Dr.-Ing.

Kuhn, Thomas

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  • Publication
    Industry 4.0 reference architectures: State of the art and future trends
    ( 2021)
    Nakagawa, Elisa Yumi
    ;
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    ;
    Schnicke, Frank
    ;
    Capilla, Rafael
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Liggesmeyer, Peter
    Industry 4.0 has led to a dramatic shift in manufacturing processes, which must be accomplished by interacting end-to-end industrial systems. While Industry 4.0 is still a big challenge for many manufacturing companies, reference architectures have been increasingly adopted in different domains to guide engineers on how their systems should interoperate and be structured. Companies have made different experiences with reference architectures for Industry 4.0. However, depending on the use cases addressed, a reference architecture may be more or less suited to support the transformation of a particular company. Besides, a complete understanding of existing representative architectures does not exist. The main goal of this work is to review existing reference architectures for Industry 4.0 and analyze them concerning their suitability for supporting Industry 4.0 processes and solutions. For this, we systematically researched these architectures and thoroughly analyzed and characterized them. We also address their use and technologies/tools that could support their implementation. As a result, we found that existing architectures still have a long way to go; hence, we present the most urgent steps for the near future. We conclude that the Industry 4.0 community is right in investing in reference architectures considering the future of Industry 4.0.
  • Publication
    Enabling SMEs to Industry 4.0 Using the BaSyx Middleware: A Case Study
    ( 2021)
    Kannoth, Subash
    ;
    Hermann, Jesko
    ;
    Damm, Markus
    ;
    Rübel, Pascal
    ;
    Rusin, Dimitri
    ;
    Jacobi, Malte
    ;
    Mittelsdorf, Björn
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    Industry 4.0 (I4.0) concepts evolve the current industrial processes towards directly connecting shopfloor machines to systems from different layers of the Automation Pyramid, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). Companies introducing I4.0 concepts aim at (i) facilitating changeable production systems in order to quickly react to customer inquiries such that even lot-size one becomes feasible and (ii) having a holistic view of the different parameters of a production process. Enabling these calls for accessing the different systems of the Automation Pyramid, which is hard to achieve in traditional production systems without technical changes consuming time, effort and budget, mainly due to the lack of standardization, heterogeneous protocols, and the lack of proper interfaces among the systems of the Automation Pyramid. This challenge is greater in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) due to economic reasons or lack access to personnel with a skill set encompassing all the levels of the Automation Pyramid. I4.0-based concepts are built according to the Service-Oriented Architecture principle to enable peer-to-peer communication of systems from each layer of the Automation Pyramid. The service-oriented middleware architecture Eclipse BaSyx 4.0 implements SOA and other I4.0 concepts such as Digital Twins, and has been instantiated in German companies of different sizes. In this paper, we present two use cases focusing on of adoption of Eclipse BaSyx in two German SMEs and show how this enables the adoption of I4.0 concepts with improved time, effort and budget.
  • Publication
    Continuous Systems and Software Engineering for Industry 4.0: A disruptive view
    ( 2021)
    Nakagawa, Elisa Yumi
    ;
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    ;
    Schnicke, Frank
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Liggesmeyer, Peter
    Context: Industry 4.0 has substantially changed the manufacturing processes, leading to smart factories with full digitalization, intelligence, and dynamic production. The need for rigorous and continuous development of highly networked software-intensive Industry 4.0 systems entails great challenges. Hence, Industry 4.0 requires new ways to develop, operate, and evolve these systems accordingly. Objective: We introduce the view of Continuous Systems and Software Engineering for Industry 4.0 (CSSE I4.0). Method: Based on our research and industrial projects, we propose this novel view and its core elements, including continuous twinning, which is also introduced first in this paper. We also discuss the existing industrial engagement and research that could leverage this view for practical application. Results: There are still several open issues, so we highlight the most urgent perspectives for future work. Conclusions: A disruptive view on how to engineer Industry 4.0 systems must be established to pave the way for the realization of the fourth industrial revolution.
  • Publication
    Architecture Blueprint Enabling Distributed Digital Twins
    ( 2021)
    Schnicke, Frank
    ;
    Espen, Daniel
    ;
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    Mass production today is optimized for large lot sizes, and changes to industrial production lines are effort-intense, time-consuming, and costly. The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 (I4.0), aims at reducing the effort needed for changes in industrial production lines. The key benefits of next-generation manufacturing systems are less downtimes and the production of small lot sizes down to lot size 1. I4.0 does not introduce a silver bullet technology, but requires a transformation of the system architecture of production systems. In the literature, however, there systematic guidance for designing manufacturing systems that address central I4.0 use cases like plug'n'produce and end-to-end communication is still missing, as are details on the infrastructure needed to enable I4.0 technologies such as Digital Twins. To contribute to filling this gap, this paper presents (i) a Digital Twin architecture blueprint driven by central I4.0 use cases and (ii) a prototypical open-source implementation of the architecture using the concept of the Asset Administration Shell.
  • Publication
    Blueprints for architecture drivers and architecture solutions for Industry 4.0 shopfloor applications
    ( 2019)
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    ;
    Schnicke, Frank
    ;
    Zhang, Zai
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    Industry 4.0 aims at evolving the current industrial processes towards directly connecting shopfloor machines to systems from different layers of the automation pyramid, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). There are key functional and quality requirements that apply to most Industry 4.0 systems independent of the application domain, e.g., requirements related to interoperability, recoverability, security, and modifiability. Despite their importance, there is still a lack of understanding of (i) architecture drivers that focus on these quality aspects and (ii) architecture solutions for these architecture drivers that are adequate for a wide range of Industry 4.0 contexts. To contribute to filling this gap, we present in this paper (i) quality-centered architecture drivers derived from industrial cases, and (ii) architecture solutions based on the concepts of Digital Twins, Service-Oriented Architecture, and Virtual Automation Bus for four recurrent production plant scenarios. The architecture drivers and solutions presented in this paper were instantiated in different Industry 4.0 contexts, such as BaSys 4.0 (the German national reference project for Industry 4.0), and by the BaSys industry project partners.