The Service-oriented Architecture (SoA) design concept is an evolution of previous approaches to warp and encapsulate data processing while the how and where the data is processed become transparent for the service consumer. The main advantages of SoA with respect to previous efforts reside on the well- established set of XML-based open standards for defining concepts such as: the description of the service, the communication among the services, and the discovering and connection between the services. The automation of production systems is becoming a software-intensive task, and therefore, is facing even more integration issues to those already identified in the early 80s and 90s. It is expected than the deployment of SoA via different approaches such as DPWS (Device Profile for Web Services) or OPC-UA (OPC-Unified Architecture) at the Factory Floor will relax these integration tasks. This presentation will provide the views on how to capitalize Information Infrastructures deployed as SoA by creating a Factory InfoStore, which in a way reassembles the concepts of the Stores for Applications of the consumer electronics business. It will stress the possibilities for introducing new actors for the production automation business, and also the potential utilization of the concept by SMEs.

1. The Factory InfoStore: Using SoA to
Easily Create Factory Applications
Date: October, 2013
Linked to: RTD Research at FAST-Lab.
Contact information
Tampere University of Technology,
FAST Laboratory,
P.O. Box 600,
FIN-33101 Tampere,
Finland
Email: fast@tut.fi
www.tut.fi/fast
Conference: The 9th conference of the
European Technology Platform on Future
Manufacturing
Technologies
(ETP
ManuFuture) was held on 6-8 October
2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Title of the paper: The Factory
InfoStore: Using SoA to Easily Create
Factory Applications
Authors: Jose L. Martinez Lastra
If you would like to receive a reprint of
the original paper, please contact us

2. The Factory InfoStore:
Using SoA to Easily Create Factory
Applications
Prof. Jose L. Martinez Lastra
lastra@ieee.org
FAST-Lab. Director
www.tut.fi/fast

3. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications
• videos

4. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications
• videos

5. Service-oriented Architecture
• A Service is a software interface that encapsulates the
functionality of a device or process
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SoA)
lis
h
Pu
b
– Service broker
Service Broker
ch
ar te
Se ca
Lo
– Service provider
– Service requestor
Service Provider
Invoke
Service Requestor
• The Service Broker is the mechanism for publishing and
locating providers of a process

6. Service Interface
• Web Services
– Ethernet and IP networks
– XML and SOAP
• Described by WSDL
– Web Service Description Language
– XML request and response messages
DPWS stack

7. Web Services in Devices
• A service encapsulates a controlled process
– Discrete operation
– A controlled and measurable change in the environment
• Varying granularity of services
– From basic operations...
• E.g. a servo-translation
– ... to complex processes
• E.g. a pick-and-place operation
• Complex processes can be
– An orchestrated composition of basic operations
– An encapsulation of a legacy equipment

8. Web Services and Integration
• Same technology:
–
–
–
–
low-level devices
machines
factory information systems
enterprise information systems
• Seamless vertical integration of heterogeneous elements
• Flexible information systems:
– System architecture dictated by requirements, not by technology

9. Semantic Web Services Overview
Motivation
• Desire to quickly (re)configure manufacturing systems
• Large variety and complexity of
– Available services
– Required orchestrations
• Automate (partially) the engineering processes of
selecting and composing services

10. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications
• videos

11. The Concept of Factory
Application

12. The Concept of Factory
Application

13. Some Benefits
• New potential biz opportunities for SMEs as
producers of Factory Applications:
– Encapsulation of their known how
– Potential new solutions based on non-direct
information
• Benefits for SMEs as users of the Factory
Applications:
– Tailor made solutions
– Transparent IT infrastructure (potentially
outsource to the cloud)

14. Factory InfoStore (an
example)

15. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications 1/2
• videos

16. Machine Visualization
Embedded HMI
Same data source
Same data source
Same interface
Same interface
Different applications
Different applications
Different exe platforms
Different exe platforms
From Silicon to the Cloud
From Silicon to the Cloud

17. Machine Visualization
HMI (Commercial Product)

18. Machine Visualization
HMI (3rd Party)

19. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications 2/2
• videos

20. Advanced Pallet information
System APIS
• The concept is scalable to wireless networks
deploying 6LowPAN
• APIS provides the positioning information, in
real-time, of manufacturing carriers
• By having the current position of each carrier
we can better control the production flow

21. Advanced Pallet information
System

22. Advanced Pallet Information
System

23. Advanced Pallet Information
System

24. Outline
• SoA: Fundamentals (revisited)
– Architecture
– Services
– (Semantic) Web Services
• Factory InfoStore
• (examples of) Factory Applications
• videos

25. Advanced Pallet information
System APIS
http://youtu.be/d_iMLPx8-tw
2:38 -> 3:43

26. The Factory InfoStore :
Using SoA to Easily
Create Factory
Applications
lastra@ ieee.org
www.tut.fi/fast
Semantic Web Services in Factory Automation: Fundamental Insights and Research
Roadmap. IEEE Trans. Industrial Informatics (TII) 2(1):1-11
A Semantic Web Services-based approach for production systems control. Advanced
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Semantics-based Composition of Factory Automation Processes Encapsulated by Web
Services. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TII.2012.2220554 (open access)
An agent-based system for orchestration support of web service-enabled devices in discrete
manufacturing systems. Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing Vol.23, Issue: 6, 2681-2702