Reference Architecture Model Research Articles

Generic Digital Twin Architecture for Industrial Energy Systems

Digital Twins have been in the focus of research in recent years, trying to achieve the vision of Industry 4.0. In the domain of industrial energy systems, they are applied to facilitate a flexible and optimized operation. With the help of Digital Twins, the industry can participate even stronger in the ongoing renewable energy transition. Current Digital Twin implementations are often application-specific solutions without general architectural concepts and their structures and namings differ, although the basic concepts are quite similar. For this reason, we analyzed concepts, architectures, and frameworks for Digital Twins in the literature to develop a technology-independent Generic Digital Twin Architecture (GDTA), which is aligned with the information technology layers of the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI4.0). This alignment facilitates a common naming and understanding of the proposed architectural structure. A proof-of-concept shows the application of Semantic Web technologies for instantiating the proposed GDTA for a use case of a Packed-Bed Thermal Energy Storage (PBTES).

Toward a Reference Architecture Model for Industrial Edge Computing

In the context of the digital transformation of the industry, whole value chains get connected across various application domains as long as economic, ecological, or social benefits arise to do so. Under the umbrella of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), traditional operational technology (OT) approaches are replaced or at least augmented by information and communication technology (ICT) systems to facilitate this development. To meet industrial requirements, for example, related to privacy, determinism, latency, or autonomy, established cloud computing mechanisms are being moved closer to data sources and actuators. Depending on the context, this distributed cloud computing paradigm is named edge computing or fog computing, and various challenges have been subject to several publications. However, a proper reference model that describes the multi-dimensional problem space, which is being spanned by this paradigm, seems still to be undefined. Such a model should provide orientation, put work in relation, and support the identification of current and future research issues. This article aims to fill this gap with a focus on industrial automation and follows analog models that have been developed for specific domains such as the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM) and the Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0). The proposed Reference Architecture Model Edge Computing (RAMEC) identifies 210 views on the edge computing paradigm in the manufacturing domain. Future iterations of this model might be used for the classification of relevant research, standardization, and development activities.

Enterprise Architecture Concept for Digital Manufacturing

The purpose of the research is to study and analyze the impact of technologies of Industry 4.0 on the development of manufacturing companies and its effect of enterprise architecture within the companies. The justification of the necessity or making changes in enterprise architecture with the implementation of the technologies of Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing processes of the company is given. The Reference Architecture Model for Industry 4.0 as well as Service-Oriented Architecture are analyzed as proper frameworks for manufacturing industry digital transformation. The results obtained in this work can be used by companies in order to create for themselves plans for development of manufacturing processes in order to reach higher level of development of the Industry 4.0.

A Model for Predictive Maintenance Based on Asset Administration Shell.

Maintenance is one of the most important aspects in industrial and production environments. Predictive maintenance is an approach that aims to schedule maintenance tasks based on historical data in order to avoid machine failures and reduce the costs due to unnecessary maintenance actions. Approaches for the implementation of a maintenance solution often differ depending on the kind of data to be analyzed and on the techniques and models adopted for the failure forecasts and for maintenance decision-making. Nowadays, Industry 4.0 introduces a flexible and adaptable manufacturing concept to satisfy a market requiring an increasing demand for customization. The adoption of vendor-specific solutions for predictive maintenance and the heterogeneity of technologies adopted in the brownfield for the condition monitoring of machinery reduce the flexibility and interoperability required by Industry 4.0. In this paper a novel approach for the definition of a generic and technology-independent model for predictive maintenance is presented. Such model leverages on the concept of the Reference Architecture Model for Industry (RAMI) 4.0 Asset Administration Shell, as a means to achieve interoperability between different devices and to implement generic functionalities for predictive maintenance.

Signing Blockchain Transactions Using Qualified Certificates

Blockchain technology is increasingly being considered among both private enterprises and public services. However, it poses a challenge with regard to aligning its identity management scheme with the Public Key Infrastructure and the Qualified Digital Certificates issued by Qualified Trust Service Providers. To solve this challenge, we will present a solution in the form of an architecture reference model, which enables enterprises and public services to leverage blockchain technology by integrating Qualified Electronic Signatures with blockchain transactions. The evaluation of the architecture reference model is provided through the design of a Blockchain-based Trusted Public Service and a use-case scenario example. The proposed architecture reference model is based on the CEF building blocks EBSI, eSignature, and eID compliant with eIDAS.

An Artificial Intelligence-Based Collaboration Approach in Industrial IoT Manufacturing: Key Concepts, Architectural Extensions and Potential Applications.

