Engineering Processes for Decentralized Factory Automation Systems

Currently, Energy and Environmental issues are worldwide concerns. Energy savings is also without doubt the most effective strategy for environmental protection. This paper introduces a new general product design method. Our research effort will be directed towards the following three primary objectives: (1) investigating all the aspects related to energy-saving issues throughout the entire product life cycle; (2) developing a mathematical model (called Energy Factor) to calculate the products' energy consumption throughout the entire life cycle; (3) establishing the theoretical frame of the new innovative product design method. In this innovative method, the energy-saving concept will be applied at the first step of product life cycle, i.e. product design. And we believe that it will bring the product design to a new stage, which can design the energy-saving products and manufacturing systems. In order to reduce the energy consumption throughout the entire product life cycle (from cradle to grave), this design method is based on axiomatic design theory, and integrates design unit and energy factor concepts. In this paper, the theory frame will be described in detail, and the new concept called energy factor will be introduced briefly.

A review of sustainable mining and resource management: Transitioning from the life cycle of the mine to the life cycle of the mineral

Industry 4.0 is a paradigm that plays a central role in the development of future automation systems. A new generation of industrial automation aims to increase the agility of automation systems. In this context, cooperation with the IT world is an important prerequisite to achieving the requested agility. Therefore, new architectures and solutions have to be developed to realize cooperation between automation and IT systems. The goal of this work is to present for the process industry an architectural design for industrial control systems in order to provide them with a higher level of connectivity and agility.

Today's production plants are not conceivable without automation systems. Due to the increasing complexity of production plants and therefore of automation systems, delays and interruptions in automation projects are observed. A design model for more efficient planning of industrial automation systems is introduced. It is based on a new and practical proceeding for the construction of a requirements model. Extended feature models as formal requirements representation enable to verify the consistency of requirements. New insights on the necessary capabilities of a formal reasoning system for planning the whole automation system are deduced from the design model.

Currently, factory automation systems need to cope with very different challenges, such as technological advances happening very fast, global and competitive market or product customization. These challenges lead to a new generation of automation systems based on the so-called Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) globally connected to form a flexible System of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (SoCPPS). CPPSs require acquisition of production system data and smart data processing to extract information to improve the overall system performance. To achieve that it is needed to bridge the gap between the control systems and higher layers. This paper discusses an approach to use the IEC 61499 function block concept to exchange data between plant floor and higher layers using an industrial standard like OPC UA. The OPC UA server offers subscription mechanisms, making possible the integration of several resources residing at plant floor. As it runs on embedded devices, the proposal makes possible to acquire plant information at low cost, enabling at the same time, a component-based design for enterprise plant floor control with independence of the hardware platform used.

In this paper, we propose a modeling methodology for factory automation (FA) system and the improved Petri net controller. In the methodology, the whole state of FA system is described by Petri nets. The Petri nets become very large. Thus the methodology requires high-speed Petri net controller. We proposed the Petri net controller previously (1991), but it has two problems: 1) fireable transitions are not always fired, 2) transitions connected to permissive places are not fired preferentially. In the improved Petri net controller, 1) the token state is held for ensuring fireable transitions are always fired, 2) firing priority levels are fixed to all transitions. Its processing speed is faster than before. Assuming Petri nets consist of 512 places and 512 transitions, the Petri net controller takes about 530 kbit memories and 9,000 gates, and it can be on one chip.

In the past decades building automation and control systems emerged from simple control systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning facilities to complex applications covering different domains and controlling a huge number of entities. When considering complex automation systems, the whole life-cycle has to be taken into account. Besides operation, the installation and configuration is of utmost importance. These initial steps of a building automation systems require a huge amount of manual engineering and are often the source of errors. In order to reduce engineering effort and error probability, this paper introduces a new provisioning approach for building automation systems based on visual light communication. This concept significantly simplifies the identification of technical components with almost no additional hardware requirements. Technical components are communicating with a mobile device in order to allow an easy and intuitive identification and further configuration of the system. In order to show the feasibility of this approach, the concept is integrated in typical engineering processes. An implementation based on a state-of-the-art building automation technology proves the practical applicability of the concept.

