An app-based approach for reconfigurable field devices

Today, automation suppliers need to provide a large variety of field devices because one device is especially designed to provide a limited and static range of functionalities, which are fixed at the delivery time of the device. This is expensive for both customers and device suppliers. To overcome this situation, device functionalities needs to be adapted or extended on demand according to the changing market requirements, even if the devices have already been delivered to customers. In this work, an app-based approach is proposed and evaluated to serve that purpose. This approach is adapted from the smart device industry and it is used to provide software-based functionalities for field devices as an enabling technology in the context of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. This paper describes the essential elements of such an approach with a practical perspective.