Architecture and knowledge modelling for self-organized reconfiguration management of cyber-physical production systems

Abstract

The demand for reconfigurations of production systems is increasing, driven by shorter innovation and product life cycles and economic volatility. Another trend in the domain of industrial automation is the emergence of cyber-physical production systems, which offer promising potentials, for example, self-organization capabilities. A suitable cyber-physical production system architecture that incorporates knowledge modelling and management concerns, plus a reconfiguration management methodology, is crucial for realizing self-organized reconfiguration management. In this paper, first reference architectures, architectural patterns, and basic principles, as well as knowledge modelling and management approaches, are discussed in general. Afterwards, these are examined concerning the reconfiguration management use case focusing on UML/XML-based and ontology-based approaches. A novel approach comprising a multi-agent system and the MAPE-K concept for reconfiguration management is presented. In addition, the approach contains a service-oriented architecture for a deterministic plant control within a layered architecture. The knowledge modelling is realized through a UML information model, which can be integrated into the system utilizing XML files. Furthermore, the provided tool support is described. It enables a user to describe system components in an effort-reduced manner and conform to the schema defined by the information model and its restrictions via a GUI.