System of Systems Lifecycle Management: A New Concept Based on Process Engineering Methodologies

In order to tackle interoperability issues of large-scale automation systems, SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) principles, where information exchange is manifested by systems providing and consuming services, have already been introduced. However, the deployment, operation, and maintenance of an extensive SoS (System of Systems) mean enormous challenges for system integrators as well as network and service operators. The existing lifecycle management approaches do not cover all aspects of SoS management; therefore, an integrated solution is required. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new lifecycle approach, namely the SoSLM (System of Systems Lifecycle Management). This paper first provides an in-depth description and comparison of the most relevant process engineering methodologies and ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) frameworks, and how they affect various lifecycle management strategies. The paper’s novelty strives to introduce an Industry 4.0-compatible PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) model and to extend it to cover SoS management-related issues on well-known process engineering methodologies. The presented methodologies are adapted to the PLM model, thus creating the recommended SoSLM model. This is supported by demonstrations of how the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) applications and services can be developed and handled. Accordingly, complete implementation and integration are presented based on the proposed SoSLM model, using the Arrowhead framework that is available for IIoT SoS. View Full-Tex

Dynamic Multilevel Workflow Management Concept for Industrial IoT Systems

Workflow management is implemented in manufacturing at many levels. The nature of processes variesat each level, hindering the use of a standard modeling orimplementation solution. The creation of a flexible workflow management framework that overarches the heterogeneous business process levels is challenging. Still, one of the promisesof the Industry 4.0 initiative is precisely this: to provideeasy-to-use models and solutions that enable efficient execution of enterprise targets. By addressing this challenge, this articleproposes a workflow execution model that integrates information and control flows of these levels while keeping their hierarchy. The overall model builds on the business process model andnotation (BPMN) for modeling at the enterprise level and recipemodeling based on colored Petri net (CPN) at the production level. Models produced with both alternatives are implemented and executed in a framework supported by an enterprise servicebus (ESB). Loosely coupled, late-bound system elements are connected through the arrowhead framework, which is builtupon the service-oriented architecture (SOA) concept. To proveits feasibility, this article presents the practical application ofthe model via an automotive production scenario

MODDALS Methodology for Designing Layered Ontology Structures

Global ontologies include common vocabularies to provide interoperability among different applications. These ontologies require a balance of reusability-usability to minimise the ontology reuse effort in different applications. To achieve such a balance, reusable and usable ontology design methodologies provide guidelines to design and develop layered ontology networks. Layered ontology networks classify into different abstraction layers the domain knowledge relevant to many applications (common domain knowledge) and the domain knowledge relevant only to certain application types (variant domain knowledge). This knowledge classification is performed from scratch by domain experts and ontology engineers. This process is a heavy workload, making it difficult to design the layered structures of reusable and usable global ontologies. Considering how common and variant software features are classified when designing Software Product Lines (SPLs), we argue that SPL engineering techniques can facilitate the domain knowledge classification taking as reference existing ontologies. This paper presents a methodology that provides guidelines to design the layered structure of reusable and usable ontology networks called MODDALS. In contrast to previous methods, MODDALS applies SPL engineering techniques to systematically (1) identify the ontology common and variant domain knowledge and (2) classify it into different abstraction layers taking as reference existing ontologies. This approach complements domain experts’ and ontology engineers’ expertise, preventing them from classifying the domain knowledge from scratch facilitating the design of the layered ontology structure. MODDALS methodology is evaluated in the design of the layered structure of a reusable and usable global ontology for the energy domain. The results show that MODDALS enables to classify the domain knowledge taking as reference existing ontologies

Implementation of a Reference Architecture for Cyber Physical Systems to support Condition Based Maintenance

This paper presents the implementation of a refer-ence architecture for Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) to supportCondition Based Maintenance (CBM) of industrial assets. The article focuses on describing how the MANTIS ReferenceArchitecture is implemented to support predictive maintenance of clutch-brake assets fleet, and includes the data analysis techniques and algorithms implemented at platform level to facilitate predictive maintenance activities. These technologiesare (1) Root Cause Analysis powered by Attribute Oriented Induction Clustering and (2) Remaining Useful Life powered by Time Series Forecasting. The work has been conducted in a real use case within the EU project MANTIS

La importancia de la relación empresa-universidad en la formación del alumno

The Computer Science Engineering Degree includes an in-companytrainingexperience for students with professional assistance from university. Two pro-grams address this initiative objective is the im-provements of students integration in industry; the alternation work study program (AET) and thefinal year project(TFG). Both programs describes the quantitative and qualita-tive challenges, the methodology used to achieve these goalsand the results obtained.The programs are conducted in companies wherestudents perform tasks related to their expertise, acquiring technical, transversal and professional competences. Thetraining programs are 100% remu-nerated andregulated through agreements and con-tracts with the university.Thisarticle describes those programs and includes theresults aftermonitoring several indicators, such as the percentages of students participating in AET pro-grams: 88% in 3rd grade and 50% in 2nd grade; the level of student satisfaction:above 8/10, and compa-ny satisfaction:9/10 in AET and TFG; as well as the relevance of these activities in employability,and the most valued contributions to the training process most valued by the students.Dentro del diseño de Grado de Ingeniería Informáticade la universidad, se hace especial hincapié en pro-porcionar al alumno una experiencia profesional tuteladaen empresa. Esto se desarrolla mediante la gestión del programa de alternancia estudio trabajo (AET) y el Trabajo Fin de grado (TFG)y tiene como objetivomejorar la formación del alumno. Se describen los retos cuantitativos y cualitativos definidos, el método aplicado para alcanzarlos y los resultados obtenidos: todas las AET y TFG se realizan en empresa, y el alumno, la alumna1, ejecuta tareas afines a su especialidad, adquiriendo competencias técnicas, transversales y profesionales. Son 100% remunerados, reguladas a través de conve-nios con la universidad o contratos.Se incluyenindicadores de seguimiento como los porcentajes de alumnos participantes en programas de AET en Grado: 88% en 3ºy50% en 2º; la alta satis-facción de los alumnos, superior al 8/10 y las empre-sas, 9/10 en TFG; así como la relevancia de estas actividades en la empleabilidad, además delas apor-taciones al proceso formativo más valoradas por los alumnos que participan en ellas

MDE based IoT Service to enhance the safety of controllers at runtime

One of the challenges for complex IoT software systems is toincrease their safety. A Model Driven Development approach helps in the design and development phase of these systems while runtime checkin gtechniques help to enhance safety. To supervise the status of different IoT services that are registered in a local cloud at runtime, the solution that is presented in this work uses the information that it receives from the different services registered in a local cloud in model terms. The runtime checker, the new Safety related service of the Arrowhead framework, has predefined contracts to ensure the correctness of the services at runtime.Based on these contracts and checking the information that it receives at runtime it is able to detect unsafe scenarios. Once an unsafe scenario is detected, it starts a safe process to protect the behaviour of the whole system adapting the wrong service or services to a degraded operation mode at runtime. All these services will be Arrowhead compliant