Service-Oriented Architecture for Automated Commissioning of Fluid Power Systems

Volatile markets and increasing individualization of products require greater adaptability in manufacturing, resulting in continuous adaptation processes and an increased need for commissionings throughout the life cycle of production machines. However, commissioning is currently highly specific, complex, and requires skilled personnel to perform many manual operations due to machines' lack of adaptability. This is caused by rigid and hierarchical control and automation structures, as well as heterogeneity and incompatibility between subsystems. In this work, the flexibility and interoperability of fluid power manufacturing systems is increased by applying the principles of service-oriented architectures to decouple the traditionally rigid structures and fixed dependencies, thus enabling self-organized and largely automated commissioning. Therefore, the machines are modularized into independent Industrie 4.0 (I4.0) components, which are modeled according to the concept of the Asset Administration Shell. The components' properties and functionalities required for commissioning are encapsulated and made available via communication interfaces. The entire commissioning is coordinated by all I4.0 components decentrally, each orchestrating its individual commissioning sequence while considering system states and dependencies. A retrofit approach and seamless integration of personnel enable a machine-guided commissioning on both intelligent and conventional machines, including passive components. The proof-of-concept is demonstrated and validated on a hydraulic and pneumatic system. Compared to traditional commissioning, the presented approach improves the robustness and consistency of the process, is less dependent on personnel qualification and reduces time in many cases.