Based on the semantic information models at the core of CaSkade, engineering methods were developed to efficiently build modular plants with capabilities and skills and to use capabilities and skills for manufacturing control.

Engineering Solutions

The use of a semantic model of capabilities and skills is a rather new approach to modeling and providing machine functions. The problem, however, is that semantic models have so far played no role at all in mechanical engineering or programming of machine functions. But there are a lot of advantages to the CaSkade approach of using semantic models:

  • Semantic models allow a formal, machine-interpretable representation of knowledge about machines and their functions
  • By using unique identifiers (IRIs), data from different sources can be linked and model elements can be linked with rich information. For example, manufacturers can expand the standards-based models with their own information or users can subsequently link model elements to each other.
  • Models can be automatically checked for correctness and completeness. For example, incorrectly modeled capabilities and skills can be detected before problems arise during execution.
  • The SPARQL query language can be used to formulate complex queries, e.g. to filter capabilities according to certain criteria
  • Rules can be used to infer new facts from existing knowledge. In this way, implicit expert knowledge can be made explicit and accessible for queries, for example.

But how can such semantic models be created in an efficient way by mechanical engineers or software developers without ontology expertise? With our CaSkade engineering Solutions!

Manufacturing Planning and Control

With the previously mentioned engineering solutions, a semantic capability and skill model can be efficiently created. But how can the created models of machines and their functionalities be used at runtime? More specifically...

  • How can modular plants with their individual resources be managed?
  • How can new capabilities and skills be registered and selected for a certain task?
  • How can flexible manufacturing processes be defined based on capabilities and skills?
  • Is it possible to automatically derive a sequence of capabilities for a certain task at hand?
  • And how can individual skills be invoked with different technologies such as OPC-UA or HTTP?
  • How can complex processes be represented using capabilities and skills and augmented with additional functionalities such as messaging, error handling or manual tasks?
  • Can such processes be executed in an automated manner to realize a capability and skill-based manufacturing control?

All these things are covered by our solutions for manufacturing planning and control.