Service-oriented communication and control system architecture for dynamically interconnected assembly systems

Varying sales expectations, shorter product life cycles, and a rising product variability caused by individualization: Manufacturing companies are facing the challenge of continually adapting their assembly systems to these and other dynamic conditions. The dynamic interconnection of stations enables to design flexible and individual assembly sequences for each product. Benefit is the possibility to assemble customer-specific products and to react to dynamic conditions of the system. This paradigm shift entails a raise in the level of complexity and flexibility in terms of coordinating the different product flows, exceeding the possibility of existing control systems. Within this paper, we therefore present the concept of a service-oriented communication and control system architecture as a solution to cope with the introduced challenges and requirements of Dynamically Interconnected Assembly Systems.