The digitization of manufacturing industry has led to leaner and more efficient production, under the Industry 4.0 concept. Nowadays, datasets collected from shop floor assets and information technology (IT) systems are used in data-driven analytics efforts to support more informed business intelligence decisions. However, these results are currently only used in isolated and dispersed parts of the production process. At the same time, full integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in all parts of manufacturing systems is currently lacking. In this context, the goal of this manuscript is to present a more holistic integration of AI by promoting collaboration. To this end, collaboration is understood as a multi-dimensional conceptual term that covers all important enablers for AI adoption in manufacturing contexts and is promoted in terms of business intelligence optimization, human-in-the-loop and secure federation across manufacturing sites. To address these challenges, the proposed architectural approach builds on three technical pillars: (1) components that extend the functionality of the existing layers in the Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0; (2) definition of new layers for collaboration by means of human-in-the-loop and federation; (3) security concerns with AI-powered mechanisms. In addition, system implementation aspects are discussed and potential applications in industrial environments, as well as business impacts, are presented.

Assignment of Legal Responsibilities for Decisions by Autonomous Cars Using System Architectures

Increasing automation in road vehicles moves decision making from humans to algorithms. This gives a lack of clarity in assigning responsibility for the consequences of the resultant actions, presenting problems for ethicists, lawyers, and engineers. This article applies proven methods based on the 4D/RCS reference model architecture to derive proposed architectures for autonomous vehicles with J3016 autonomy levels 2-5. The architectures have a hierarchy of nodes, which can be either a human or an automated process, giving unambiguous allocation of authority to act and consequent responsibilities to individual nodes in the system. A concept called authorized power is introduced for every node, giving clear limits on each node's ability to act. Setting node requirements gives a firm basis for engineers and lawyers to agree where responsibilities lie, whether with the user, owner, or in the supply chain. It also provides a framework to assess engineering risk and the wider financial implications of the new technologies as they are introduced.

A digital twin-enhanced system for engineering product family design and optimization

Engineering product family design and optimization in complex environments has been a major bottleneck in today’s industrial transformation towards smart manufacturing. Digital twin (DT), as a core part of cyber-physical system (CPS), can provide decision support to enhance engineering product lifecycle management workflows via remote monitoring and control, high-fidelity simulation, and solution generation functionalities. Although many studies have proven DT to be highly suited for industry needs, little has been reported on the product family design and optimization capabilities specifically with context awareness, which could be leaving many enterprises ambivalent on its adoption. To fill this gap, a reusable and transparent DT capable of situational recognition and self-correction is essentially required. This paper develops a generic DT architecture reference model to enable the context-aware product family design optimization process in a cost-effective manner. A case study featuring asset re-/configuration within a dynamic environment is further described to demonstrate its in-context decision-aiding capabilities. The authors hope this study can provide valuable insights to both academia and industry in improving their engineering product family management process.

Mobile Mist Computing for the Internet of Vehicles†

This paper introduces the innovative Mobile Mist Computing (M2C) concept by addressing a reference architectural model for vehicular networks capable of supporting complex mobile services with stringent time‐space constraints. Cellular technology, thank to its coverage, data rates and latencies, is generally considered the key enabler to support real‐time vehicular applications. Moreover, their integration with the emerging Fog Computing (FC) paradigm can reduce the of the core network, thus minimising the overall service delay. In this scenario, vehicular mobility represents the most relevant challenge to guarantee service continuity, while providing Quality of Service (QoS), especially when Fog Servers (FSs) have limited resources. To this purpose, FC has been firstly integrated with the Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) concepts and, subsequently the dynamic replacement of vehicular services (ie, VNF migration) among FSs has been investigated to properly accommodate users mobility. Finally, an optimised strategy, called swapping migration, that can optimise both resources utilisation and outage rate, has been introduced. The proposed scheme has been validated by means of numerical simulations and compared with several benchmarks over realistic scenarios by pointing out latency and reliability as a function of the services request rate and the transmission capacity.

NDE Perception and Emerging Reality: NDE 4.0 Value Extraction

The industrial revolution is divided into three phases by historians: The invention of the steam engine (mechanization), electricity (mass production) and the microelectric revolution (automation). There was a similar development in non-destructive evaluation: tools such as lenses or stethoscopes allowed the human senses to be sharpened, the conversion of waves makes the invisible visible and thus offers a "look" into the components and finally automation, digitization and reconstruction. During the entire industrial development NDE was decisively responsible for the quality and thus for the success of the manufactured goods. Industry is now talking about a fourth revolution: The informatization, digitization and networking of industrial production. As always, NDE will be critical to the success of this fourth revolution by providing the database needed for feedback in a networked production environment. For NDE, this will lead to change. The test results must be made available to a networked production environment in such a way that they can be evaluated for feedback loops, the testability must be considered in the design and the reliability of the test statements will become increasingly important. This publication presents first an orientation to NDE 4.0, including the development of Industry and NDE, a definition of its revolutions, a collection of several current-day challenges of NDE, and a discussion whether and how those can be solved with NDE 4.0. Second this publication presents concepts on how NDE can be integrated into Industry 4.0 landscapes: The Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) shows the complete Industry 4.0 space and allows every Industry 4.0 standard and interface to be located. The Industry 4.0 Asset Administration Shell (AAS) implements the digital twin and is the interface between Industry 4.0 communication and the physical device. The ...

