Automated Generation of MTP Skeletons Based on Ontologies

While modular plants and their modular automation have received increasing attention in the wake of the development of a standardized interface, the Module Type Package (MTP), suitable approaches for systematic support in early phases of their engineering are still missing. Particularly in early engineering phases, a continuous collaboration between multiple engineering disciplines is essential to define what is required in terms of services and modular automation using MTP. In this contribution, the authors propose an approach for an automated generation of MTP skeletons based on ontologies in the early engineering phases. The approach uses intention-based engineering, wherein the first steps intentions and required functionalities of the modular plant are defined and, subsequently, MTP services are modeled inside an ontology. In a further step, this ontology is automatically transformed into an MTP skeleton representing an MTP without instance-specific implementation of the services. The approach has been evaluated using the Tennessee Eastman Process (TEP), a widely known reference process for control systems design and analysis.