Agent-based Business Process Orchestration for IoT

The so-called Internet of Things is of increasing importance for facilitating productivity across industries, i.e., by connecting sensors with manufacturing lines and IT system landscapes with an increasing degree of autonomy. In this context, a common challenge is enabling reasonable trade-offs between structure and control on the one hand and flexibility and human-like intelligent behavior on the other hand. To address this challenge, we establish the need for and requirements of a hybrid IoT-/agent-based business process orchestration architecture that utilizes open standards. We propose a four-layered architecture, which integrates autonomous agents and business process orchestration for IoT/agents, and provide a running example for a supply chain management (purchasing) use case.