Concept Of Cyber-physical Systems Research Articles

The MTA SZTAKI Smart Factory: Platform for Research and Project-oriented Skill Development in Higher Education

Nowadays, the potential of learning factories as test beds and research plants is gaining recognition, and several facilities are extended or built up already with these complementing purposes in mind—among them the Smart Factory at the Fraunhofer Project Center at MTA SZTAKI currently completing a major stage of development. The paper presents the structure and key design principles of the plant, and explains how the composition and functionalities of the equipment implement focal principles of the Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems concepts. Furthermore, it is shown how the Smart Factory provides students with challenges and resources for project-oriented development of their skills, and where these opportunities fit into technical higher education by hosting both individual student projects and courses with a specific structure of progress.

Product Design Improvement Through Knowledge Feedback of Cyber-physical Systems

In context of automation the concept of cyber-physical systems creates a consistent data interchange via open and global information networks with bidirectional flow of information. However, in order to generate potential benefits, relevant process data has to be identified and transferred to usable knowledge.In this paper we propose an approach for using the information feedback, provided through cyber-physical systems within production facilities, for the enhancement of the product design process. Due to the integration of knowledge bases, the data gathered in production is transformed to knowledge for improvement, which is structured for re-utilization with the use of ontologies.

Preparing for Industry 4.0 – Testing Collaborative Virtual Learning Environments with Students and Professional Trainers

In consideration of future employment domains, engineering students should be prepared to meet the demands of society 4.0 and industry 4.0 – resulting from a fourth industrial revolution. Based on the technological concept of cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things, it facilitates – among others - the vision of the smart factory. The vision of “industry 4.0” is characterized by highly individualized and at the same time cross-linked production processes. Physical reality and virtuality increasingly melt together and international teams collaborate across the globe within immersive virtual environments. In this context, a large market arises in the field virtual trainings, which means that professional trainers need to explore the potential of new learning settings. In the context of the development from purely document based management systems to complex virtual learning environments (VLEs), a shift towards more interactive and collaborative components within higher educational e-learning can be noticed, but is still far from being called the state of the art. As a result, engineering education is faced with a large potential field of research, which ranges from the technical development and didactical conception of new VLEs to the investigation of students’ acceptance or the proof of concept of the VLEs in terms of learning efficiency. This paper presents three corresponding qualitative studies: In a series of focus groups, it was investigated which kinds of VLEs students prefer in a higher education context. Building upon the results of the focus groups, a collaborative VLE was created within the open world game Minecraft. In two different studies this VLE was tested, first by students and then by professional trainers. First screenings of the video material of the studies indicate a connection between communicational behavior and successful collaborative problem solving in virtual environments. The majority of the trainers who participated in the second study ascribe the new technological possibilities great potential and would consider using it within their own trainings.

Simulation alternatives for the verification of networked cyber-physical systems

Several embedded system applications are used to control physical processes thus leading to the concept of Cyber-Physical System. Sensing, computation and actuation are combined by involving a set of highly heterogeneous components, i.e., digital and analog hardware, software, energy sources, and external physical systems (e.g., a room to be heated, a mechanical component). Moreover, we see the growing use of networks to connect several sub-systems in a more efficient way; this contributes to introduce a further level of heterogeneity due to the presence of messages exchanged over communication channels. All these aspects should be taken into account in the design process to find highly optimized solutions; in particular, simulation is a key technique for their verification. However, the heterogeneity of components, together with the presence of the network, forces to adopt complex and slow co-simulation techniques to carry on the simulation of the entire system.This work aims at proposing SystemC as unified framework to model and simulate Networked Cyber-Physical Systems. Concerning the modeling of continuous-time components and a specific class of discrete-time components, the different Models of Computation provided by the Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) extension of SystemC are used. Regarding the network, SystemC and the SystemC Network Simulation Library are used to model communications at different abstraction levels. The approach is validated by considering a networked control system. First, the accuracy and speed of SystemC simulation is compared to Matlab/Simulink simulation. Second, different simulation alternatives are compared to co-simulation. Finally, we show that the simulation speed-up achieved by all-SystemC modeling allows to explore several design alternatives and the accurate modeling of the communication network can improve the design of the controller.