Insights into Mapping Solutions Based on OPC UA Information Model Applied to the Industry 4.0 Asset Administration Shell

In the context of Industry 4.0, lot of effort is being put to achieve interoperability among industrial applications. As the definition and adoption of communication standards are of paramount importance for the realization of interoperability, during the last few years different organizations have developed reference architectures to align standards in the context of the fourth industrial revolution. One of the main examples is the reference architecture model for Industry 4.0, which defines the asset administration shell as the corner stone of the interoperability between applications managing manufacturing systems. Inside Industry 4.0 there is also so much interest behind the standard open platform communications unified architecture (OPC UA), which is listed as the one recommendation for realizing the communication layer of the reference architecture model. The contribution of this paper is to give some insights behind modelling techniques that should be adopted during the definition of OPC UA Information Model exposing information of the very recent metamodel defined for the asset administration shell. All the general rationales and solutions here provided are compared with the current OPC UA-based existing representation of asset administration shell provided by literature. Specifically, differences will be pointed out giving to the reader advantages and disadvantages behind each solution.

An approach for designing a platform of smart welding station system

The emergence of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), which uses smart manufacturing as a strategy to solve industry challenges, is associated with significant research efforts that focus on cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, big data, and artificial intelligence. Utilizing I4.0 system performance and decision-making technologies, real-time monitoring, and system control, we developed a smart welding station system. The platform provides guidance for implementing a reliable welding system with a minimal amount of effort using certain characteristics of I4.0 technologies. In this study, a practical guide for the application of Reference Architectural Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) and the use of technologies for smartization of welding systems are presented. First, we discuss the conceptual approach of a smart welding station system to create a platform for the station. Enabling technologies and their working functions are then defined. In addition, characteristics of RAMI 4.0 that apply to implement the system into the major architecture of selected RAMI 4.0 areas are analyzed. Finally, a designed platform for a smart welding station system based on five layers and three hierarchies of the production of RAMI 4.0 is presented.

The development of standardized models of digital twin

Abstract Digital twin is becoming a General Purpose Technology of the coming fourth industrial revolution. However, there is no consistent set of definition, concept system, reference architecture (model), application framework (model), and maturity model of digital twin yet. This paper identifies the relationship among these models, proposes a universal architectural and ontological concept system of digital twin, and a set of unified above models to facilitate the standardization of digital twin.

Seaport Data Space for Improving Logistic Maritime Operations

The maritime industry expects several improvements to efficiently manage the operation processes by introducing Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. Seaports are the most critical point in the maritime logistics chain because of its multimodal and complex nature. Consequently, coordinated communication among any seaport stakeholders is vital to improving their operations. Currently, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Port Community Systems (PCS), as primary enablers of digital seaports, have demonstrated their limitations to interchange information on time, accurately, efficiently, and securely, causing high operation costs, low resource management, and low performance. For these reasons, this contribution presents the Seaport Data Space (SDS) based on the Industrial Data Space (IDS) reference architecture model to enable a secure data sharing space and promote an intelligent transport multimodal terminal. Each seaport stakeholders implements the IDS connector to take part in the SDS and share their data. On top of SDS, a Big Data architecture is integrated to manage the massive data shared in the SDS and extract useful information to improve the decision-making. The architecture has been evaluated by enabling a port authority and a container terminal to share its data with a shipping company. As a result, several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been developed by using the Big Data architecture functionalities. The KPIs have been shown in a dashboard to allow easy interpretability of results for planning vessel operations. The SDS environment may improve the communication between stakeholders by reducing the transaction costs, enhancing the quality of information, and exhibiting effectiveness.

Human Machine Interfaces Based on Open Source Web-Platform and OPC UA

Cyber-physical Production Systems (CPPS) are key enabling technologies for the Industry 4.0. Currently, factories have automation made by Programmable Logic Control (PLC) architectures and now are faced to reuse these devices to implement CPPS with a low-cost. The Reference Architecture Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0) standardized OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) as the sole recommendation for the implementation of a communication layer. The aim of this research work is to show a proposal for a web platform for the creation of Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) using low-cost devices for the integration of information from the shop floor using the OPC UA protocol and reusing automation based on PLC. The results of this integration show an important contribution to enhance PLC architectures interoperability, allowing integration with web applications, CPPS, etc. The main difference between the solutions available is that the user may have no knowledge of the OPC UA standard and can use this kind of industrial application.

