Semantic communications between distributed cyber-physical systems towards collaborative automation for smart manufacturing

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is a crucial technology for collaborative manufacturing automation in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-empowered industrial networks. The new decentralized manufacturing automation paradigm features ubiquitous communication and interoperable interactions between machines. However, peer-to-peer (P2P) interoperable communications at the semantic level between industrial machines is a challenge. To address this challenge, we introduce a concept of Semantic-aware Cyber-Physical Systems (SCPSs) based on which manufacturing devices can establish semantic M2M communications. In this work, we propose a generic system architecture of SCPS and its enabling technologies. Our proposed system architecture adds a semantic layer and a communication layer to the conventional cyber-physical system (CPS) in order to maximize compatibility with the diverse CPS implementation architecture. With Semantic Web technologies as the backbone of the semantic layer, SCPSs can exchange semantic messages with maximum interoperability following the same understanding of the manufacturing context. A pilot implementation of the presented work is illustrated with a proof-of-concept case study between two semantic-aware cyber-physical machine tools. The semantic communication provided by the SCPS architecture makes ubiquitous M2M communication in a network of manufacturing devices environment possible, laying the foundation for collaborative manufacturing automation for achieving smart manufacturing. Another case study focusing on decentralized production control between machines in a workshop also proved the merits of semantic-aware M2M communication technologies.     

语义通讯——智能时代的产物*

通讯技术从信源信道编码,到载波调制机制,再到超宽带通讯,这些信号层面的通讯技术已逼近香农界,以传送数据或信号波形的当前通信技术往哪里发展？文中总结新型人工智能技术对通讯技术变革的引导作用,提出新的通讯方式,即语义通讯.相比当前通讯中的“形式通讯”,语义通讯的核心是“达意通讯”或“内容通讯”.它通过知识库的建立实现类似的目的,即“达意”通讯而非数据通讯,并且通过信息发送方与接收方之间知识库的匹配,实现信道的混用,提高容错率.这是一种真正意义上的人工智能通讯方式,即类脑通讯的方式.这种以“达意”为基础的类脑通讯将极大地减少实际需要传输的数据量,有效解决大数据时代对通讯技术带来的挑战.文中提出语义通讯的构想,并阐述语义通讯的基本特征,语义的基本元素、语义编码和解码,待研究内容以及需要解决的挑战问题.     

Requirements and languages for the semantic representation of manufacturing systems

In the last years, attention has been devoted to the development of ontologies, which are ICT conceptual models allowing a formal and shared representation of a particular domain of discourse, and to the use of these representations in a variety of contexts, among which also the industrial engineering can be counted. Within the industrial engineering field, the manufacturing domain has not yet seen a wide application of ontologies. This paper firstly shows the use of ontologies for the semantic annotation of a Web Service-based architecture for the control of manufacturing systems; and then contributes to the research field of manufacturing domain ontologies by proposing a thorough literature review and analysis of the available languages supporting such objective. The paper collects the main requirements that semantic languages must meet to be used in the manufacturing domain with the outlined purpose. In fact, the available semantic languages are several and characterized by different features: the paper identifies the most proper ones for the manufacturing domain representation thanks to their analysis against the main requirements. Lastly, the paper shows how the discussed topics are deployed in a real industrial example.     

Cyber-physical systems alter automation architectures

Recent automation systems are well structured according to tasks fulfilled by the functions executed on dedicated devices. These functional assignments are also reasons for the design and topology of fieldbus communication systems. New approaches like Cyber Physical System (CPS) require different approaches according to existing communication technologies and engineering. On one side the interaction models advance, and on the other side the demands for industrial plants become a lot more flexible. This article shows upcoming demands on automation systems and discusses new strategies for software deployment of automation applications and communication systems to fulfill these requirements. This includes handling of different types of functional coupling, e.g. loose coupling with internet/web based technologies for interaction and information management. In addition the current device models offering specific device functions have to be adapted to the new CPS approach.     

