Thomas Holm

Principles, viewpoints and effect links in the engineering of automated plants

The engineering of automated plants requires the involvement of different disciplines, each of them using discipline specific methods, models and tools. To improve and achieve significant optimizations especially on engineering quality an overall approach is needed. Within this contribution the SPES Meta Model approach will be introduced and applied onto the engineering of automated plants.

Engineering method for the integration of modules into fast evolving production systems in the process industry

The reduction of the required effort for integration of a module into a production plant is the fundamental aim of modular plant architectures. An essential prerequisite for efficiency is to shift engineering efforts from the classical site-engineering to the engineering of plant modules. In such a scenario, the engineering of the entire system can be subdivided into two separate engineering phases, namely: a) the module supplier engineers and builds the module and b) the plant engineer uses the modules. This article presents an architecture that simplifies the integration of modules into production plants by using an information model - Module Type Package - for transferring and storing necessary engineering results during module-engineering.

Semantic description of process modules

The reduction of the effort required for integration of a module into a production plant is the fundamental aim of modular plant architectures. Effective module integration can be achieved, for instance, by shifting engineering efforts from the classical site-engineering to the engineering of plant modules. The basis of this approach is the formal description of various aspects of a module in a module type package (MTP). The core elements of this MTP are presented in this paper and discussed in terms of use in a standard module description. In addition, this paper presents a transformation of this concept to the standardized format AutomationML.

Entwurf, Modellierung und Verifikation von Serviceabhängigkeiten in Prozessmodulen

Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag beschreibt eine Methode für das Engineering von Abhängigkeiten zwischen Services, die ein Modul einer Produktionsanlage in der Prozessindustrie anbietet. Hierzu wird eine Serviceabhängigkeitsmatrix eingeführt, die beim Engineering eines Moduls genutzt werden kann, um die Abhängigkeiten zwischen Services festzulegen. Die Services werden jeweils als Petri-Netz beschrieben und durch die Abhängigkeiten in eine zusammenhängende Petri-Netz-Struktur überführt. Zur effizienten Darstellung der Services und ihrer Abhängigkeiten wird, basierend auf dem PNML-Kernmodell, ein neuer Petri-Netz-Typ eingeführt, die ServiceNets. Eine formale Analyse dieser Petri-Netze erlaubt die Verifikation u. a. hinsichtlich erreichbarer Zustände und Deadlock-Freiheit.

Transformation of the NAMUR MTP to OPC UA to allow plug and produce for modular process automation

Modularization is considered as one enabler for flexible and highly reconfigurable process plants. These characteristics are needed to overcome deficiencies regarding market volatility and shorter product innovation cycles. Current standardization activities aim at the specification of Module Type Package (MTP) files as a semantic description of modules for fast and efficient integration into process control systems. To increase the plug and produce character of the approach, online discovery for modules has to be enabled. OPC UA is considered as a suitable industrial communication technology for the communication between modules and process control systems. Therefore, this paper presents an approach for the representation of MTPs in OPC UA in order to enable the online discovery of process modules.