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"the thing is not enough" [message #1702003]

Fri, 17 July 2015 07:13

Eclipse User

Looking at various activities in the Context of IoT and Industrie 4.0 I came to the conclusion that we might lack some thing. It seems like more and more things are evolving providing more and more functionality. Everybody is claiming that things will interact in an intelligent way - simply "I can't really see that happen" in a significant way.

Ok - there are fitness trackers controlling my heating system. There is a car opening the garage and so on, but... Is that it ?

My experience in developing software close to "things" very often is: I create something nice and functional - later on there is a better integrated solution and I replace my thing with a better one replacing the first technology lock-in with the second one.

So I wonder if we are not simply lacking the "Top Down view" to the topic where we try to focus the Interaction of things and integration into the real world.

I have seen some nice domain-specific things in Smart Home where concepts like ROOM or SCENE are introduced to abstract komplex dependancies between states of the Lights in specific areas of my house.

I see the same being in the center of interest with Industrie 4.0 where all Things have to contribute to one common Target within the limits of physically possible business processes. What is your opinion here. Is this simply manageable by using the Concept of things and attributes ?

Re: "the thing is not enough" [message #1702172 is a reply to message #1702003]

Mon, 20 July 2015 09:19

Eclipse User

Hello Jens,

my answer here is no. This is not manageable only with the concept of things and attributes. Complex dependencies between things have to be managed using other concepts. For example in the smart home domain often rule engines allow to model complex interactions. But there are also other contexts where complex dependencies appear - topology is one of them. Vorto with its current scope only covers the description of devices. It is not in scope of the project to model solutions etc. However Vorto can support other tools with its code generators. For example if you have a tool that allows to model a complex architecture that contains topologies, dependencies, devices, etc. Vorto could provide the device information in the required format. Do you use specific tools for modeling the interaction of things or for modelling IoT architectures? Do you have suggestions or ideas for the scope of Vorto?

Re: "the thing is not enough" [message #1710637 is a reply to message #1702172]

Thu, 08 October 2015 03:02

Eclipse User

Hi, good to know we have a common ground. looking from a system perspective we would say there are loads of different aspects to things or their relations which make it very hard to define one common understanding. Seeing that Vorto currently addresses the physical edge of devices is pretty promising. Our assumption in the industrie domain is that we will need domain specific languages to formalize every individual aspect with a limited complexity. On the other hand we assume that it is essential that there is also one language to connect the invaluable information about various aspects within theses this models together.

Currently we are investigating into defining ontologies which are capable to build relations between models that are about to be created or already existing (e.g. CAD-Drawings, Bills of material and so on). To limit complexity we found this ontology on powerful, accepted standards (in our domain e.g. ISA-95) or even better on already existing ontologies (like FOUF or so).

We use existing semantic standards like RDF or OWL to formalize the Ontologies and tools like Portege for modelling them. In a current process we do a proof of concept to "proof" that we are more flexible with using these ontologies for a runtime environment and to prove that we are able to manage complexity. If that PoC is successful we will dive deeper in making the creation and integration of these Models by domain specific languages easier to broaden the community of domain experts that are able to formalize their knowledge. When it comes to this stage we are more than happy to get into contact with the Vorto Modelling tools again and to find out how we could enhance or integrate our ideas. Also we are seeking for colaboration to evolve our views on the models.

Regards Jens

Re: "the thing is not enough" [message #1711380 is a reply to message #1710637]

Thu, 15 October 2015 08:30

Eclipse User

Hi Jens,

this sounds really interesting. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information about Vorto. We are looking forward to collaborate with you!

Regards,

Olaf

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