Towards a Domain-Specific Approach Enabling Tool-Supported Model-Based Systems Engineering of Complex Industrial Internet-of-Things Applications

Christoph Binder,Arndt Lüder,Christian Neureiter

doi:10.3390/systems9020021

Abstract

Contemporary manufacturing systems are undergoing a major change promoted by emerging technologies such as Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) or the Internet of Things (IoT). This trend, nowadays widely known by the term “Industry 4.0”, leads to a new kind of automated production. However, the rising number of dynamically interconnected elements in industrial production lines results in such a system being transformed into a complex System of Systems (SoS). Due to the increasing complexity and the challenges accompanied by this change, conventional engineering methods using generic principles reach their limits when developing this type of systems. With varying approaches only trying to find a solution for small-scaled areas of this problem statement, the need for a holistic methodology becomes more and more obvious. Having recognized this issue, one of the most promising approaches has been introduced with the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). However, in the current point of view, this domain-specific architecture framework is missing specifications to address all aspects of such a critical infrastructure. Thus, this paper introduces a comprehensive modeling approach utilizing methods applied in Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and including domain-specific particularities as well as architectural concepts with the goal to enable mutual engineering of current and future industrial systems. The resulting artifacts, a domain-specific language (DSL), an architecture definition and a development process, are thereby consolidated in a ready to use software framework, whose applicability was evaluated by a real-world case study.

Highlights

The need for optimized production processes with the goal to manage resources best possible force most manufacturing companies to constantly improve in order to remain competitive
The RAMI Toolbox is aiming to be a universal tool for developing any kind of industrial systems, the current specifications target the description of production lines on a higher abstraction level
As the Software Platform Embedded Systems (SPES) method enables engineering of embedded systems on various hierarchy levels, due to missing specifications and inequalities or deviations with RAMI 4.0, the implementation of a proprietary method especially focused on the industrial area appears to be a preferable solution

Summary

Introduction

The need for optimized production processes with the goal to manage resources best possible force most manufacturing companies to constantly improve in order to remain competitive. Accompanied by all the opportunities for developing future industrial systems according to this trend, there are several challenges that need to be addressed in order to ensure this realization. As explained in [4], a major issue concerning the interconnection of components is their coexistence and interoperability, as most of them are making decentralized decisions to find the best solution for themselves. Taking this into further consideration, a new level of complexity arises when it comes to describe the architecture of current and future manufacturing systems. According to the classification scheme introduced in [5], a traditional production line can be considered a complicated system due to the large number of machines or their dynamic utilization according to what should be produced

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Conclusion