Automation in operator assistant systems requires accurate functional analysis and decomposition to allow allocation of tasks between the human operator and the system. In most cases, a dynamic task allocation is needed in which the level of automation (or system autonomy) is dependent on changing operator needs in a dynamic operational environment. This paper provides a step-by-step concept for automation. Candidate tasks for automation are identified by their specific control and display interface characteristics. Control and display characteristics of each task will then lead to a hierarchical decomposition of task levels. The relationship between these levels is that the operator will only pay full attention to the next level once all tasks allocated to the previous one are handled adequately. This hierarchy is translated into a framework of different classes of automation and operator assistance.

Since the Industrial Revolution, both manufacture and business industries have been utilizing the limited resources to reach the maximize value of economics, hence the equipment automations in the industries have been developed. In recent years, efficiency has become one of the key factors for enhancing a business’ competitiveness in domestic environment of the well developing manufacturing industry; how to reduce the time from receiving a order to delivery is especially important for the supplier of automation system. However, the tendency of mass customization and make to order has increased the level of difficulty for project scheduling; therefore, how to quickly and steadily provide the system with automation equipments for clients is the main goal for every automation system supplier. Theory Of Constraints is a thinking method used to develop a particular management technology, and this technique has been applied in many domains of management. Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is an application for the Theory Of Constraints, it is also one of the newly developed project managements. Therefore, this study applies both of these two management theory and method to discuss the problems occurs in project management processes of automation system and their solutions. This study is based on the perspective of automation system supplier and uses the concept of Theory Of Constraints and Critical Chain Project Management to resolve problems encountered during the process of project execution, as well to achieve the goal of work completion within the time schedule. It is also expected to develop a suitable management method for automation system to efficiently control each tasks in the project, to achieve the goal of optimal resource utilization, shorten the time of operation and easier to control project process during the execution phase.

The core concept of this paper is total cost of ownership (TCO) of industrial asset and its relevance in supporting decision making if properly evaluated through the analysis of the technical performances of the asset. The paper is based on a framework that systematizes benefits and potential applications of TCO for different kind of stakeholders at different stages of the life cycle of the asset, supporting different kind of decisions. The aim is to present an experimental case study that has been implemented in order to show the empirical evidence of what is in the framework by focusing on one of the primary companies in the chemical industry in Italy. The application proposes a modeling approach for trying to overcome one main gap that still subsists when referring to TCO models that is that most of the existing ones lack of the integration of technical performances evaluations into the cost models or are based on very limiting hypothesis. In this paper a comprehensive methodology for the evaluation of Total Cost of Ownership of industrial assets that has being developed within a research activity carried out at the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of Politecnico di Milano is presented.KeywordsAsset management performanceTotal cost of ownershipAsset performance measurement

Many Factory Automation Systems (FASs) are been increasingly required to provide 24/7 in-service operation. This demands increasingly-higher levels of autonomy, and makes FAS control architectures include extra regulating capabilities in order to deal with long-term but also non-stop operations. Continuous assurance of effectively-coordinated adaptation to unpredictable internal and external changes is essential, and the good use of resources becomes critical since an inadequate management of them ultimately ends up in an inefficient energy use. This paper presents aspects on how to endow FASs with artificial nervous reflexes through applying physiology principles to their control architecture. Thus, the FAS autonomy can be reinforced by means of resilience, and greenness in order to achieve persistence. A case study of a generic FAS that supports artificial homeostasis is presented. The reflex-driven adaptation mechanisms studied in the FAS guarantees the self-regulation of the operation temperature (thermoregulation), operation speed, and energy consumption. Simulation results from a FAS dynamics model based on the cross-checked analysis of parameters, and future research direction are also presented.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is essential for cybersecurity architecture because of the increasing complexity of the digital enterprise. The research investigates how Artificial Intelligence (AI) transforms Identity and Access Management (IAM) by establishing context-aware systems that function adaptively through automated identity governance capabilities. Concepts from traditional IAM infrastructure face challenges when implementing dynamic access models because they base their function on manual processes and static policies in their design. Machine learning combined with behavioral analytics and orchestration capabilities installed across the entire IAM lifecycle by AI can solve these issues, from authentication procedures to authorization functions and continuing through entitlement governance until policy execution. AI integration establishes continuous authentication with behavioral biometrics and conducts real-time anomaly detection through unsupervised learning models to enable proactive threat mitigation through risk-adaptive access controls. Through AI, the discovery and automation of access rights become possible because systems use actual user activities and organizational settings to refine and certify proper access definitions. The automation systems help organizations comply with GDPR and HIPAA by delivering immediate policy changes while providing auditable access decision logs. The research document evaluates how AI contributes to creating IAM infrastructure that can adapt because it uses predictive load-balancing techniques, self-healing orchestration mechanisms, and autonomous incident response capabilities. The document shows how IAM unites with Security Operations Centers (SOCs) by correlating identity signals with wider security monitoring data to enhance security detection visibility and coordinated response. This report reveals through technical precision and industry examples that AI-driven IAM functions as a security defense system and a business-enabling power for operational speed, compliance adherence, and digital safety in organizational networks. The research highlights AI's critical position in creating security for contemporary identity perimeters.

