Lorenz Hundt

AutomationML - the glue for seamless automation engineering

This contribution presents the basic architecture of the neutral data format AutomationML developed by the companies Daimler, ABB, Siemens, Rockwell, Kuka, Zuhlke, netAllied and the universities of Magdeburg and Karlsruhe. AutomationML serves for the data exchange between manufacturing engineering tools and therefore supports the interoperability between them. It covers information about the plant structure (topology and geometry) and the plant behaviour (logic and kinematics). The first version of AutomationML has been presented at the Hannover fair in 2008.

Manufacturing system engineering with mechatronical units

Within the engineering of manufacturing systems the paradigm mechatronical units is of important interest. To deal properly with mechatronical units within manufacturing system engineering they have to be defined, described and used in an appropriate way establishing a mechatronical engineering process.

Aggregation of engineering processes regarding the mechatronic approach

Within the last few years different process structures for the execution of engineering processes in the field of production systems have been developed and partially standardized. These processes have strong similarities and dependencies enabling the development of a generalized engineering process for production systems. In addition the different engineering processes can highlight the use of mechatronical units. This paper will survey existing engineering processes and will make a first attempt to define such a mechatronic oriented generalized engineering process for production systems. Thereby, it intends to provide a starting point for further discussion on this subject.

Bedeutung der Interoperabilität bei Entwurf und Nutzung von automatisierten Produktionssystemen

Zusammenfassung Die strukturelle und verhaltensbezogene Komplexität von Produktionssystemen und ihrer Entwurfsprozesse stieg in den letzten Jahren kontinuierlich an. Daher ist es notwendig, diese Systeme bezüglich ihrer Nutzbarkeit und Veränderbarkeit auf neue Art und Weise zu bewerten. Ein Mittel für diese Bewertung ist die Untersuchung der Integration und Interaktion der Elemente von Produktionssystemen und Entwurfsprozessen. Auf ihrer Basis können neue Wege zur Verbessung der Struktur und des Verhaltens dieser Systeme und Prozesse entwickelt werden. Im Rahmen dieses Fachartikels werden unterschiedliche Integrationsgrade, darunter auch die Interoperabilität, auf der Basis der Modellaspekte Syntax und Semantik in eine Integrationsmatrix eingeordnet. An zwei Beispielen wird aufgezeigt, welche Bedeutung die verschiedenen Integrationsgrade in der praktischen Anwendung besitzen. Abstract Complexity of the structure and the behaviour of production systems are increasing over the years. Thus, these systems have to be validated related to its functional and non-functional requirements. One mean for this evaluation is the consideration of integration and interaction between the different elements of production systems and engineering processes. Based on this concideration, new approaches for the improvement of strucures and behaviours of production systems and its engineering processes can be developed. The contribution investigates different integration levels based on syntax and semantic aspects of the system models exploiting a matrix representation. Two examples show the impact of the introduced integration levels for the applications.

Description of manufacturing processes using AutomationML

The engineering of manufacturing systems has been changed within the last years. Based on the increasing application of intelligent software tools the programming and configuration of control devices can be made on higher abstraction layers than before. In parallel the usable amount of control devices, information processing units, and engineering tools has increased. Several vendors have developed their own tool sets to enable a most efficient application of their devices. Hence, a very heterogeneous tool landscape has been established. This trend will continue.

Development of a method for the implementation of interoperable tool chains applying mechatronical thinking — Use case engineering of logic control

Following the increasing complexity of production systems, the increasing relevance of complete life cycle coverage, and increasing consideration of engineering costs engineering processes have to be efficient and should generate fault free results. Therefore, mechatronical thinking and interoperability along tool chains are potential supporting means. Within this paper the impact of mechatronical thinking on the engineering process for production systems, the provision of interoperability of engineering activities and tools along the engineering process and the resulting structures will for data exchange be considered. Based on the use case of control system engineering a methodology for the creation of a interoperable tool chain exploiting data exchange formats and meta modeling is given.

PLCopen for achieving interoperability between development phases

As fast as industry reaches a greater maturity level and applications become more complex, a consolidation of the modeling methodologies becomes necessary. They are composed by a lot of heterogeneous systems that need working together to perform automation and control tasks. AutomationML frameworks goal is to interconnect the heterogeneous tools used in the different engineering disciplines. In concrete it manages three well accepted standards: CAEX for topology, COLLADA for kinematics and geometry, and PLCopen for logic data. This paper is focused in the logic data. A logic CPF framework is defined in order to integrate tools into AutomationML framework that fulfill the logic data present in different development phases of the applications.

Engineering of manufacturing systems within engineering networks

Within the engineering of manufacturing systems an important change took place. The prior sequential and strongly disconnected engineering activities of the different stakeholders involved in this process became interlinked and strongly coupled leading to engineering networks. To properly work within such engineering networks lossless, consistent, and scalable data exchange structures and formats are essential for the success. Within this paper the applicability of the AutomationML by the different stakeholders of the engineering process is addressed. It is shown how this exchange format can be applied within one engineering network and which of the required engineering data are currently covered by the format.

Methodology for the evaluation of tools with respect to its applicability within mechatronical engineering

Mechatronical engineering is a recent trend within engineering of manufacturing systems. To enable a most efficient and beneficiary application of mechatronical engineering within engineering organizations the mechatronical engineering has to be based on basic concepts realizing the mechatronical thinking and supporting the user. Within this paper an approach to determine and validate basic concepts required for mechatronical engineering using engineering tools is described. Basic concepts which have to be implemented within tools for mechatronical engineering will be named and its realization in tools and data exchange formats is sketched.

Verhaltensbeschreibung mit PLCopen XML

Die vorangegangenen Kapitel erlautern die Modellierung rein statischer Objektstrukturen mit AutomationML – deren Hierarchie, Geometrie und Kinematik. Dieses Kapitel hingegen ist dem Verhalten von Anlagenkomponenten gewidmet, eine weitere wichtige Grundvoraussetzung fur den Betrieb einer Anlage.