Asset Administration Shell for PLC Representation Based on IEC 61131–3

In the Reference Architecture Model for Industrie 4.0, the concept of Asset Administration Shell is presented as the corner stone of interoperability. Asset Administration Shell is defined as a digital representation of an asset able to provide information about the asset including documents, properties, parameters, and functionalities, all organized in a consistent way. Information provided by an Asset Administration Shell can be adopted during whole life cycle of a production system, from its development until its disposal. At the lowest level of the hierarchy of a production system, usually automation and control programs are executed by Programmable Logic Controllers, whose programming technology is based on IEC 61131–3 standard. The IEC 61131–3 programs, the Programmable Logic Controllers where they run, and the real plant controlled are closely related. Considering the life cycle of a production system, the description of IEC 61131–3 programs and the relevant relationships with the plant should be clearly defined, leading to several advantages for example regarding the definition of testing plant operations, maintenance operations at run-time and reconfiguration process of the plant. What is missing for the realization of what said so far is a standard way to realize this description. For this reason, the paper presents an Asset Administration Shell model able to represent IEC 61131–3 programs and the relevant relationships with Programmable Logic Controllers and each device of the controlled plant.

Towards a GDPR compliant way to secure European cross border Healthcare Industry 4.0

The Health sector is gaining momentum within the Industry 4.0. National Health Systems are tightly connected to different complex systems, and a wide set of devices. NHSs are processing and managing patients’ data, and they are exchanging sensitive information cross different countries. This paper takes into account legal aspects such as GDPR and it extends the Healthcare Industry architecture reference model, with a set of tools dealing with consent management and data hiding tools A case study illustrates the use of the reference architectural model.

Cyber-physical production systems retrofitting in context of industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is the new industrial revolution involving the introduction of new technologies in the industrial field. However, changing the technological level of an outdated industry is not a simple task. By retrofitting all old equipment into new equipment in industries, the retrofitting concept emerges as a rapid and low-cost solution, aimed at reusing existing equipment, with the addition of new technologies. However, retrofitting changes according to the type and model of industrial equipment, making it challenging to upgrade industrial equipment to Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). In this paper, the standardization of the retrofitting process to transform old equipment into a CPPS is presented. The standardization is done with the support of a platform that has features to work independently of the model or type of equipment. To implement the platform, we define the requirements, components, and technologies necessary to retrofit industrial equipment. The entire process is based on Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) a widespread architecture of Industry 4.0. With the retrofitting platform based on RAMI 4.0, makes consistent the process of upgrading industrial equipment, providing Industry 4.0 functionality. A prototype with an industrial robotic arm was implemented to validate the process and the retrofitting platform. The results show the benefits of the CPPS Retrofitting process in industrial equipment.

Precision Agriculture: A Remote Sensing Monitoring System Architecture

Smart Farming is a development that emphasizes on the use of modern technologies in the cyber-physical field management cycle. Technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing have accelerated the digital transformation of the conventional agricultural practices promising increased production rate and product quality. The adoption of smart farming though is hampered because of the lack of models providing guidance to practitioners regarding the necessary components that constitute IoT-based monitoring systems. To guide the process of designing and implementing Smart farming monitoring systems, in this paper we propose a generic reference architecture model, taking also into consideration a very important non-functional requirement, the energy consumption restriction. Moreover, we present and discuss the technologies that incorporate the seven layers of the architecture model that are the Sensor Layer, the Link Layer, the Encapsulation Layer, the Middleware Layer, the Configuration Layer, the Management Layer and the Application Layer. Furthermore, the proposed Reference Architecture model is exemplified in a real-world application for surveying Saffron agriculture in Kozani, Greece.

Cloud based cyber-physical systems: Network evaluation study

In recent years, the Industry 4.0 concept brings new demands and trends in different areas; one of them is distributing computational power to the cloud. This concept also introduced the Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). The efficiency of data communications within the RAMI 4.0 model is a critical issue. Aiming to evaluate the efficiency of data communication in the Cloud Based Cyber-Physical Systems (CB-CPS), this study analyzes the periods and data amount required to communicate with individual hierarchy levels of the RAMI 4.0 model. The evaluation of the network properties of the communication protocols eligible for CB-CPS is presented. The network properties to different cloud providers and data centers’ locations have been measured and interpreted. To test the findings, an architecture for cloud control of laboratory model was proposed. It was found that the time of the day; the day of the week; and data center utilization have a negligible impact on latency. The most significant impact lies in the data center distance and the speed of the communication channel. Moreover, the communication protocol also has impact on the latency. The feasibility of controlling each level of RAMI 4.0 through cloud services was investigated. Experimental results showed that control is possible in many solutions, but these solutions mostly cannot depend just on cloud services. The intelligence on the edge of the network will play a significant role. The main contribution is a thorough evaluation of different cloud providers, locations, and communication protocols to provide recommendations sufficient for different levels of the RAMI 4.0 architecture.