Extending Mechatronic Objects for Automation Systems Engineering in Heterogeneous Engineering Environments Thomas Moser, Richard Mordinyi and Dietmar Winkler Christian Doppler Laboratory “Software Engineering Integration for Flexible Automation Systems” Vienna University of Technology Vienna, Austria {firstname.lastname}@tuwien.ac.at Abstract Mechatronics is a multidisciplinary field of engineer- ing combining disciplines like mechanical, electronic or software engineering, in order to design and manufac- ture useful products. Nowadays, mechatronic engineer- ing is well-supported either by using integrated tool suites providing a homogeneous approach to engineer- ing, or by relying on established tool chains consisting of a set of engineering tools connected using a common data exchange format. However, in practice neither tool suites nor tool chains have become a de facto standard in engineering, leading to tedious and often manual integration efforts required to combine specific engi- neering tools or tool suites. This paper presents an engineering tool integration framework that allows the definition and usage of mech- atronic objects originating from heterogeneous engi- neering tools, so-called “engineering objects”. These engineering objects can additionally include project and organizational information, thus enabling exhaustive engineering process management and monitoring. The presented approach is evaluated in an industrial case study from the hydro power plant engineering domain. Major results are engineering objects that can include heterogeneous data, such as project or organization- specific information, thus enabling automated and there- fore more efficient synchronization between the involved engineering disciplines, as well as added-value applica- tions, like project monitoring or quality assured data import and export. 1. Introduction and Motivation Mechatronics is defined as an integrative discipline utilizing the technologies of mechanics, electronics and information technology to provide enhanced products, processes and systems [1]. It integrates the classical fields of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and software engineering at the design stage of a product or a system. Increased flexibility, versatility, intelligence level of products, safety, and reliability as well as lower energy consumption and cost are the gains achieved through applying mechatronic concepts to product de- sign [2]. Therefore, mechatronic engineering nowadays is well-supported either by using integrated tool suites (e.g., Siemens Portal 1 or EPLAN Engineering Center 2 However, in practice neither tool suites nor tool chains have become a de facto standard in automation systems engineering. Technically, a different and some- what overlapping terminology is being used which often hampers common understanding. This can be seen as a result of traditional development where the mechanical part of a system used to be the most complex and diffi- cult one [3]. But in reality, the complexity is slowly shifting to modeling and software engineering issues, requiring a uniform specification of the discrete and continuous parts of advanced mechatronic systems across all involved disciplines. This leads to tedious and often manual integration efforts required to combine specific engineering tools or tool suites, in order to fulfill the requirements of mechatronic engineering. ) providing a homogeneous approach to automation sys- tems engineering, or by relying on established tool chains consisting of a set of engineering tools connected using a common data exchange format. This paper presents the Automation Service Bus (ASB) [4], an Enterprise Service Bus [5] based integra- tion framework for systematically integrating automation systems engineering tools. The ASB addresses the se- mantic heterogeneity [6] of the engineering tools by modeling and providing the common concepts of the involved engineering disciplines using an explicit and machine-understandable format, the so-called “engineer- ing objects” (EOs). These EOs can additionally include project and organizational information, thus enabling exhaustive support of a set of different engineering pro- cesses, as well as automation support for the synchroni- zation between the involved engineering disciplines. Furthermore, they allow for added-value applications using these EOs, such as the Engineering Cockpit [7], an 1 http://www.automation.siemens.com/mcms/topics/en/tia 2 www.eplan.de/products/mechatronic/eplan-engineering-center/?L=1 Copyright: 17th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation