About E-SCOP project

E-SCOP project aims to overcome the current drawbacks for the shop floor control level (i.e. MES and deterministic / real-time control), thus improving the state of the art of the overall production control system architecture. This goal is achieved by introducing an innovative approach based on the combination of 3 different pillars, namely: i) embedded systems, ii) ontology-based knowledge management and iii) service- oriented architecture. The approach is called Open, Knowledge-Driven Manufacturing Execution System (OKD-MES).

Traditionally embedded devices have limited resources in terms of memory and processing (CPU) capabilities. However the development of communication technologies made it possible and affordable to integrate heterogeneous devices into a large networks as it become possible to implement on embedded devices different protocols stacks defined by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This includes web services protocols. A number of European and national projects have already demonstrated how to use web services at the level of embedded devices in the field of manufacturing. However, the integrated approach for manufacturing system development that would focus on provisioning of missing and supporting services that operate together with embedded devices has still to be developed. One of the main results for E-SCOP project is a service-oriented middleware that should allow to build and simulate factory and process control systems.

On general level, the proposed E-SCOP architecture is composed of three layers i) Physical layer, ii) Representation Layer and iii) Orchestration Layer. The Physical Layer contains embedded devices performing deterministic control and outsourcing some of the functions to the Representation Layer. These functions include device functionality description (to allow device integration into overall system), device interface description (to allow interactions with the device), and device visualization description (to allow customized look & feel for a device with a possible integration into Human-Machine Interface). The Representation Layer will utilize Web Ontology Language (OWL) 3 as system modeling, visualization and integration language. This is an important step in reducing costs for device interoperability and integration. The Representation Layer can be also used for simulation purposes to predict system evolution. The embedded devices at the Physical Layer will be dynamically updating the knowledge model of a system that is handled at the Representation Layer. The Orchestration Layer is introduced in order to have a supervisory control over the system. Here, the selection is to be made for possible best system configuration. Although integration and some decision-making and configuration functions are "outsourced" to Representation and Orchestration Layers of E-SCOP architecture, the aim of the project is to provide clear information binding mechanism for embedded devices to support the principle of information processing as close as possible to the information source. E-SCOP project will develop annotation or reference mechanism for embedded devices that would allow devices as these are added to the system to provide all the necessary pointers to the device-related information models (from device interface description to visualization at HMI).

The E-SCOP architecture is demonstrated on different use cases and pilots that include manufacturing, logistics and process industries.

Partners:

TUT, Department of Production Engineering, FAST-Lab
Fluidhouse Oy
SCM Group SPA
Politecnico di Milano
Incas SPA
University of West Bohemia
THT Control Oy
Warsaw University of Technology
Espeo Software Sp. z.o.o.
ICONICS Europe B.V.