Athanasios P. Kalogeras

Vertical integration of enterprise industrial systems utilizing web services

The need for interoperability is prominent in the industrial enterprise environment. Different applications and systems that cover the overall range of the industrial infrastructure from the field to the enterprise level need to interoperate. This quest is driven by the enterprise need for greater flexibility and for the wider possible integration of the enterprise systems. This paper presents a distributed system architecture that utilizes dominant state-of-the-art standard technologies, such as workflows, ontologies, and web services, in order to address the above quest in an efficient way.

Vertical integration of enterprise industrial systems utilizing Web services

The need for interoperability is prominent in the industrial enterprise environment. Different applications and systems that cover the overall range of the industrial infrastructure from the field to the enterprise level need to interoperate. This quest is driven by the enterprise need for greater flexibility and for the wider possible integration of the enterprise systems. The current paper presents an architecture that utilizes three predominant state-of-the-art technologies, namely workflows, ontologies and Web services in order to address the above quest in an efficient way.

Mapping of IEC 61499 function blocks to automation protocols within the TORERO approach

The design of distributed control systems (DCS) contains three major parts: (1) the programming of the control application code of the DCS, (2) the functional allocation of the control application code to the specific devices that the DCS consists of, and (3) the mapping of the distributed control application code to the underlying communication platform depending on the distribution. This paper presents an approach for the mapping of event triggered IEC 61499 function blocks to the underlying automation protocols, whereas time triggered and event triggered automation protocols will be considered. This work is part of the research project TORERO, which is funded by the European Commission under the IST program

Home / Building Automation Environment Architecture Enabling Interoperability, Flexibility and Reusability

The home / building automation environment is characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity with a large number of systems that need to interoperate, comprising different devices provided by various vendors. A need for greater integration, flexibility and interoperability is increasingly expressed. The current paper presents an architecture that utilizes three predominant state-of-the-art technologies, namely workflows, ontologies and web services in order to address the above need in an efficient way. I. INTRODUCTION Modern design in Building and Home automation has revolutionized the home environment, introducing a plethora of smart appliances as well as various network technologies, mandating an increase in the level of flexibility and interoperability. A great number of systems and applications exist with reference to this technological area, covering the whole range of the home - building automation system hierarchical model. This model comprises three different levers: the automation layer, the control layer and the service provision layer. The model that is described in this paper applies both to home automation and building automation applications; thus henceforward a reference to anyone of them is valid for both of them. The model is depicted in figure 1. The automation layer comprises the building automation equipment, such as sensors, actuators, smart devices and modules, controllers (PLCs) and network controllers. Automation level devices provide device relevant application code, that handles the required preprocessing, supporting the lower layer code for integrated systems addressing the provision of building and home services related to BMS, safety, security and disease management processes. The flow of information between automation level devices is usually characterized by time constraints, thus mandating the utilization of special communication protocols such as Lonworks, EIB, WorldFIP. The control layer includes devices that play the role of the control point of the home systems, wherein reside applications that are traditionally characterized as control automation applications. Control layer devices need to interconnect both with the indoor individual networks of the automation layer, as well as provide the necessary entry point through the internet to the upper layer for the provision of services to the home / building environment by third party Service Providers. The upper layer of our model refers to the various services offered by independent Service Providers that a building automation system can be a client of. A service can be offered either for free or be billed to its clients / users. Each user can be simultaneously a client of various services, while each service provider may have a bundle of services provided to each client. Internet plays a significant role in the overall communications for the enforcement of the presented model. The ubiquity of the internet has led to the emergence of standards that allow the creation of a unifying infrastructure that makes possible the integration of the different systems at whatever layer they may reside in. Nevertheless a conceptual dividing line exists between applications at the lower and the higher levels. The work presented in this paper is associated with a view of the home environment that mandates the integration and interoperability of all the systems / applications that participate in it, independently of their level. Architectural elements of this approach are presented describing home automation integrated services as processes by means of workflows, utilizing the state-of-the-art technology of Web Services in order to open up building automation systems and make available their functionalities. Our approach introduces innovation in the home environment through the incorporation of semantic information related with the home automation process, described in ontologies, increasing the overall degree of

