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Birgit Vogelheuser - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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analyzing variability in Automation Software with the variability analysis toolkit
Proceedings of the 23rd International Systems and Software Product Line Conference - Volume B, 2019Co-Authors: Alexander Schlie, Ina Schaefer, Kamil Rosiak, Oliver Urbaniak, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:Control Software for automated production systems (aPs) becomes increasingly complex as it evolves due to changing requirements. To address varying customer demands or altered regulatory guidelines, it is common practice to create a new system variant by copying and subsequently modifying existing control Software. Referred to as clone-and-own, proper documentation is typically not cherished, thereby entailing severe maintenance issues in the long-run. To mitigate such problems and to reinstate sustainable development, respective Software systems need to be compared and their variability information needs to be reverse-engineered. However, recent work identified variability management in the domain of aPs to remain a challenging endevour and appropriate tool support to be missing. We bridge this gap and introduce the Variability Analysis Toolkit (VAT), an extensible platform that allows for the customizable definition of metrics to compare IEC61131-3 control Software variants as well as providing means to visualize results. The VAT facilitates a working environment that allows for the exchange of produced results between users. By that, we aim to support engineers in re-engineering control Software systems by providing them with means to define metrics based on their individual demands. We demonstrate the feasibility of the VAT using 24 Software system variants implemented in accordance to the IEC61131-3 standard.
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a configurable partial order planning approach for field level operation strategies of plc based industry 4 0 automated manufacturing systems
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2017Co-Authors: Christoph Legat, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:The machine and plant Automation domain is faced with an ever increasing demand for ensuring the adaptability of manufacturing facilities in context of Industry 4.0. Field level Automation Software plays a dominant role in strengthening the overall flexibility of manufacturing resources. Classical programming approaches based typically on signal-oriented languages result in disproportionate effort for ensuring necessary flexibility. To address this challenge, a novel approach based on artificial intelligence planning techniques is presented which is able to handle domain specific requirements while facilitating efficient, scalable problem solving. Throughout this article, a discussion of specific requirements on automated planning techniques for field level Automation Software in the machine and plant Automation domain with respect to Industry 4.0 is provided. An intensive study on existing works and their drawbacks towards addressing these requirements is presented. The proposed configurable partial-order planning approach is based upon a combination of an adapted goal-based planning formulation and its reformulation by means of linear programming techniques. It is shown that the proposed approach is able to efficiently solve large planning problems by exhibiting positive scalability characteristics which indicates its applicability for real-size plants.
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an orchestration engine for services oriented field level Automation Software
4th Workshop on Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing (Sohoma 2014), 2015Co-Authors: Christoph Legat, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:The flexibility of field level Automation Software is inevitable in order to realize intelligent, flexible production control systems. One way to achieve increased flexibility of field level Automation Software is to separate the control flow of Software, i.e. the workflow, from executing respective functionality as typically applied in business Software. This paradigm is used also within service-oriented applications where workflow models define the orchestration of services. In order to apply this paradigm to field level Automation Software, some conditions have to be considered. Especially, field level Automation Software is typically operated on programmable logic controllers according to the cyclic executed IEC 61131-3 standard. In this paper, a service model is presented which is applicable to such field level Automation Software and the behaviour of an orchestration engine which can operate in IEC 61131-3 environments is specified. Its applicability on a lab-scaled manufacturing system is presented.
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model driven engineering of manufacturing Automation Software projects a sysml based approach
Mechatronics, 2014Co-Authors: Birgit Vogelheuser, Daniel Schütz, Timo Frank, Christoph LegatAbstract:This paper comprises a SysML-based approach to support the model-driven engineering (MDE) of Manufacturing Automation Software Projects (MASP). The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is adapted to define the SysML-AT (SysML for Automation), a specialized language profile that covers (non-)functional requirements, corresponding Software applications and properties of proprietary hardware components. Furthermore, SysML-AT supports an automated Software generation for run-time environments conforming to IEC 61131-3. A prototypical tool support was realized for adapted SysML Parametric Diagrams (PD) inside an industrial Automation Software development tool. Coupling the model editor and online data from the provided run-time environment enables direct debugging inside the model. The approach was evaluated by several case studies and additional usability experiments. With the latter, the suitability of the MDE approach for future users was proven.
