theoretical foundation of AQT and presents algorithms for the automated generation of query programs. Comprehensive requirement analysis shows that the proposed approach can solve the problem of semantic interoperability in AutomationML-based engineering to a great extent

Standard based Information Exchange in Process and Automation Engineering

Laitossuunnittelutiedon siirto on murroksessa. Laitossuunniteluprojektien osapuolien on kyettävä vaihtamaan suunnittelutietoa keskenään vaivattomasti ja häviöttä. Jos kaikki suunnitteluosapuolet eri suunnitteluosa-alueilta käyttäisivät samaa laitossuunnitteluohjelmistoa, ongelmaa ei olisi, mutta käytäntö on toinen. Laitossuunnitteluohjelmistojen välinen tiedonsiirto voidaan yhdenmukaistaa siten, että ohjelmistoihin toteutetaan standardin mukainen rajapinta. Standardin mukaisten suunnitteludokumenttien arvoa voidaan lisätä ja suunnittelutyötä automatisoida tarjoamalla suunnittelutieto tunnetun ja avoimen rajapinnan kautta. Ongelman ratkaisemiseksi käytettiin toimintatutkimusmenetelmää, jossa teoria ja käytäntö kulkevat käsikädessä. Aluksi selvitettiin suunnittelutiedonsiirtoon soveltuvat standardit. Standardeista valittiin ISO 15926 standardiin perustuva DEXPI-spesifikaatio (Data Exchange in the Process Industry). Tähän spesifikaatioon päädyttiin, koska sitä kehitetään aktiivisesti ja sen toteuttaminen on aloitettu useammassa laitossuunnitteluohjelmistossa. Lisäksi tämä spesifikaatio soveltuu prosessi- ja automaatiosuunnittelmien graafisen tiedon ja metatiedon siirtämiseen. Tässä työssä kehitettiin metriikka laitossuunnitteluohjelmistoista tuotujen suunnitteludokumenttien rakenteellisen kypsyyden arviointiin. Tässä työssä kypsyydellä tarkoitetaan miten dokumentin rakenne noudattaa spesifikaatiossa määritettyä rakennetta. Spesifikaation toteutumista laitossuunnitteluohjelmistoissa seurattiin aktiivisuustaulukon avulla. Standardin mukaista suunnitteludokumenttia voidaan hyödyntää myös laitteistorajapinnassa OPC UA -standardin (OPC Unified Architecture) avulla. Muunnnos standardien mukaisten dokumenttien välillä voidaan automatisoida metamallinnus- ja mallimuunnostekniikoiden avulla