A Cyber Physical Interface for Automation Systems—Methodology and Examples

Cyber physical systems (CPS) in a manufacturing and automation context can be referred to different manufacturing process, including design, simulation, control, and verification. However, for data analytics, the concept of CPS is relatively new, and a standard methodology is lacking on how to incorporate this type of interface for automation applications. This study discusses a modeling methodology for a cyber physical interface and presents the five levels of information for a cyber physical system, that range from the data connection level to the system configuration level. In order to achieve this awareness and health state of the machine and system, a technical approach that uses adaptive health monitoring algorithms is presented. Lastly, an experimental study on a machine tool ball screw is highlighted, in which a predictive model and a cyber physical interface is developed for this application. The outcomes from this study demonstrate that machine health state awareness is feasible, and the core technologies can aim mechanical systems systematically develop its CPS. This can lead to additional product revenue for the manufacturers, and also a potential competitive edge in the market place.

Synchronizing and Improving Supply Chains through the application of Cyber- Physical Systems

Supply chains are embedded in dynamic environments. Their management is challenged by the occurrence of perturbations, as well as by complex production and transport networks. Dealing with those characteristics requires high levels of operational flexibility. In order to accomplish that flexibility, several technologies have been developed for allowing the capture, processing and exchange of information between involved agents. A system that deals with the physical as well as the informational aspects of processes can be denominated as a Cyber-physical system (CPS). In this paper, firstly, specific research topics related to CPS in Supply Chains were reviewed to provide a reference model. Afterwards a conceptual model was proposed to illustrate the differences between Supply Chains employing (or not) CPS concept. Finally, a simulation-based test case was developed to substantiate the implications of implementing CPS for synchronizing and improving Supply Chains.

The Readiness of ERP Systems for the Factory of the Future

Abstract In 2011, at the Hanover Fair, the term Industry 4.0 was first coined. In October 2012, the Working Group on Industry 4.0, presented a set of implementation recommendations to the German government. The term Industry 4.0 initiates from a project in the high-tech strategy of the German government. Such project advocates the computerization of the manufacturing industry. It is also known as the 4 th industrial revolution. Precisely speaking, industry 4.0 is based on the technological concepts of cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things (IoT), which enables the Factory of the Future (FoF). Within the modular structured smart factories of Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Over the IoT, Cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are considered the backbone for the Industry 4.0. Thus, this paper attempts to answer the research question: “Are today's ERP systems ready for the FoF?”. We have conducted interviews with manufacturers, ERP vendors, and partners in order to seek their feedback on the readiness of ERP systems for the FoF. Our results show that ERP systems are ready for the FoF.

Industrie 4.0: Hit or Hype? [Industry Forum

In Germany, the term Industrie 4.0 is currently prevalent in almost every industry-related fair, conference, or call for public-funded projects. First used at the Hanover Fair in 2011, the term, raised numerous discussions, and the major question is: is it a hit or hype? Even in politics, this term is used frequently with respect to German industry, and research efforts relating to it are currently supported by €200 million from government-funding bodies?the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. The term Industrie 4.0 refers to the fourth industrial revolution and is often understood as the application of the generic concept of cyberphysical systems (CPSs) to industrial production systems (cyberphysical production systems). In North America, similar ideas have been brought up under the name Industrial Internet by General Electric. The technical basis is very similar to Industrie 4.0, but the application is broader than industrial production and also includes, e.g., smart electrical grids. The various definitions have caused confusion rather than increasing transparency. Overambitious marketing reinforced the confusion (Industrie 4.0 is already being done). This obscures the real and sound future visions behind Industrie 4.0. This column is intended to provide easy-to-understand access to the core ideas of Industrie 4.0 and describes the basic industrial requirements that need to be fulfilled for its success.

A Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Based Hybrid Micro-Grid Model with Wind-Solar Complementary Power

Micro-grid, which coordinates distributed energy resources in a decentralized way, is a promising approach to allow distributed energy resources to provide full benefits while reducing the control burden on the grid. By exploiting the concept of cyber-physical system (CPS), prediction can be easily incorporated into micro-grid, which helps the micro-grid work more effectively and safely. In such a case, in this paper, based on CPS, we propose a novel micro-grid model, within the framework of which, a more explicit wind-solar complementary power system is presented. Moreover, we show how the closed-loop control is implemented in the proposed model which is of benefit to the design of micro-grid.