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family model mining for function block diagrams in Automation Software
Software Product Lines, 2014Co-Authors: Sonke Holthusen, Christoph Legat, David Wille, Simon Beddig, Ina Schaefer, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:Automation systems are mostly individual highly customized system variants, consisting both of hardware and Software. In order to reduce development effort, it is a common practice to use a clone-and-own approach by modifying an existing variant to fit the changed requirements of a new variant. The information about the commonalities and differences between those variants is usually not well documented and leads to problems in maintenance, testing and evolution. To alleviate these problems, in this paper, we present an improved version of a family mining approach for automatically discovering commonality and variability between related system variants. We apply this approach to function block diagrams used to develop Automation Software and show its feasibility by a manufacturing case study.
Birgit Vogel-heuser - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Applying Core Features of the Object-Oriented Programming Paradigm by Function Blocks Based on the IEC 61131 and IEC 61499 Industrial Automation Norms
Service Oriented Holonic and Multi-agent Manufacturing Systems for Industry of the Future, 2020Co-Authors: Luis Alberto Cruz Salazar, Birgit Vogel-heuserAbstract:Automation Software systems usually implement the IEC 61131-3 and IEC 61499 standards. Nowadays, these applications request, among others, reusability, flexibility, reliability, and modularity via both standards. These characteristics can be achieved by a traditional paradigm called Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). OOP is an older method that applied with various programming languages to generate a replicable style of programming, i.e., code composed by Functions, Methods, etc. A well-defined programming method makes the code understandable for programmers. OOP defines the reusability, accessibility, adaptability, and robustness of Software programs. It means that using gradual methods gained experience improves the quality of programs and simplifies their organization. OOP also increases the security of applications from its core features, i.e., Abstraction, Instantiation, Encapsulation, Polymorphism, and others. Therefore, OOP has been applied and discussed for both standards; however, OOP’s complexity and implementation using these IEC standards have not been compared yet. This work proposes the typical application of the Function Block (FB) to define classes and objects for industrial Automation systems based on OOP. We implement one particular case of study for both standards. The FB employments are evaluated in order to compare OOP applicability and advantages of each standard. Adapting Automation Software regarding new industry requirements implies greater modularity. Code programmed by OOP generates abstractions levels which improve the design and make the Software application in maintenance more comfortable to read and more adaptable to future extensions. This research shows how both standards (their latest updates) address OOP. Object-oriented programs in the field of Automation engineering face another paradigm shift that impacts the methods used to program control systems. OOP would facilitate the design patterns implementations, which are a reusable understanding of common problems.
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Automatic Parameter Estimation for Reusable Software Components of Modular and Reconfigurable Cyber-Physical Production Systems in the Domain of Discrete Manufacturing
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 2018Co-Authors: Jens Otto, Birgit Vogel-heuser, Oliver NiggemannAbstract:The main feature of cyber-physical production systems is its adaptability. They adapt quickly to new requirements such as new products or product variants. Nowadays, a bottleneck is the Automation system, for which high manual engineering efforts are needed: Today, on-site technicians write and rewrite Automation Software, configure real-time communication protocols and create system configurations consisting of machine timing, physical dimensions of products, sensitivity, and motor control accelerations and velocities. Cyber-physical production systems often solve this dilemma by relying on reusable Software components, which are composed in the overall Automation Software. However, this solution comes with a price, reusable Software components need free parameters to adjust to the individual production configurations. This paper addresses this central research question and presents a novel parameter estimation approach to choose automatically optimal system configurations for cyber-physical production systems. Different scenarios from discrete manufacturing plants are used to evaluate the solution approach.
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Generalized test tables: A powerful and intuitive specification language for reactive systems
2017 IEEE 15th International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), 2017Co-Authors: Alexander Weigl, Franziska Wiebe, Mattias Ulbrich, Sebastian Ulewicz, Suhyun Cha, Michael Kirsten, Bernhard Beckert, Birgit Vogel-heuserAbstract:With recent trends in manufacturing Automation, such as Industry 4.0, control Software in automated production systems becomes more and more complex and volatile, complicating and increasing importance of quality assurance. Test tables are a widely used and generally accepted means to intuitively specify test cases for Automation Software. However, each table only specifies a single Software trace, whereas the actual Software behavior may cover multiple similar traces not covered by the table. Within this work, we present a generalization concept for test tables allowing for bounded and unbounded repetition of steps, “don't-care” values, as well as calculations with earlier observed values. We provide a verification mechanism for checking conformance of an IEC 61131-3 PLC Software with a generalized test table, making use of a state-of-the-art model checker. Our notation is inspired by widely-used paradigms found in spreadsheet applications. By an empirical study with mechanical engineering students, we show that the notation matches user expectations. A real-world example extracted from an industrial Automation plant illustrates our approach.
