Multi-view-Model Risk Assessment in Cyber-Physical Production Systems Engineering

Abstract

The engineering of complex, flexible production systems, Cyber Physical Production Systems (CPPSs), requires integrating models across engineering disciplines. A CPPS Engineering Network (CEN), an integrated multi-domain multi-view model, facilitates the assessment of risks to CPPS and product designs, i.e., risks stemming from several engineering disciplines. However, traditional risk assessment, e.g., Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), provides informal cause-effect hypotheses, which may be hard to test without interdisciplinary links through the CEN to CPPS data sources. This paper aims to improve the effectiveness of model-based cause identification and validation for risks to CPPS functions that come from modeling in several CPPS disciplines by introducing the CPPS Risk Assessment (CPPS-RA) approach for representing FMEA cause-effect hypotheses and linking them to a CEN. These links provide the basis to specify CPPS engineering and operational data required for hypothesis testing. We evaluate the CPPS-RA approach in a feasibility study on a representative use case from discrete manufacturing. In the study context, domain experts found the CPPS-RA meta-model sufficiently expressive and the CPPS-RA method useful to validate FMEA results.