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Engineering tool and tool chain architecture

The foreseen innovations related to the Integration platform are:

  • Engineering tools and development environment integrated with the SOA integration and in- teroperability platform

The OT/IT integrated engineering procedures will put new requirements to integration platforms and development tools and environments in particular.

The primary integration platform will be based on Arrowhead Framework with integration to legacy engineering process and associated tools as well as to other initiatives like e.g. FiWare, IDS, Eclipse, Apache and commercially important cloud platforms like e.g. Microsoft Azure, Amazone, Google, ThingSphere. The ambition is to mature the Arrowhead Framework platform and associated tools such targeting engineering efficiency through a set of closely integrated engineering tools and tool chains.

Arrowhead Tools will investigate existing SOA approaches to make efficient data handover between tools used to engineer, operate, maintain and evolve digitalisation and automation solutions. From the product development domain we find OSLC which is based on REST/http protocol. Since the Arrowhead Framework can handle REST/http an interesting advancement would be to use the Arrowhead Framework for tool chain integration. The ambition of Arrowhead Tools is then to merge the OSLC properties with Arrowhead Framework providing a simple platform that can integrate engineering tool, digital twins, ERP system, MES systems, SCADA systems, DCS’s, PLC’s etc in one platform. The distributed nature of the Arrowhead Framework based on local clouds allows to separate all these operations and activities, ensuring e.g. engineering, operation, maintenance, evolution, platform real-time, security, safety, while still having a common integration platform. An additional ambition is to provide input to the Artemis CP-SETIS work on Interoperability Specification, IOS. 

The engineering procedures, the integration platform, its associated tools, the tool chain integration technology described above will be demonstrated, verified and tested in a number of commercially motivated use cases. There are in total technology 21 use cases defined within Arrowhead Tools in application areas like e.g. Automotive, Medical, Manufacturing, Building management, Teaching, Mining.

The Arrowhead Tools starting point has been the automation engineering standard IEC 81346. As a first proposal to adapt the standard to automation/digitalisation system life cycle management is depicted, as seen in this figure:

The IEC 81346 engineering procedure model with extension allowing for automation system life cycle management.

Arrowhead Tools have designed and agreed on 22 use cases covering the whole IEC 81346 and the here proposed extensions. Thus tools and tool chains to be verified in realistic settings. Each use case has a focus to one of the seven engineering phases see in above figure.