On agents and grids: Creating the fabric for a new generation of distributed intelligent systems

The semantic grid is the result of semantic web and grid researchers building bridges in recognition of the shared vision and research agenda of both fields. This paper builds on prior experiences with both agents and grids to illustrate the benefits of bringing agents into the mix. Because semantic grids represent and reason about knowledge declaratively, additional capabilities typical of agents are then possible including learning, planning, self-repair, memory organization, meta-reasoning, and task-level coordination. These capabilities would turn semantic grids into cognitive grids. Only a convergence of these technologies will provide the ingredients to create the fabric for a new generation of distributed intelligent systems.     

Enabling decentralised management through federation

Cross-domain management is an increasingly important concern in network management and such management capability is a key-enabler of many emerging computing environments. This paper analyses the requirements for management systems that aim to support flexible and general capability sharing between autonomously managed domains. It introduces a novel Layered Federation Model (LFM) to structure this requirements analysis and describes the Federal Relationship Manager (FRM) which instantiates several layers of this model. The FRM combines semantic mapping management and authority management technologies to help solve several of the general management problems that are encountered whenever organisations enter into capability sharing agreements. An overview of related work on federation and the technical underpinnings of our approach are discussed and our work’s particular relevance to real world problems is explained through two service-centric use cases which involve the end-to-end delivery of a multimedia stream to a user’s home across several independent operators. Finally, experimental results are presented to highlight the practical advantages of our approach.     

Measuring consumer perceptions for a better comprehension, specification and assessment of product semantics

Product semantics, the “study of the symbolic qualities of man-made forms in the context of their use, and application of this knowledge to industrial design” is an important challenge in product design. Because of subjectivity, this particular dimension of the user's need is difficult to express, to quantify and to assess. This paper presents a general approach to assess product semantics in a sound way. It is based on usability tests, and involves several classical methods in marketing and decision-making theory, as multidimensional scaling, semantic differential method, factor analysis, pairwise comparison and analytical hierarchy process. As a result, our integrated approach provides designers with a tool which helps understand and specify the semantic part of the need; it rates and ranks the new product prototypes according to their closeness to the specified “ideal product”, and it underlines the particular semantic dimensions that should be improved. To illustrate our approach, we have performed usability tests and applied our methodology to the design of table glasses. For the sake of clarity, each stage of the methodology is presented in detail on this particular example.

Relevance to industry

The integrated framework proposed in this paper can be readily deployed in companies and used at different stages of the design of products. Firstly, our methodology provides a frame for describing how a given products family is perceived by users, and for storing and up-dating these data. Secondly, the data can be used to specify target requirements for a new product by qualitative comparisons to existing products. Finally, emerging product concepts may be directly assessed with regards to the requirements in a simple qualitative and comparative way.     

Towards lean service bus architecture for industrial integration infrastructure and pull manufacturing strategies

The Lean Manufacturing approach requires advanced and efficient manufacturing technologies in order to meet customer demands. Manufacturing companies have increased their productivity and efficiency over time by implementing new strategies, business processes and IT solutions. Best practices also allow companies to achieve on-demand manufacturing through the integration of pull flow production strategy. In order to achieve agility to meet business needs, a key for success is a flexible integration of different information system components to enable the flow of exchanged data and information. To insure the agility of an enterprise’s organization, ISA S-95 standard can be used to determine which information has to be exchanged between system components. We propose an Industrial System Integration Architecture, a Lean Enterprise Service Bus which relies on Lean Manufacturing constraints based on semantic aspects with respect to the ISA S-95 standard. This architecture aims at enhancing the interoperability between the production system and the global enterprise information system in terms of business and manufacturing requirements and establishes semantic interoperability to achieve an industrial semantic.     

An Accessible Platform for People With Disabilities

This article discusses a modular, accessible platform that provides a computing environment for people with disabilities accessible through adapted control devices and the television set at users’ homes. Relying on a standard television set as the presentation device allows dependent individuals, especially people with disabilities, to introduce new technological advances in communication and information management in their everyday lives. As a proof-of-concept, the solution presented offers a collection of educational and training services related to teleworking and the search of employment targeted to people with disabilities. A smart job advisor included among these services, which was designed to help our target users to locate job offers that best suit the abilities and disabilities of a particular individual, is also discussed to illustrate how semantic technologies can be applied to increase the perceived accessibility and inclusion by reducing the dependence from other persons. The platform developed, the introduction of semantic technologies, and the way adapted interfacing and presentation devices were integrated may also serve as inspiration to provide services to people with disabilities.     