An integrated cyber-physical simulation environment for smart grid applications

The concept of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs), which combine computation, networking, and physical processes, is considered to be beneficial to smart grid applications. This study presents an integrated simulation environment to provide a unified platform for the investigation of smart grid applications involving power grid monitoring, communication, and control. In contrast to the existing approaches, this environment allows the network simulator to operate independently, importing its results to the power system simulation. This resolves conflicts between discrete event simulation and continuous simulation. In addition, several data compensation methods are proposed and investigated under different network delay conditions. A case study of wide-area monitoring and control is provided, and the efficiency of the proposed simulation framework has been evaluated based on the experimental results.

303 CPSの概念に基づく実仮想融合型生産システム : 設備故障時におけるオークションによる代替設備エージェントの決定(OS2 : 生産・物流システムのモデリングとシミュレーション(1))

In this study, a methodology named Real-Virtual Fusion Manufacturing System (RVF-MS) based on CPS (Cyber Physical Systems) concept is proposed. It is designed as multi-agent systems and aims to adaptively and effectively deal with both external and internal fluctuations in real production shop floor. In this paper, an auction method to determine equipment agents to participate in decision-making in the virtual system under equipment failure is proposed. In the proposed method, the coordinator is failure equipment agents, bidders are equipment agents on the same process of the failure equipment, goods are unprocessed jobs assigned to failure equipment, respectively. In order to determine alternative equipment agents, coordinator implements auction. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by computational experiments.

The Potential of Augmented Reality Technology for Pre-Construction

Construction project management covering various aspects such as planning, coordinating, directing, scheduling, monitoring and control. Pre-construction services are used in planning a construction project before the actual construction begins. However, various problems happened at the pre-construction planning stage. This paper present an overview of the major problems in pre-construction stage and look at the potential of using augmented reality technology to overcome those problems. It was found that, at the pre-construction stage, good planning can not be done by the project teams especially to engineers and contractors due to the lack of supporting data, particularly when it involves information relating to underground utilities such as telecommunications, gas, electricity, water and sewerage. There are several approaches that can been undertaken in pre-construction services, especially in making an informed decision. The potential technology is using Augmented Reality (AR)-based approach in pre-construction service. Augmented reality is the integration of digital information with the users environment in real-time. It was one of the tool that support the concept of cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS is the integration systems between computational network and physical processes. Currently, there are many fields utilised the application of AR such as medical, militiry, vehicles, gaming and navigation. This paper presents the applications of an AR-based approach to medical and gaming industry and explore the potential of using AR in pre-construction. The finding shows that the AR is a potential decision support tool that will speed up the planning process of the project team in the pre-construction phase in real-time.

Sensitivity Analysis of a Baysian Network Model on PCM Equipments

In power communication systems, the pulse code modulation (PCM) equipment play an important role. Its security has been a focus of attention, when the concept of cyber physical system is proposed. In order to solve the security problem of PCM equipments, a Bayesian Network (BN) model is used in this paper. By analyzing the sensitivity of BN model, we can get the influence of each input variable to outcome variables. For illustration, four PCM equipments are selected from some substations. They are utilized to show the feasibility of the BN model in evaluating the security of PCM equipments and the sensitivity analysis. Empirical results show that some effective counter measures can be found to help decision maker improve the security of PCM equipments. The BN model can effectively evaluate the security of PCM equipments. After analyzing the sensitivity, the most reasonable and effective countermeasures are advanced.

Infusing cyber-physical systems concepts into an introductory computer science course

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) is an emerging field of study that offers a wealth of applications in many domains of life and has the potential to change the way humans interact with and control the surrounding environment and physical processes. There is a need to prepare computer science students to join the innovation and development of CPSs and their applications. We proposed a cross-curricular enhancement framework that infuses CPS concepts into a few computer science courses from the freshman to the senior years, allowing a continuous exposure of CPS concepts with a gradually increased complexity and scale. In this paper, we introduce a sequence of course modules designed for an introductory computer science course that expose students to mathematical modeling, algorithmic thinking, and their interactions. The course modules leverage affordable robotic systems, require no students' preparation in programming, and are rich in mathematical modeling. An initial implementation of the course modules enforces the observation that potential CPS applications trigger excitement among students and increase their appreciation of mathematical modeling and its role in solving computing problems.

