An engineering approach for industrial SoA-based systems of systems

Current implemented manufacturing and continuous production process systems are strongly being influenced by the fusion of mechatronics, communication, control and information technologies. The miniaturization of control and automation devices with embedded intelligence is transforming the production systems into a very large infrastructure, where different systems interact in a structural and behavioral manner for pursuing common goals. The result is a very large complex system-of systems (SoS). The application of the service-oriented architecture (SoA) paradigm is appearing as a promising approach to develop and implement the control and management of those SoS. This paper describes an approach to support the engineering of service-oriented based Industrial System-of-Systems and presents the first results of application of the approach to a real heterogeneous system composed of a district-heating, transportation and an electrical power distribution system.