Ontology-Based Task Allocation for Heterogeneous Resources in Line-Less Mobile Assembly Systems

Springer eBooks, pp. 53–63

Abstract

Abstract Volatile markets and production request for assembly systems adaptable to changes of product types, production capacity, and product order. Computer-aided decision support systems facilitate scheduling, planning, and controlling adaptive and flexible assembly systems. Formal description models of resources and their capabilities, assembly tasks and their requirements are necessary for automated decision-making. This paper contributes a conceptual CAPabILity-based resource AllocatioN Ontology (CAPILANO). The ontology is tailored as a uniform description of heterogeneous assembly resources and their (combined) capabilities, connected to a capability-based task allocation approach. The intended application of the resulting framework is the identification of suitable assembly resources in Line-less Mobile Assembly Systems (LMAS) and their allocation to assembly tasks, based on a unified and formal description. To date, ontologies in assembly have been limited to querying resources and their capabilities; here, subsequent task allocation is presented as an integral component of a tailored framework. The resulting framework consists of a model of heterogeneous resources and their capabilities in an ontology created in Protégé in OWL, SPARQL-based querying, and a consecutive and availability-aware task allocation in Python. The development of the ontology-based task allocation framework, including ontology taxonomy, querying and task allocation, is discussed. Its applicability in LMAS is demonstrated through linear scalability of task allocation and future advances are discussed.

Authors 3

1. Aline Kluge‐Wilkes corresponding Aachen Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management Department Model-based Systems Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management, Department Model-based Systems, Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL of RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

2. Balaji Gunaseelan Aachen Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management Department Model-based Systems Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management, Department Model-based Systems, Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL of RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

3. Robert Heinrich Schmitt Aachen Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management Department Model-based Systems Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology

   RWTH Aachen University · Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management, Department Model-based Systems, Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL of RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany

   Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT), Aachen, Germany