A field level architecture for reconfigurable real-time automation systems

Rapidly changing customer demands lead to a paradigm shift from mass production to mass customization within the manufacturing industry. However, todays production systems are of a very static nature. Changing the manufacturing process requires a high amount of expensive human resources and is quite error prone. Hence, reconfigurability will become a key factor in the manufacturing industry and industrial automation systems must provide suitable solutions to support this new paradigm. Service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are a potential technology which can provide the requested capability of automatic reconfiguration. Originating from the IT world, the adaptation of SOAs to industrial automation systems has to face several difficulties - especially real-time requirements must be met. This paper proposes an innovative solution approach for the integration of a SOA into real-time systems for industrial automation.