Self-optimized, individual product and production solutions

Nowadays customers are increasingly demanding reliable, fast economical and individual solutions to their existing problems. However, in most cases, such solutions result in more complex products and services which in turn lead to increased resource utilization. The aim of the joint European research project SWOP - Semantic Web-based Open Engineering Platform - was to permit the development of new customer-specific solutions through the intelligent configuration of existing product components and modules and in this way reduce the need for time-consuming new design work. The modules developed on this software platform are based on the innovative combination of two state-of-the-art technologies: developments in the field of the "Semantic Web" for the semantic description of "products" and genetic algorithms (GA) as an optimization method for complex tasks. This article presents the most important objectives, contents and results of the project, briefly addresses the standardization activities undertaken in the W3C and examines future development requirements.