A Model-based Approach for Designing Cyber-Physical Production Systems

The most recent development trend related to manufacturing is called "Industry 4.0". It proposes to transition from "blind" mechatronics systems to Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs). Such systems are capable of communicating with each other, acquiring and transmitting real-time production data. Their management and control require a structured software architecture, which is tipically referred to as the "Automation Pyramid". The design of both the software architecture and the components (i.e., the CPPSs) is a complex task, where the complexity is induced by the heterogeneity of the required functionalities. In such a context, the target of this thesis is to propose a model-based framework for the analysis and the design of production lines, compliant with the Industry 4.0 paradigm. In particular, this framework exploits the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) as a unified representation for the different viewpoints of a manufacturing system. At the components level, the structural and behavioral diagrams provided by SysML are used to produce a set of logical propositions about the system and components under design. Such an approach is specifically tailored towards constructing Assume-Guarantee contracts. By exploiting reactive synthesis techniques, contracts are used to prototype portions of components' behaviors and to verify whether implementations are consistent with the requirements. At the software level, the framework proposes a particular architecture based on the concept of "service". Such an architecture facilitates the reconfiguration of components and integrates an advanced scheduling technique, taking advantage of the production recipe SysML model. The proposed framework has been built coupled with the construction of the ICE Laboratory, a research facility consisting of a full-fledged production line. Such an approach has been adopted to construct models of the laboratory, to virtual prototype parts of the system and to manage the physical system through the proposed software architecture

Non-hierarchical Collaboration in Dynamic Business Communities

Abstract. A business community where communication can be streamlined, information shared and trust can be built can be considered as a collaborative network promoting SMEs long term sustainability by assuring quick response, fast time to market, differentiated offerings and competitive prices. This collaboration could be orchestrated both in hierarchical and non-hierarchical forms depending on the firms size, capacity and objectives. In this research, we have considered non-hierarchical networking among firms, especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), where the basic requirements are related with choosing appropriate business partners, building trust and sharing valuable information among them. In order to articulate the concept of this nonhierarchical collaboration, six pilot SMEs were analyzed and a methodological approach to manage these environments is proposed. A generic overview of different variables or factors necessary to build such business collaboration are presented and discussed critically in this study

Ecosystem Under Construction – An Action Research Study on Entrepreneurship in a Business Ecosystem

In recent years, we have seen increasing interest in new service concepts that take advantage of the capabilities of business ecosystems instead of single companies. In this article, we describe how a business ecosystem begins to develop around a service business idea proposed by an entrepreneur. We aim to recognize the different domains of players that are or should be involved in the ecosystem while it is under construction. The article concludes with an ecosystem model consisting of six sub-ecosystems having different change drivers and clockspeeds. - See more at: http://timreview.ca/article/564#sthash.HWHQ64Oc.dpuf</span

Multi-stakeholder assessment of a Mobile and Temporarily Interconnected Systems prototype: People-First Tourism

While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for equitable and sustainable development in developing countries, most destination communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees” who are unable to participate in economic opportunities often controlled by tourism retail monopolies. Guided by information systems (IS) research on mobile and temporarily interconnected systems (MTIS), this work examines the ubiquitous nature of information services for users on the move. That is, users that are largely dependent on mobile telephones and temporary tourism services. Stakeholder interviews included local South African micro-entrepreneurs from under-resourced rural and peri-urban communities and other national and regional stakeholders. The findings informed the development and early implementation of a web marketplace for tourism micro-entrepreneurs (i.e., www.peoplefirsttourism.com) that bridges hyper-connected consumers with under-resourced micro-entrepreneurs who use simple mobile phones. Further, this study builds on interdisciplinary research to enrich discussions about ICT for Development (ICT4D)

Knowledge management technology for integrated decision support systems in process industries

