D5.8 Interoperability for M2M & HMI in factory environments II

A public report, led by TNI-UCC, documenting the Interoperability for M2M & HMI in factory environments; this updates D5.7
 

COMPOSITION aims to develop an integrated information management system (IIMS) for the manufacturing industry which optimises the internal production processes by exploiting existing data, knowledge and tools to increase productivity and dynamically adapt to changing market requirements.

This deliverable is part of work package 5, which is investigating the key enabling technologies for inter and intra-factory interoperability and is intended to act as an early guide and initial frame of reference. This report examines the human machine interface (HMI) and machine to machine interface (M2M) within the factory environment and the underlying opportunities and challenges.

The Industry (‘Industrie’) 4.0 working group has proposed a vision of the latest industrial revolution through the use of cyber physical systems.  Factories will be capable of dynamically changing their business and engineering processes based on real time information at every level of the value chain. An important step in achieving this new factory model is to increase the interoperability between machinery and machinery (M2M) on the factory floor and also between human machine interfaces (HMIs).

This report will utilise the methodologies of industry 4.0 as a reference. This report outlines the challenges and value of information and communication technology (ICT) with respect to inter-operability. It describes the general emerging technologies in ICT today and how they will define the factory of the future. The next section then describes the methodologies and standards which are being used in the report. The new vision of a factory of the future through industry 4.0 is described in detail with respect to interoperability. The general reference architecture of a manufacturing plant is given with a brief description of systems that operate at each level. The machine to machine communication protocols that are used in manufacturing are described in detail. The strengths and weaknesses of each protocol are discussed and a comparison is made between the protocols.

Furthermore a section on human machine interfacing HMI incorporating a scientific methodology of evaluation is provided. The common user interfaces used in industry today are discussed along with some emerging technologies which are expected to redefine what is expected from HMI. The last section discusses the use cases of the COMPOSITION project from the perspective of interoperability. Each use case is discussed briefly and accordingly a suggestion is made on the interoperability requirements.