Unified Plug&Produce architecture for automatic integration of field devices in industrial environments

By introducing approaches like the “Smart Factory” and the “Internet of Things”, companies try to ready their manufacturing systems for the needs of the future. The aim is to increase the changeability of these systems through intelligent and self-configuring devices. Prerequisite is an appropriate communication capability down to the lowest sensor level, which is, however, difficult to achieve in current industrial environments. This article describes the origin of this complexity and the requirements future factories will have to meet. Based on the analysis of current industrial environments, a system architecture is developed, allowing the automatic integration of field devices from heterogeneous communication networks. The concept is compatible with existing devices and presents a unified information model for the standardized data exchange with other information systems.