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An Assessment of the Potentials and Challenges in Future Approaches for Automation Software
Industrial Agents: Emerging Applications of Software Agents in Industry, 2015Co-Authors: Birgit Vogel-heuser, Jens Folmer, Christoph Legat, Daniel SchützAbstract:Modern trends in manufacturing are defined by mass customization and a changing product portfolio during the life cycle of a manufacturing system. Consequently, to support flexibility, many research projects focus on promising novel paradigms for production Automation Software. During the research project KREAagentuse, guided interviews with industrial experts from machine and plant Automation companies were conducted to assess the potentials and challenges of Software agent technology and applications. This chapter comprises the results of these guided interviews and briefly discusses research works related to the requirements resulting from the interviews. These works comprise an approach for enhancing a soft sensor and diagnosis concept for manufacturing systems, a concept for the model-based development of Software agents and soft sensors for Plus, and the automatic model-based synthesis of manufacturing Automation Software and failure compensation strategies.
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Development of PLC-Based Software for Increasing the Dependability of Production Automation Systems
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, 2013Co-Authors: Daniel Schütz, Christoph Legat, Andreas Wannagat, Birgit Vogel-heuserAbstract:This paper presents the elaboration of a concept to develop and implement real-time capable industrial Automation Software that increases the dependability of production Automation systems by means of soft sensors. An application example with continuous behavior as it is a typical character treat of process Automation is used to illustrate the initial requirements. Accordingly, the modeling concept is presented which supports application development and which is supplemented by an implementation approach for standard Automation devices, e.g., programmable logic controllers. The paper further comprises an evaluation which adapts the concept for two use cases with discrete behavior (typical character treat of manufacturing Automation) and validates the initially imposed requirements.
Araujo A.h.m. - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Design Automation Software Of Steel Towers Using Sections [automação De Projeto E Análise De Torres Metálicas Utilizando Perfis Tubulares]
2015Co-Authors: Requena J.a.v., Forti T.l.d., Da Silva Forti N.c., Araujo A.h.m.Abstract:In the present work, introduced is a Software (AutoTorre 1.01) to design steel telecommunication towers using hollow sections. The main purpose of the Software is to help and assist the engineer in the process of analyzing and designing a steel tower. The Software uses Brazilian specifications to compute wind loads and design beams. The calculation of wind loads, structure efforts and beam design is mechanical work that has now been automated and thus saves time for the engineer and allows for focus on other important aspects. Software routines allow the user to generate automatically the tower geometry, compute wind load and design the beams. Another functionality consists in a modal analysis to obtain the fundamental period of vibration. The Software has a friendly graphical user interface. Wind load results according to two methods (static and dynamic methods) proposed by the NBR6123 are compared, to obtain a safe and economic structure
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Design Automation Software Of Steel Towers Using Sections [automação De Projeto E Análise De Torres Metálicas Utilizando Perfis Tubulares]
2015Co-Authors: Requena J.a.v., Forti T.l.d., Da Silva Forti N.c., Araujo A.h.m.Abstract:In the present work, introduced is a Software (AutoTorre 1.01) to design steel telecommunication towers using hollow sections. The main purpose of the Software is to help and assist the engineer in the process of analyzing and designing a steel tower. The Software uses Brazilian specifications to compute wind loads and design beams. The calculation of wind loads, structure efforts and beam design is mechanical work that has now been automated and thus saves time for the engineer and allows for focus on other important aspects. Software routines allow the user to generate automatically the tower geometry, compute wind load and design the beams. Another functionality consists in a modal analysis to obtain the fundamental period of vibration. The Software has a friendly graphical user interface. Wind load results according to two methods (static and dynamic methods) proposed by the NBR6123 are compared, to obtain a safe and economic structure.602427432Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - ABNT - NB599(NBR6123)/87 - Forças devidas ao vento em edificaçõ es, Rio de Janeiro: ABNTAssociação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - ABNT - NBR8800/86 Projeto e execução de estruturas de aço de edifícios, Rio de Janeiro: ABNTBLESSMANN, J., Introdução ao estudo das ações dinâmicas do vento, p. 98. , Porto Alegre: Editora da Universidade, UFRGSCRAIG Jr, R.R., (1981) Structural dynamics - an introduction to computer methods, , John Wiley & SonsGÉRADIN, M., RIXEN, D., (1994) Mechanical vibrations - theory and application to structural dynamics, , Paris: Ed WileyNASCIMENTO, F.O.D.A., Análise de estruturas metálicas de torres treliçadas autoportantes para telecomunicaçõ es, , Campinas: Unicamp, Dissertação de MestradoREQUENA, J.A.V., FORTI, T.L.D., (2002) Forças devidas ao vento em torres metálicas treliçadas autoportantes, , Campinas: Apostila FEC-UNICAMPWEAVER Jr., W., GERE, A.M., (1981) Análise de estruturas reticuladas, , Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Guanabara Doi
