Nasser Jazdi

Cyber physical systems in the context of Industry 4.0

We are currently experiencing the fourth Industrial Revolution in terms of cyber physical systems. These systems are industrial automation systems that enable many innovative functionalities through their networking and their access to the cyber world, thus changing our everyday lives significantly. In this context, new business models, work processes and development methods that are currently unimaginable will arise. These changes will also strongly influence the society and people. Family life, globalization, markets, etc. will have to be redefined. However, the Industry 4.0 simultaneously shows characteristics that represent the challenges regarding the development of cyber-physical systems, reliability, security and data protection. Following a brief introduction to Industry 4.0, this paper presents a prototypical application that demonstrates the essential aspects.

Reusable Models in Industrial Automation: Experiences in Defining Appropriate Levels of Granularity

Abstract Domain engineering approaches are widely used in the software engineering. They focus on building reusable models in a domain. At the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering (IAS) of the University of Stuttgart, a new domain engineering approach has been developed. The approach considers entire industrial automation systems, including hardware and software. Models that capture structure and behavior of entire systems have to be carefully tailored, in order to be reusable. The level of granularity deserves particular attention, since too coarse or too fine grained reusable models discourage reuse. This paper addresses the issue of finding appropriate levels of granularity and proposes a set of recommendations for determining appropriate levels of granularity for reusable models created during domain engineering.

Requirements on engineering tools for increasing reuse in industrial automation

Motivated by increasing demands for efficiency, reuse approaches have been increasingly gaining significance during the last years. System engineering shifted from single systems to product lines. Although the engineering paradigm changed, industrial automation systems within a product line are created with the same engineering tools as single systems. Hence, it becomes relevant to analyze which requirements engineering tools shall fulfill in order to increase reuse within a product line of industrial automation systems. The identified requirements are interesting for the following reasons: first, they are relevant for developers of engineering tools, since they aim to provide competitive products. Second, they are relevant for developers of industrial automation systems, since they reuse existing artifacts in designing new industrial automation systems with the help of engineering tools. Third, the topic is interesting for researchers and practitioners in the field of product line engineering for industrial automation systems who want to know which aspects are already supported by current engineering tools.

Prioritization of Test Cases Using Software Agents and Fuzzy Logic

Limited test time and restricted number of test resources confront test managers with big challenges, especially in the system test. Consequently, the test manager has to prioritize test cases before each test cycle. There is much information available for determining a reasonable prioritization order in software projects. However, due to the complexity of current software systems and the high number of existing test cases, the abundance of information relevant for prioritization is not manageable for the test manager, even with high effort. In this paper we present a concept for an automated prioritization of test cases using software agents and fuzzy logic. Our prioritization system determines the prioritization order which increases the test effectiveness and the fault detection rate.

An approach for modeling variants of industrial automation systems

In order to meet requirements of different stakeholders, product lines for industrial automation systems have a high degree of variability. Despite the remarkable effort made by researchers and practitioners, modeling variants remains a challenge. It is often difficult to decide what does vary, how it varies and which interdependencies have to be considered between variants of an industrial automation system. This paper discusses the state of the art in modeling variants and proposes a new approach based on SysML for modeling variants of industrial automation system within a product line.

Discussions on accessibility in industrial automation systems

Importance of industrial automation systems [1], also known as technical devices, has been a growing area during the past decades. Web applications from one side and industrial automation systems from the other side have become a standard part of peoples daily life and more user groups have to deal with them. Hence they must be accessible to all users. Unfortunately, often by the development of such systems, certain user groups are being neglected. Therefore, a systematic concept is required to support the development of industrial automation systems and Web applications. In this paper, we will present the concept, which is proposed in the context of a research project funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)a. We will discuss the suited methods to effectively assess accessibility requirements.

Model-based electrical energy analysis of industrial automation systems

Energy optimization is one of the key challenges of the next decades. A first step for mitigation was made by research in the field of optimized technologies for energy consuming components, energy generation and energy transport. Despite this, energy optimization of complex systems during their operation time, regarding human-machine-interaction, has remained a challenge. This contribution proposes a model-based approach for electrical energy analysis of industrial automation systems. The approach serves as basis for decisions related to energy optimization issues. It considers the influences on the systems energy consumption, so that it allows a holistic view on energy consumption causes. Hence, a targeted selection of energy optimization measures becomes possible.

A Germany-Brazil Experience Report on Teaching Software Engineering for Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Students

This article describes a successful education technology transfer between Germany and Brazil applied to the teaching of software engineering for undergraduate students of the electrical engineering course at the Federal University of Amazonas - UFAM. The result of this experience was a significant increase on the interest of the students, i.e. the amount of enrolled students increased reaching numbers never met before and the drop out rate was smaller than the average of the other lectures. The main reason for the observed changes was the introduction of a laboratory platform in the lecture. This guided the students during the development of a software system used in a robot race at the end of the term. The robot race itself may also be another reason for the great motivation observed, when the students compete to show which team produced the best software. This experience is one of the results of the Unibral project, a scientific and academic cooperation between UFAM and the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering of the University of Stuttgart

Agent-based test management for software system test

In the scope of industrial automation systems, a relatively high quality of the software system test has to be achieved by the test management in order to guarantee the required reliability of the system. A major challenge of the test manager is the limited number of available test resources. The test manager cannot execute a complete test with all test cases in each test cycle. He has to decide with much manual work, which test cases are executed. In this paper, the Adaptive Test Management System (ATMS) based on software agents is presented to relieve the test manager from this manual work. The goal of the ATMS is to increase the test efficiency and reduce the test costs.

Mehr Systematik für den Anlagenbau und das industrielle Lösungsgeschäft — Gesteigerte Effizienz durch Domain Engineering

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag beschreibt die Herausforderungen im industriellen Lösungsgeschäft aus Betreiber- und Anbietersicht und erläutert ein zur Bewältigung dieser Herausforderungen mögliches Prinzip: Die Aufteilung in projektabhängiges und projektunabhängiges Engineering. Auf dieser Basis wird ein neuer Engineering-Ansatz zur Realisierung des projektunabhängigen Engineering vorgestellt. Der Ansatz wird im Rahmen einer Kooperation zwischen dem Institut für Automatisierungs- und Softwaretechnik (IAS) der Universität Stuttgart und der Siemens AG entwickelt und erprobt. Abstract This article describes challenges in the industrial solution business from both the provider´s and operator´s point of view and proposes an approach to manage these challenges. The approach is based on splitting the engineering process into project-dependent and project-independent activities. This approach is developed and tested in the context of the cooperation between the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering (IAS) of the University of Stuttgart and Siemens AG.