基于智能体和本体的WEB图像检索模型

针对基于关键词WEB图像检索中的语义缺失问题,利用本体的方法描述WEB图像的语义特征,构建了基于智能体和语义特征的WEB图像检索模型,该模型以领域Ontology描述WEB图像的语义特征,通过多个Agent模块分工协作,完成满足用户请求的WEB图像检索.并在Corel提供的图像上进行了仿真实验,验证了该模型解决了基于关键词WEB图像检索模型中的语义缺失问题,提高了WEB图像检索速度和准确率.     

基于语义网格门户的用户语义模型研究

现有的网格门户不能较好地满足用户的个性化的需求,对用户需求的缺乏语义描述,也没有资源的语义描述,不能很好满足用户需求的动态变化.网格门户能通过语义网技术来增强信息共享和社区用户交互.本文在域管理模型的基础上提出了语义社区概念,并以域服务器为基础构建具备用户语义模型的语义网格门户,用任务本体替换作业说明书改进任务调度.     

基于语义近似逼近技术的多代理协作

本体在多代理系统中起着重要的作用,它提供和定义了一个共享的语义词汇库。然而,在现实的多代理通讯的过程中,两个代理共享完全相同的语义词汇库是几乎不可能的。因为信息不完整以及本体的异构等特性,一个代理只能部分理解另外一个代理所拥有的本体内容,这使得代理间的通讯非常困难。本文就是探索利用近似逼近技术实现基于部分共享分布式本体的多代理通讯,从而实现多代理之间的协作查询。我们使用基于OWLweb本体语言的描述逻辑来描述分布式本体的近似查询技术。最终我们也开发了基于语义近似逼近方法的一个多代理协调查询系统。     

Software architecture knowledge for intelligent light maintenance

The maintenance management plays an important role in the monitoring of business activities. It ensures a certain level of services in industrial systems by improving the ability to function in accordance with prescribed procedures. This has a decisive impact on the performance of these systems in terms of operational efficiency, reliability and associated intervention costs. To support the maintenance processes of a wide range of industrial services, a knowledge-based component is useful to perform the intelligent monitoring. In this context we propose a generic model for supporting and generating industrial lights maintenance processes. The modeled intelligent approach involves information structuring and knowledge sharing in the industrial setting and the implementation of specialized maintenance management software in the target information system. As a first step we defined computerized procedures from the conceptual structure of industrial data to ensure their interoperability and effective use of information and communication technologies in the software dedicated to the management of maintenance (E-candela). The second step is the implementation of this software architecture with specification of business rules, especially by organizing taxonomical information of the lighting systems, and applying intelligence-based operations and analysis to capitalize knowledge from maintenance experiences. Finally, the third step is the deployment of the software with contextual adaptation of the user interface to allow the management of operations, editions of the balance sheets and real-time location obtained through geolocation data. In practice, these computational intelligence-based modes of reasoning involve an engineering framework that facilitates the continuous improvement of a comprehensive maintenance regime.     

A reference model of virtual service production networks

Virtual organisation of collaborative networks frequently demands for information and communication technology to support coordination of cross-organisational business process chains. Service-oriented software technologies provide promising means to regulate and enforce coordination of cross-organisational software service interactions but miss organisational abstractions and methodology. This paper proposes a conceptual reference model of collaborative network coordination that satisfies flexibility and agility requirements of virtual organisation by building on common software service abstractions and lifecycle methodology. In particular, the model focuses collaborative service networks and introduces the concept of virtual business service that represents business service processes as software service abstractions and supports flexible regulation and agile enforcement of their coordination by means of software service lifecycle methodology. For demonstration and evaluation purpose, we present a case study of service-oriented systems analysis for virtual organisation of a collaborative e-science network that adopts our conceptual reference model.     

Peer-to-peer semantic coordination

Semantic coordination, namely the problem of finding an agreement on the meaning of heterogeneous schemas, is one of the key issues in the development of the Semantic Web. In this paper, we propose a method for discovering semantic mappings across hierarchical classifications (HCs) based on a new approach, which shifts the problem of semantic coordination from the problem of computing linguistic or structural similarities (what most other proposed approaches do) to the problem of deducing relations between sets of logical formulae that represent the meaning of concepts belonging to different schema. We show how to apply the approach and the algorithm to an interesting family of schemas, namely hierarchical classifications, and present the results of preliminary tests on two types of hierarchical classifications, web directories and catalogs. Finally, we argue why this is a significant improvement on previous approaches.     

