Core Research and Innovation Areas in Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems

Machine intelligence today: applications, methodology, and technology

Machine intelligence, a.k.a. artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most prominent and relevant technologies today. It is in everyday use in the form of AI applications and has a strong impact on society. This article presents selected results of the 2020 Dagstuhl workshop on applied machine intelligence. Selected AI applications in various domains, namely culture, education, and industrial manufacturing are presented. Current trends, best practices, and recommendations regarding AI methodology and technology are explained. The focus is on ontologies (knowledge-based AI) and machine learning.

A CPS-Based Simulation Platform for Long Production Factories

Production technology in European steel industry has reached such a level, that significant improvements can only be reached by through process optimization strategies instead of separately improving each process step. Therefore, the connection of suitable technological models to describe process and product behavior, methods to find solutions for typical multi-criterial decisions, and a strong communication between involved plants is necessary. In this work, a virtual simulation platform for the design of cyber-physical production optimization systems for long production facilities focusing on thermal evolution and related material quality is presented. Models for describing physical processes, computers, software and networks as well as methods and algorithms for through process optimization were implemented and merged into a new and comprehensive model-based software architecture. Object-oriented languages are addressed and used because they provide modularity, a high-level of abstraction and constructs that allow direct implementation and usage of the cyber-physical production systems concepts. Simulation results show how the proper connection between models, communication, and optimization methods allows feasibility, safety and benefits of cyber-physical production systems to be established. Furthermore, the software architecture is flexible and general and thus, can be transferred to any steel production line as well as outside the steel industry.