Agile Architecting of Distributed Systems for Flexible Industry 4.0

Abstract

Small and medium sized businesses within mechanical manufacturing cannot benefit from Industry 4.0 automation as small production batches are unable to pay for up-front robotic configuration and programming costs. In this paper, we report on early results from a project aiming at developing a software architecture supporting fast, easy, and flexible reconfiguration of a robotic manufacturing process, using an agile and prototyping approach.

Designing Socially and Organizationally Sustainable Industry 4.0 Systems: Requirements for Modeling Approaches

“…Here, the focus should be on providing the involved actors with the right information (at a suitable abstraction level) at the right time, thus reducing irrelevant information flow [46]. Given the multidisciplinary and multi-departmental nature of many I4.0 projects, the issue of Responding to change over following a plan Nguyen Ngoc et al [30], de Paula et al [37], Mule et al [38], Martini and Bosch [39], Eisenträger et al [41], Le Grand and Rébecca [42], Bauer et al [43], Wolf et al [44], Sjödin et al [46], Jussen et al [47], Mesa et al [49], Christensen et al [50], Rauch et al [51],…”

“…While additive manufacturing is widely accepted as a key technology for rapid prototyping in the I4.0 context, a lot of potential is also seen in virtual approaches [38,41,47,[51][52][53][54]. These approaches range from the use of app mockups, simple paper storyboards [47] and process simulations [50,53,54] to 3D-realistic virtual factories [52]. Virtual models are not only more cost-efficient than physical prototypes but also allow for loosely-coupled interactions between the various disciplines involved in I4.0 design, and thus, enable parallel ways of working for different design teams [41].…”

“…Precise identification of the point in the design process where stakeholders should be involved is often not provided. A few publications pinpoint the system requirements definition [38] and architecture definition [47,50,53,56] stages as the key points. Some authors propose involving stakeholders in the validation phase as a way to support designers (in system requirements and architecture definition phases) via iterative feedback loops [17,38,42,47].…”

“…Many authors view the complexity of I4.0 systems as a major challenge that requires effective and efficient approaches for handling changes throughout the development process. Generating system designs in small increments using frequent iterations is seen as the key enabler [37,38,46,47,49,50,61]. Feedback from downstream phases of verification and validation-sometimes even from operations and maintenance-is used for improving or extending the design in earlier phases, particularly those concerned with defining system requirements and architecture [38,39,50,61].…”

“…Generating system designs in small increments using frequent iterations is seen as the key enabler [37,38,46,47,49,50,61]. Feedback from downstream phases of verification and validation-sometimes even from operations and maintenance-is used for improving or extending the design in earlier phases, particularly those concerned with defining system requirements and architecture [38,39,50,61]. Modularity is seen as a basic principle for allowing such changes [46,60].…”