Christoph Legat - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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a configurable partial order planning approach for field level operation strategies of plc based industry 4 0 automated manufacturing systems
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2017Co-Authors: Christoph Legat, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:The machine and plant Automation domain is faced with an ever increasing demand for ensuring the adaptability of manufacturing facilities in context of Industry 4.0. Field level Automation Software plays a dominant role in strengthening the overall flexibility of manufacturing resources. Classical programming approaches based typically on signal-oriented languages result in disproportionate effort for ensuring necessary flexibility. To address this challenge, a novel approach based on artificial intelligence planning techniques is presented which is able to handle domain specific requirements while facilitating efficient, scalable problem solving. Throughout this article, a discussion of specific requirements on automated planning techniques for field level Automation Software in the machine and plant Automation domain with respect to Industry 4.0 is provided. An intensive study on existing works and their drawbacks towards addressing these requirements is presented. The proposed configurable partial-order planning approach is based upon a combination of an adapted goal-based planning formulation and its reformulation by means of linear programming techniques. It is shown that the proposed approach is able to efficiently solve large planning problems by exhibiting positive scalability characteristics which indicates its applicability for real-size plants.
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An Assessment of the Potentials and Challenges in Future Approaches for Automation Software
Industrial Agents: Emerging Applications of Software Agents in Industry, 2015Co-Authors: Birgit Vogel-heuser, Jens Folmer, Christoph Legat, Daniel SchützAbstract:Modern trends in manufacturing are defined by mass customization and a changing product portfolio during the life cycle of a manufacturing system. Consequently, to support flexibility, many research projects focus on promising novel paradigms for production Automation Software. During the research project KREAagentuse, guided interviews with industrial experts from machine and plant Automation companies were conducted to assess the potentials and challenges of Software agent technology and applications. This chapter comprises the results of these guided interviews and briefly discusses research works related to the requirements resulting from the interviews. These works comprise an approach for enhancing a soft sensor and diagnosis concept for manufacturing systems, a concept for the model-based development of Software agents and soft sensors for Plus, and the automatic model-based synthesis of manufacturing Automation Software and failure compensation strategies.
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an orchestration engine for services oriented field level Automation Software
4th Workshop on Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing (Sohoma 2014), 2015Co-Authors: Christoph Legat, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:The flexibility of field level Automation Software is inevitable in order to realize intelligent, flexible production control systems. One way to achieve increased flexibility of field level Automation Software is to separate the control flow of Software, i.e. the workflow, from executing respective functionality as typically applied in business Software. This paradigm is used also within service-oriented applications where workflow models define the orchestration of services. In order to apply this paradigm to field level Automation Software, some conditions have to be considered. Especially, field level Automation Software is typically operated on programmable logic controllers according to the cyclic executed IEC 61131-3 standard. In this paper, a service model is presented which is applicable to such field level Automation Software and the behaviour of an orchestration engine which can operate in IEC 61131-3 environments is specified. Its applicability on a lab-scaled manufacturing system is presented.
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model driven engineering of manufacturing Automation Software projects a sysml based approach
Mechatronics, 2014Co-Authors: Birgit Vogelheuser, Daniel Schütz, Timo Frank, Christoph LegatAbstract:This paper comprises a SysML-based approach to support the model-driven engineering (MDE) of Manufacturing Automation Software Projects (MASP). The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is adapted to define the SysML-AT (SysML for Automation), a specialized language profile that covers (non-)functional requirements, corresponding Software applications and properties of proprietary hardware components. Furthermore, SysML-AT supports an automated Software generation for run-time environments conforming to IEC 61131-3. A prototypical tool support was realized for adapted SysML Parametric Diagrams (PD) inside an industrial Automation Software development tool. Coupling the model editor and online data from the provided run-time environment enables direct debugging inside the model. The approach was evaluated by several case studies and additional usability experiments. With the latter, the suitability of the MDE approach for future users was proven.