Aspect-orientation of control application code for distributed automation systems: The TORERO approach

Besides the programming of the control application code of a distributed automation system (DAS) and the functional allocation of the control application code to the specific devices that the DAS consists of, an important point is the implementation of communication related code to map to the underlying communication platform and to realise the collaboration of the distributed control application code. Due to the real-timeliness and even time-criticality of DAS applications, the correct handling of real-time constraints has to be considered. This paper presents an aspect-oriented approach for weaving the communication related code into the distributed control application code by means of AspectJ [AspJ03], an extension for aspect-oriented programming with Java, and gives a comparison to other approaches. In addition to the description of the weaving process and the presentation of a demonstrator example, considerations about the usability of this concept and some restrictions will be stated. This work is part of the research project TORERO, which is funded by the European Commission under the IST program.

Web gateway: a platform for industry services over Internet

This paper presents a novel approach for the integration of industrial applications over LANs, WANs and the Internet, based on emerging proven and robust technologies. Industrial applications are traditionally viewed with reference to a four layer hierarchical model. Fieldbus control networks are used in order to interconnect field and control devices at the two lower layers of the industrial communication hierarchy. The OPC technology is utilized in order to provide a universal I/O driver/interface for heterogeneous control networks. Different OPC objects deal with real time data (OPC DA), historical data (HDA) as well as Alarms and Events. DCOM presents the middleware connectivity software for the seamless integration of applications locally over the LAN. Due to the DCOM lack in firewall friendliness, the authors propose the use of pure HTTP and the development of a special entity, the Web Gateway, that presents a single point of entry for all different users, e.g. service providers, for the provision of integrated services in a uniform way. This gateway takes into account user profiles and utilizes a dynamic parser for the generation of dynamic html according to user rights. The presented architecture has been the core of a pilot implementation.

Seamless integration of distributed real time monitoring and control applications utilising emerging technologies

The seamless integration of distributed real time applications is mandatory for such demanding environments as the industrial environment or building management systems. Several technologies presenting different degrees of maturity have been developed to support this goal. The paper presents work done at the Industrial Systems Institute, which resulted in the definition of a system architecture utilising different emerging technologies, and its pilot implementation.

RosettaNet-based implementation for a collaborative continuous replenishment planning model utilizing Web services and ontologies

Collaborative e-commerce provides an increased level of flexibility and dynamicity and generates an entrepreneurial competitive edge. Widely accepted implementation frameworks like RosettaNet may be utilized to provide generic inter-enterprise B2B infrastructure. This paper presents an innovative approach towards utilizing RosettaNet in combination with Web services and ontologies for the enforcement of the continuous replenishment planning model

Integrating IP traffic into fieldbus networks

Fieldbus networks are traditionally used in order to interconnect devices at the field level e.g. sensors and actuators, so that real time or critical time requirements are met concerning data transfer. In addition to traditional fieldbus traffic, novel applications, such as industrial multimedia applications, require the integration of IP traffic into fieldbus networks as well. This integration should be done so that the usual control traffic is not inhibited in any way by IP traffic, while on the other hand specific Quality of Service requirements are met by IP traffic. This paper deals with the different problems that are relevant to the integration of IP traffic into fieldbus networks. It focuses especially on the IP Mapper layer that need to be incorporated between the TCP/IP Stack and the Fieldbus Data Link Layer and performs the appropriate conversion of IP datagrams into fieldbus datagrams as well as the integration of the TCP/IP and the fieldbus communication models. Finally, it presents the way that these problems have been addressed for the integration of IP traffic over a specific fieldbus network.

Internet of Things integration to a Multi Agent System based manufacturing environment

The Internet of Things (IoT) and its infrastructures for ubiquitous, grid and cloud computing map well with the manufacturing environment and its needs to decentralize and distribute in order to increase its levels of flexibility, agility and dependability. Multi Agent Systems (MAS) make it possible to increase the autonomy and flexibility in the industrial environment allowing for an increase in the level of integration and interoperability of manufacturing applications and systems. Different applications mandate the integration of IoT devices and knowledge in manufacturing processes. The present work presents an approach that makes it possible to integrate IoT devices to a MAS based manufacturing environment.