Dr.-Ing.

Kuhn, Thomas

Filters

Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 10 of 55
  • 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
    Bridging Trust in Runtime Open Evaluation Scenarios
    ( 2021)
    Cioroaica, Emilia
    ;
    Buhnova, Barbora
    ;
    Marchetti, Eda
    ;
    Schneider, Daniel
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    Solutions to specific challenges within software engineering activities can greatly benefit from human creativity. For example, evidence of trust derived from creative virtual evaluation scenarios can support the trust assurance of fast-paced runtime adaptation of intelligent behavior. Following this vision, in this paper, we introduce a methodological and architectural concept that interplays creative and social aspects of gaming into software engineering activities, more precisely into a virtual evaluation of system behavior. A particular trait of the introduced concept is that it reinforces cooperation between technological and social intelligence.
  • 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
    Datenablage als Grundlage für den digitalen Zwilling eines Bauwerks - Verwaltungsschale BBox
    ( 2021)
    Braml, Thomas
    ;
    Wimmer, Johannes
    ;
    Maack, Stefan
    ;
    Küttenbaum, Stefan
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Reingruber, Maximilian
    ;
    Gordt, Alexander
    ;
    Hamm, Jürgen
  • 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
    Industrie-4.0-Middleware geht in die Anwendung
    ( 2021)
    Kuhn, Thomas
    In dem Forschungsprojekt ""Basissystem für die unternehmensübergreifende Produktionsunterstützung"" (kurz: BaSys überProd) arbeiten 21 Partner aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft an Lösungen für den Wandel hin zur digitalisierten, flexiblen Industrie-4.0-Produktion. Dabei kommt vor allem die Open-Source-Middleware Eclipse BaSyx zum Einsatz. Das Ziel: Repräsentative Anwendungsfälle in Wirtschaftsunternehmen umsetzen und das Wiederverwendungspotenzial der Lösungen für andere Kontexte herausarbeiten.
  • Publication
    Creating Trust in Collaborative Embedded Systems
    ( 2021)
    Akili, Samira
    ;
    Cioroaica, Emilia
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Schlingloff, Holger
    Effective collaboration of embedded systems relies strongly on the assumption that all components of the system and the system itself operate as expected. A level of trust is established based on that assumption. To verify and validate these assumptions, we propose a systematic procedure that starts at the design phase and spans the runtime of the systems. At design time, we propose system evaluation in pure virtual environments, allowing multiple system behaviors to be executed in a variety of scenarios. At runtime, we suggest performing predictive simulation to get insights into the system's decision making process. This enables trust to be created in the system part of a cooperation. When cooperation is performed in open, uncertain environments, the negotiation protocols between collaborative systems must be monitored at runtime. By engaging in various negotiation protocols, the participants assign roles, schedule tasks, and combine their world views to allow more resilient perception and planning. In this chapter, we describe two complementary monitoring approaches to address the decentralized nature of collaborative embedded systems.
  • 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
    Towards Creation of Automated Prediction Systems for Trust and Dependability Evaluation
    ( 2020)
    Cioroaica, Emilia
    ;
    Chren, Stanislav
    ;
    Aktouf, Oum-El-Kheir
    ;
    Larsson, Alf
    ;
    Chillarege, Ram
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Schneider, Daniel
    ;
    Wolschke, Christian
    We advance the ability to design reliable Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems (CPSoSs) by integrating artificial intelligence to the engineering methods of these systems. The current practice relies heavily on independent validation of software and hardware components, with only limited evaluation during engineering integration activities. Furthermore, our changing landscape of real-time adaptive systems allows software components to be dynamically included or re-distributed within a Cyber-Physical System (CPS), with mostly unknown implications on the overall systems integrity, reliability and security. This paper introduces an approach consisting of scientific and engineering processes that enable development of concepts for automated prediction systems for evaluating the dependability and trust of CPSoS. This significantly moves the security and reliability design process ahead by opening the doors for far more relevant design strategies and the opportunity to develop protocols, methods, and tools aimed at dealing with a wide variety of platforms with poorly calibrated reliability characteristics.
  • Publication
    Enabling Industry 4.0 Service-Oriented Architecture through Digital Twins
    ( 2020)
    Schnicke, Frank
    ;
    Kuhn, Thomas
    ;
    Antonino, Pablo Oliveira
    A major goal of Industry 4.0 is to increase changeability of production processes, and to reduce the additional cost for individualized products. A service oriented production architecture can enable this goal. However, it demands changes in the software-based systems that compose the different levels of automation in a factory. Additionally, it requires a multitude of data to reflect the demands of service-oriented manufacturing processes. In this paper, we detail the minimal data to be contained in digital twins to enable an Industry 4.0 service-oriented architecture. We use two central Industry 4.0 use cases as drivers for deriving this data. We describe services by detailing their capabilities and their quality of service in terms of time, money and resulting product quality. Using these descriptions, we detail customer's order and the included product to be manufactured. Additionally, we describe challenges of the orchestration process like incompleteness of business processes and detail, how they can be solved using digital twins of the product, the service providers and the plant. Finally, we validate the proposed models by implementing the use cases on two model plants and give an experience report.