A design of wireless communication system, particularly Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical layer system (PHY) for Factory Automation (FA) system based on Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) communication system, is proposed in this paper. The designed of MAC is synchronous multi-user round-robin transmission protocol. Low overhead Packet Division Multiple Access (PDMA) scheme is utilized for Multi-user Downlink transmission up to 80 MHz, while Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) is employed for the uplink transmission. The designed of PHY system is developed based on a fast and deterministic communication featuring the synchronous multi-user system. For efficient of multi-user transmission in the proposed protocol, the transmission time of the proposed iWLAN with 40 MHz bandwidth can achieve 500% better than PROFINET wireless standard. Furthermore, the implementation results of MAC and PHY layer of the proposed system show that FPGA logic utilization can fit with the target FPGA which is promising for a full implementation and evaluation combining with radio frequency.

The evolution of scientific advances has often been characterized by the amalgamation of two or more technologies. With respect to vehicle connectivity and automation, recent literature suggests that these two emerging transportation technologies can and will jointly and profoundly shape the future of transportation. However, it is not certain how the individual and synergistic benefits to be earned from these technologies is related to their prevailing levels of development. As such, it may be considered useful to revisit the primary concepts of automation and connectivity, and to identify any current and expected future synergies between them. Doing this can help generate knowledge that could be used to justify investments related to transportation systems connectivity and automation. In this discussion paper, we attempt to address some of these issues. The paper first reviews the technological concepts of systems automation and systems connectivity, and how they prospectively, from an individual and collective perspective, impact road transportation efficiency and safety. The paper also discusses the separate and common benefits of connectivity and automation, and their possible holistic effects in terms of these benefits where they overlap. The paper suggests that at the current time, the sibling relationship seems to be lopsided: vehicle connectivity has immense potential to enhance vehicle automation. Automation, on the other hand, may not significantly promote vehicle connectivity directly, at least not in the short term but possibly in the long term. The paper argues that future trends regarding market adoption of these two technologies and their relative pace of advancement or regulation, will shape the future synergies between them.

Soil quality standards for pesticides play a crucial role in protecting plants and preventing potential health hazards to humans. Here we discuss modeling approaches to define pesticide soil quality standards from two effect endpoints, which ensures consistency throughout the entire pesticide life cycle from application to human exposure assessment. Given that pesticides are applied in a pulse-like emission pattern and their soil concentrations change over time, both a ceiling legal limit and an average legal limit for pesticide soil quality standards should apply to the initial pesticide application practice and the potential human health effect. The timing intervals for pesticide application and the dissipation half-life in the soil can be used to quantify the relationship between the ceiling and average legal limits. By analyzing primary exposure pathways related to soil contamination, the average legal limit can be linked to theoretical human health risks, which requires a comprehensive evaluation for an adequate safety margin, including human interactions with soil, exposure assessment of soil pesticides, and allocation exposure assessment. To establish acceptable human health risks, the average legal limit can be determined, and the ceiling legal limit can be estimated based on the quantitative relationship between the ceiling and average legal limits. Additionally, we discuss situation-specific factors, including climate-pattern and behavior-pattern factors, to define pesticide soil quality standards to further complete the modeling framework. We hope insights presented in this paper will assist regulatory agencies worldwide in defining pesticide soil quality standards that meet their specific regulatory needs throughout the entire pesticide life cycle.