The Enterprise of Future as a Cyber-Physical System

The paper presents a conceptual model of the manufacturing enterprise of the future, which is centered on knowledge. It is introduced the concept of organizational wisdom, as an intelligence level that allows manufacturing enterprise to take sustainable decisions. Cyber-Physical Systems concept is the most promising approach to implement the knowledge/ wisdom model of the enterprise.

가상물리시스템 개념을 이용한 임베디드 제어 네트워크 시스템 설계에 관한 연구

Recent advances in electronics have enabled various conventional products to incorporate with numerous powerful microcontroller. Generally, an embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system, often with real-time computing constraints. The growing performance and reliability of hardware components and the possibilities brought by various design method enabled implementing complex functions that improve the comport of the system's occupant as well as their safety. A cyber physical system (CPS) is a system featuring a tight combination of, and coordination between, the system's computational and physical elements. The concept of cyber physical system, including physical elements, cyber elements, and shared networks, has been introduced due to two general reasons: design flexibility and reliability. This paper presents a cyber physical system where system components are connected to a shared network, and control functions are divided into small tasks that are distributed over a number of embedded controllers with limited computing capacity. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of cyber physical system, an unmanned forklift with autonomous obstacle avoidance ability is implemented and its performance is experimentally evaluated.

Cyber Physical Systems Using Sensor Technologies

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) have grown exponentially and have been attracting a lot of attention over the last few years because of cyber and the physical (natural and humanmade) components that are being tightly integrated into many systems. Smart or intelligent sensor networks should be provided with the 3C (computation, communication, and control) abilities. Emerging applications include transportation, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, entertainment, consumer electronics, environment monitoring, and many parts of our social infrastructure. There are eight papers selected for publication in this special issue. Most of the selected papers present the design and implementation of cyberphysical systems applied to several areas, including safety surveillances, rehabilitation, smart living space, and so on. G. Manes et al. propose a continuous remote monitoring platform which consists of sensor nodes and a gateway. The sensor nodes deployed at the hazardous sites will forward data to the platform through the gateway to improve the transmission reliability. The proposed platform uses volatile organic compound (VOC) detectors which are able to perform real-time analysis in potentially hazardous sites at unprecedented time/space scale. Overall, the platform provides an easily deployable stand-alone infrastructure with a high degree of scalability and reconfigurability with minimal intrusiveness or obtrusiveness. C.-M. Own proposes the pet care system by establishing a location-aware infrastructure such that pet owners can timely monitor the pet’s situation. The system applies the concepts of CPS and provides pet owners with the ability to remotely obtain their pet information and control the smart home of the pet. To monitor the behavior of the pet, a sensor tag is fixed on the collar of the pet and a location-aware algorithm was proposed to improve the location accuracy of the pet. Based on the pet’s behavior, an intelligent pet door and a smart pet feeder are implemented using smart-home technology. Consequently, the proposed system can meet the needs of many pet owners.

Experimental investigation of subcooled liquid nitrogen impingement cooling of a silicon chip : David T. Vader, Gregory M. Chrysler, Richard C. Chu and Robert E. Simons. IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology—Part A, 18 (4), 788 (1995)

Several embedded system applications are used to control physical processes thus leading to the concept of Cyber-Physical System. Sensing, computation and actuation are combined by involving a set of highly heterogeneous components, i.e., digital and analog hardware, software, energy sources, and external physical systems (e.g., a room to be heated, a mechanical component). Moreover, we see the growing use of networks to connect several sub-systems in a more efficient way; this contributes to introduce a further level of heterogeneity due to the presence of messages exchanged over communication channels. All these aspects should be taken into account in the design process to find highly optimized solutions; in particular, simulation is a key technique for their verification. However, the heterogeneity of components, together with the presence of the network, forces to adopt complex and slow co-simulation techniques to carry on the simulation of the entire system.This work aims at proposing SystemC as unified framework to model and simulate Networked Cyber-Physical Systems. Concerning the modeling of continuous-time components and a specific class of discrete-time components, the different Models of Computation provided by the Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) extension of SystemC are used. Regarding the network, SystemC and the SystemC Network Simulation Library are used to model communications at different abstraction levels. The approach is validated by considering a networked control system. First, the accuracy and speed of SystemC simulation is compared to Matlab/Simulink simulation. Second, different simulation alternatives are compared to co-simulation. Finally, we show that the simulation speed-up achieved by all-SystemC modeling allows to explore several design alternatives and the accurate modeling of the communication network can improve the design of the controller.