Dealing with software process requirements complexity: an information access proposal based on semantic technologies

Organizations developing software for critical sectors like aerospace, automotive, and medical systems need to apply process requirements coming from different sources: industrial standards, customer-provided requirements, and procedures from internal quality management systems. In these situations, software teams need to deal with complex sets of process requirements that govern different aspects of their work. This paper describes the development of a collaborative, web-based solution to improve access to process requirements. The solution makes use of semantic technologies to handle the context of process requirement. Requirements are contextualized by linking them to activities, tasks, and work products. With this tool, software engineers have a single point of access to all the applicable process requirements, avoiding the risk of missing relevant information.     

SemantEco: A semantically powered modular architecture for integrating distributed environmental and ecological data

We aim to inform the development of decision support tools for resource managers who need to examine large complex ecosystems and make recommendations in the face of many tradeoffs and conflicting drivers. We take a semantic technology approach, leveraging background ontologies and the growing body of linked open data. In previous work, we designed and implemented a semantically enabled environmental monitoring framework called SemantEco and used it to build a water quality portal named SemantAqua. Our previous system included foundational ontologies to support environmental regulation violations and relevant human health effects. In this work, we discuss SemantEco’s new architecture that supports modular extensions and makes it easier to support additional domains. Our enhanced framework includes foundational ontologies to support modeling of wildlife observation and wildlife health impacts, thereby enabling deeper and broader support for more holistically examining the effects of environmental pollution on ecosystems. We conclude with a discussion of how, through the application of semantic technologies, modular designs will make it easier for resource managers to bring in new sources of data to support more complex use cases.     

AIERO: An algorithm for identifying engineering relationships in ontologies

Semantic technologies are playing an increasingly popular role as a means for advancing the capabilities of knowledge management systems. Among these advancements, researchers have successfully leveraged semantic technologies, and their accompanying techniques, to improve the representation and search capabilities of knowledge management systems. This paper introduces a further application of semantic techniques. We explore semantic relatedness as a means of facilitating the development of more “intelligent” engineering knowledge management systems. Using semantic relatedness quantifications to analyze and rank concept pairs, this novel approach exploits semantic relationships to help identify key engineering relationships, similar to those leveraged in change management systems, in product development processes. As part of this work, we review several different semantic relatedness techniques, including a meronomic technique recently introduced by the authors. We introduce an aggregate measure, termed “An Algorithm for Identifying Engineering Relationships in Ontologies,” or AIERO, as a means to purposely quantify semantic relationships within product development frameworks. To assess its consistency and accuracy, AIERO is tested using three separate, independently developed ontologies. The results indicate AIERO is capable of returning consistent rankings of concept pairs across varying knowledge frameworks. A PCB (printed circuit board) case study then highlights AIERO’s unique ability to leverage semantic relationships to systematically narrow where engineering interdependencies are likely to be found between various elements of product development processes.     

Semantic Web Technologies for supporting learning assessment

The use of Semantic Web Technologies in eLearning has become more significant in recent years. A topic that has received less attention to date is the use of such technologies for supporting assessment processes. In this paper, an approach that makes use of Semantic Web Technologies to support the assessment of open questions in eLearning courses is described. This methodology combines domain ontologies, semantic annotations and semantic similarity measurements. It also incorporates an algorithm for extracting knowledge from students’ answers. It has been applied in different courses and the results are also reported and discussed. In our approach, the behaviour of the algorithm for calculating the referred semantic similarity is defined by the teacher.     

物联网发展关键技术研究

物联网发展的关键在于解决核心技术中存在的难点。重点研究了RFID、无线传感器网络和语义网格等物联网关键技术,采用融合多种关键技术解决了物联网应用难的问题。语义网格融合了语义Web机器可阅读和网格技术强大的计算能力;语义P2P技术解决了信息过载通信瓶颈问题,大大方便了传感器节点的部署以及传感器网络的扩展;采用本体技术实现了物联网中的信息语义的交互和共享,为物联网中信息的及时、无歧义理解提供了便利。