Assessing the Integration of Software Agents and Industrial Automation Systems with ISO/IEC 25010

TL;DR

This paper proposes a standardized assessment methodology based on ISO/IEC 25010 to evaluate and select best practices for integrating software agents with industrial automation systems, addressing a gap in current criteria.

Contribution

It introduces a novel assessment criteria and methodology for comparing agent integration practices in industrial systems using ISO/IEC 25010 standards.

Findings

Identified key quality characteristics for agent-integration in industrial systems.

Developed a methodology for use case-based selection of integration practices.

Conducted expert survey revealing insights into integration challenges.

Abstract

Agent-technologies have been used for higher-level decision making in addition to carrying out lower-level automation and control functions in industrial systems. Recent research has identified a number of architectural patterns for the use of agents in industrial automation systems but these practices vary in several ways, including how closely agents are coupled with physical systems and their control functions. Such practices may play a pivotal role in the Cyber-Physical System integration and interaction. Hence, there is a clear need for a common set of criteria for assessing available practices and identifying a best-fit practice for a given industrial use case. Unfortunately, no such common criteria exist currently. This work proposes an assessment criteria approach as well as a methodology to enable the use case based selection of a best practice for integrating agents and industrial systems. The software product quality model proposed by the ISO/IEC 25010 family of standards is used as starting point and is put in the industrial automation context. Subsequently, the proposed methodology is applied, and a survey of experts in the domain is carried out, in order to reveal some insights on the key characteristics of the subject matter.