From Mechatronic Components to Industrial Automation Things - An IoT model for cyber-physical manufacturing systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces an IoT model for cyber-physical manufacturing systems by transforming mechatronic components into Industrial Automation Things using a software layer called IoTwrapper, enabling seamless integration into Industry 4.0 environments.

Contribution

It proposes a novel IoT model for manufacturing, including an automated transformation process from legacy mechatronic components to IoT-compliant industrial automation objects.

Findings

Prototype implementation demonstrates effective transformation of mechatronic components.

The model facilitates integration of legacy systems into IoT-based industrial environments.

The approach enhances automation and interoperability in manufacturing systems.

Abstract

IoT is considered as one of the key enabling technologies for the fourth industrial revolution, that is known as Industry 4.0. In this paper, we consider the mechatronic component as the lowest level in the system composition hierarchy that tightly integrates mechanics with the electronics and software required to convert the mechanics to intelligent (smart) object offering well defined services to its environment. For this mechatronic component to be integrated in the IoT-based industrial automation environment, a software layer is required on top of it to convert its conventional interface to an IoT compliant one. This layer, that we call IoTwrapper, transforms the conventional mechatronic component to an Industrial Automation Thing (IAT). The IAT is the key element of an IoT model specifically developed in the context of this work for the manufacturing domain. The model is compared to existing IoT models and its main differences are discussed. A model-to-model transformer is presented to automatically transform the legacy mechatronic component to an IAT ready to be integrated in the IoT-based industrial automation environment. The UML4IoT profile is used in the form of a Domain Specific Modeling Language to automate this transformation. A prototype implementation of an Industrial Automation Thing using C and the Contiki operating system demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.