Premi extraordinari doctorat curs 2011-2012, àmbit d’Enginyeria IndustrialNowadays, factors such as globalization of trade, market uncertainty and fierce competition involve dwindling error margins in enterprises. Two key aspects for achieve it are the viability and the competitiveness of enterprises, which highly depend on the effectiveness for taking their decisions related to their manufacturing characteristics, such as economic efficiency, product quality, flexibility or reliability. For this reason, companies have taken the task, for many years, of develop better management information systems in order to help the decision makers to exploit data and models, with the final objective of discussing and improving decision-making. In this sense, decision support systems must be improved in order to deal with the large amount of available data and the heterogeneity of existing modeling approaches along the hierarchical levels in the enterprise structure. Hence, this thesis proposes the application of ontologies as a decision support tool, since they are increasingly seen as a key semantic technology for addressing heterogeneities and mitigating the problems they create and for enabling data mining by semantics-driven the knowledge processing. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the development of decision support tools for the enterprise process industry. As a decision support tool, must be capable of become a robust model which interacts among the different decision hierarchical levels, providing a unified framework of data and information levels integration. On the other hand, this thesis also aims the improvement in the development of the ontologies. Firstly, a detailed state of the art about the different production process systems, knowledge management base on ontologies, as well as decision support systems is carried out. Based on this review, the specific thesis objectives are posed. Next, a methodology is proposed for the development and use of ontologies, based on the analysis and adaptation of previously existing methodologies. Such methodology is based on the improvement cycle (PSDA), allowing a better way to design, construct and apply domain ontologies. The second part of this thesis is devoted to the application of the different parts of the previously proposed methodology for the development of an ontological framework in the process industry domain concerning the strategic, tactical and operational decision levels. Next, the description of the decision areas in which the ontological framework is applied is presented. Namely, in the process control decision level, the coordination control is considered. Regarding scheduling decisions level, mathematical optimization approaches are applied. Finally, the distributed hierarchical decision level considers the mathematical optimization for decentralized supply chain networks is adopted. These decision areas and the performance of the proposed framework interaction are studied along the different case studies presented in the thesis. On the whole, this thesis represents a step forward toward the integration among the enterprise hierarchical levels, the process and enterprise standardization and improved procedures for decision-making. The aforementioned achievements are boosted by the application of semantic models, which are currently increasingly used.En la actualidad, factores como la globalización del comercio, la incertidumbre del mercado y la feroz competencia implican la disminución de los márgenes de error en las empresas. Dos aspectos claves para lograrlo son la viabilidad y la competitividad de las enterprisesm, que dependen en gran medida la eficacia para la toma de sus decisiones relacionadas con sus características de fabricación, tales como eficiencia económica, la calidad del producto, la flexibilidad y fiabilidad. Por esta razón, las empresas han dado a la tarea, desde hace muchos años, de desarrollar mejores sistemas de gestión de la información con el fin de ayudar a los tomadores de decisiones de explotación de datos y modelos, con el objetivo final de la discusión y mejorar la toma de decisiones. En este sentido, los sistemas de apoyo a las decisiones deben ser mejorados con el fin de hacer frente a la gran cantidad de datos disponibles y la heterogeneidad de los métodos de modelización existentes a lo largo de los niveles jerárquicos en la estructura de la empresa. Por lo tanto, esta tesis se propone la aplicación de ontologías como herramienta de apoyo a la decisión, ya que son cada vez más como una tecnología clave semántica para hacer frente a las heterogeneidades y la mitigación de los problemas que crean y para permitir la extracción de datos por la semántica impulsado la elaboración del conocimiento. El objetivo de esta tesis es contribuir al desarrollo de herramientas de apoyo para la industria de procesos empresariales. Como una herramienta de apoyo a la decisión, debe ser capaz de convertirse en un modelo sólido que interactúa entre los diferentes niveles de decisión jerárquica, proporcionando un marco unificado de datos e integración de los niveles de información. Por otra parte, esta tesis también tiene como objetivo la mejora en el desarrollo del área de ingeniería ontológica. En primer lugar, un estado detallado de la técnica sobre los diferentes sistemas de procesos de producción, la base de la gestión del conocimiento en ontologías, así como los sistemas de soporte de decisiones se ha llevado a cabo. Basado en esa revision, los objetivos específicos de la tesis se plantean. A continuación, se propone una metodología para el desarrollo y uso de ontologías, con base en el análisis y adaptación de las metodologías ya existentes. Dicha metodología se basa en el ciclo de mejora (PSDA), lo que permite una mejor manera de diseñar, construir y aplicar las ontologías de dominio. La segunda parte de esta tesis se dedica a la aplicación de las diferentes partes de la metodología propuesta anteriormente para el desarrollo de un marco ontológico en el ámbito de la industria de procesos relativos a los niveles de decisiones estratégicas, tácticas y operativas. A continuación, la descripción de las áreas de decisión en la que se aplica el marco ontológico se presenta. Es decir, en el nivel de decision de proceso de control, el control de la coordinación se considera. En cuanto al nivel de decisiones de programación de la producción, los métodos matemáticos de optimización se aplican. Finalmente, el nivel jerárquico distribuido decisión considera la optimización matemática de las redes descentralizadas de la cadena de suministro que se adopte. Estas áreas de decisión y el desempeño de la interacción marco propuesto se estudian a lo largo de los diferentes casos de estudio presentados en la tesis. En general, esta tesis supone un paso hacia adelante en la integración entre los niveles jerárquicos de la empresa, el proceso y la estandarización de la empresa y mejorar los procedimientos de toma de decisiones. Los logros mencionados se potencian mediante la aplicación de modelos semánticos, que actualmente se utilizan cada vez más.Award-winningPostprint (published version

The Essence of Software Engineering

Software Engineering; Software Development; Software Processes; Software Architectures; Software Managemen

Learning archetypes as tools of Cybergogy for a 3D educational landscape: a structure for eTeaching in Second Life

This paper considers issues of validity and credibility of eTeaching using a 3D Virtual World as a delivery medium of eLearning pertaining to the transfer of authentic real life skills. It identifies the game like qualities perceived therein, recognising that these very attributes may, when experienced superficially, be a contributing factor to the potential educational demise of the platform. It goes on to examine traditional educational theories in the light of the affordances of a virtual world seeking to adapt and apply them to the construction of a new conceptual framework of a pedagogy reflecting the affordances and understanding of on-line learning which incorporates the implementation of Learning Archetypes (models of activities) to maximise the essence of a virtual world, in as much as it is able to facilitate learning experiences delimited by physical world constraints. It builds upon these ideas to develop a working model of Cybergogy and Learning Archetypes in 3D with a view to making it available to people who wish to demonstrate theoretically robust lesson and course planning. The model is then applied to three examples of eTeaching, developed as Case Studies for the purpose of critically evaluating the model, which is found to be operationally effective, accurate and flexible. Conclusions are drawn that identify the merits and challenges of implementing such a model of Cybergogy into eTeaching and eLearning conducted in Second Life®