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family model mining for function block diagrams in Automation Software
Software Product Lines, 2014Co-Authors: Sonke Holthusen, Christoph Legat, David Wille, Simon Beddig, Ina Schaefer, Birgit VogelheuserAbstract:Automation systems are mostly individual highly customized system variants, consisting both of hardware and Software. In order to reduce development effort, it is a common practice to use a clone-and-own approach by modifying an existing variant to fit the changed requirements of a new variant. The information about the commonalities and differences between those variants is usually not well documented and leads to problems in maintenance, testing and evolution. To alleviate these problems, in this paper, we present an improved version of a family mining approach for automatically discovering commonality and variability between related system variants. We apply this approach to function block diagrams used to develop Automation Software and show its feasibility by a manufacturing case study.
Requena J.a.v. - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Design Automation Software Of Steel Towers Using Sections [automação De Projeto E Análise De Torres Metálicas Utilizando Perfis Tubulares]
2015Co-Authors: Requena J.a.v., Forti T.l.d., Da Silva Forti N.c., Araujo A.h.m.Abstract:In the present work, introduced is a Software (AutoTorre 1.01) to design steel telecommunication towers using hollow sections. The main purpose of the Software is to help and assist the engineer in the process of analyzing and designing a steel tower. The Software uses Brazilian specifications to compute wind loads and design beams. The calculation of wind loads, structure efforts and beam design is mechanical work that has now been automated and thus saves time for the engineer and allows for focus on other important aspects. Software routines allow the user to generate automatically the tower geometry, compute wind load and design the beams. Another functionality consists in a modal analysis to obtain the fundamental period of vibration. The Software has a friendly graphical user interface. Wind load results according to two methods (static and dynamic methods) proposed by the NBR6123 are compared, to obtain a safe and economic structure
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Design Automation Software Of Steel Towers Using Sections [automação De Projeto E Análise De Torres Metálicas Utilizando Perfis Tubulares]
2015Co-Authors: Requena J.a.v., Forti T.l.d., Da Silva Forti N.c., Araujo A.h.m.Abstract:In the present work, introduced is a Software (AutoTorre 1.01) to design steel telecommunication towers using hollow sections. The main purpose of the Software is to help and assist the engineer in the process of analyzing and designing a steel tower. The Software uses Brazilian specifications to compute wind loads and design beams. The calculation of wind loads, structure efforts and beam design is mechanical work that has now been automated and thus saves time for the engineer and allows for focus on other important aspects. Software routines allow the user to generate automatically the tower geometry, compute wind load and design the beams. Another functionality consists in a modal analysis to obtain the fundamental period of vibration. The Software has a friendly graphical user interface. Wind load results according to two methods (static and dynamic methods) proposed by the NBR6123 are compared, to obtain a safe and economic structure.602427432Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - ABNT - NB599(NBR6123)/87 - Forças devidas ao vento em edificaçõ es, Rio de Janeiro: ABNTAssociação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas - ABNT - NBR8800/86 Projeto e execução de estruturas de aço de edifícios, Rio de Janeiro: ABNTBLESSMANN, J., Introdução ao estudo das ações dinâmicas do vento, p. 98. , Porto Alegre: Editora da Universidade, UFRGSCRAIG Jr, R.R., (1981) Structural dynamics - an introduction to computer methods, , John Wiley & SonsGÉRADIN, M., RIXEN, D., (1994) Mechanical vibrations - theory and application to structural dynamics, , Paris: Ed WileyNASCIMENTO, F.O.D.A., Análise de estruturas metálicas de torres treliçadas autoportantes para telecomunicaçõ es, , Campinas: Unicamp, Dissertação de MestradoREQUENA, J.A.V., FORTI, T.L.D., (2002) Forças devidas ao vento em torres metálicas treliçadas autoportantes, , Campinas: Apostila FEC-UNICAMPWEAVER Jr., W., GERE, A.M., (1981) Análise de estruturas reticuladas, , Rio de Janeiro: Ed. Guanabara Doi
