Deploying software functionality to manufacturing resources safely at runtime

Abstract : Automated manufacturing systems are becoming increasingly flexible in order to support a growing number of different products and product variations, as well as shortening lot sizes and product life cycles. Many manufacturing resource are already multi-purpose. But they are integrated in an automation infrastructure that may require significant effort to adapt. In this contribution, we present a system architecture for the deployment of software functionality to manufacturing resources safely at runtime. The architecture integrates software model verification to ensure the integrity of new functionality, software-defined networking (SDN) to establish new communication pathways for collaboration, and the close interaction between a flexible runtime execution environment and its safety-critical counterpart.