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Industry 4.0 production comprises complicated highly automated processes. However, human activities are also a crucial component of these processes, e.g., for machine main- tenance. Task assignment of human resources in this domain is challenging, as many factors have to be taken into account to ensure effective and efficient activity execution and satisfy special conditions (like worker safety). To overcome the limita- tions of current Business Process Management (BPM) Systems regarding activity resource assignment, this contribution provides a BPM-integrated approach that applies fuzzy sets for activity assignment. Our findings suggest that this approach can be easily applied to complex production scenarios, while providing efficient performance even with a large number of concurrent activity assignment requests. Additionally, our evaluation shows its potential for improved work distribution which can lead to cost savings in Industry 4.0 production processes.
Today’s Industry 4.0 Smart Factories involve complicated and highly automated processes. Nevertheless, certain crucial activities such as machine maintenance remain that require human involvement. For such activities, many factors have to be taken into account, like worker safety or worker qualification. This adds to the complexity of selection and assignment of optimal human resources to the processes and overall coordination. Contemporary Business Process Management (BPM) Systems only provide limited facilities regarding activity resource assignment. To overcome these, this contribution pro- poses a BPM-integrated approach that applies fuzzy sets and rule processing for activity assignment. Our findings suggest that our approach has the potential for improved work distribution and cost savings for Industry 4.0 production processes. Furthermore, the scalability of the approach provides efficient performance even with a large number of concurrent activity assignment requests and can be applied to complex production scenarios with minimal effort.
Leveraging Augmented Reality to Support Context-Aware Tasks in Alignment with Business Processes
(2021)
The seamless inclusion of Augmented Reality (AR) with Business Process Management Systems (BPMSs) for Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 processes remains a challenge. Towards this end, this paper contributes an approach integrating context-aware AR into intelligent business processes to support and guide manufacturing personnel tasks and enable live task assignment optimization and support task execution quality. Our realization extends two BPMSs (Camunda and AristaFlow) and various AR devices. Various AR capabilities are demonstrated via a simulated industrial case study.
Production processes in Industry 4.0 settings are usually highly automated. However, many complicated tasks, such as machine maintenance, must be executed by human workers. In current smart factories, such tasks can be supported by Augmented Reality (AR) devices. These AR tasks rely on high numbers of contextual factors like live data from machines or work safety conditions and are mostly not well integrated into the global production process. This can lead to various problems like suboptimal task assignment, over-exposure of workers to hazards like noise or heat, or delays in the production process. Current Business Process Management (BPM) Systems (BPMS) are not capable of readily taking such factors into account. There- fore, this contribution proposes a novel approach for context- integrated modeling and execution of processes with AR tasks. Our practical evaluations show that our AR Process Framework can be easily integrated with prevalent BPMS. Furthermore, we have created a comprehensive simulation scenario and our findings suggest that the application of this system can lead to various benefits, like better quality of AR task execution and cost savings regarding the overall Industry 4.0 processes.
Although production processes in Industry 4.0 set- tings are highly automated, many complicated tasks, such as machine maintenance, continue to be executed by human workers. While smart factories can provide these workers with some digitalization support via Augmented Reality (AR) devices, these AR tasks depend on many contextual factors, such as live data feeds from machines in view, or current work safety conditions. Although currently feasible, these localized contextual factors are mostly not well-integrated into the global production process, which can result in various problems such as suboptimal task assignment, over-exposure of workers to hazards such as noise or heat, or delays in the production process. Current Business Process Management (BPM) Systems (BPMS) were not particularly designed to consider and integrate context-aware factors during planning and execution. This paper describes the AR-Process Framework (ARPF) for extending a BPMS to support context-integrated modeling and execution of processes with AR tasks in industrial use cases. Our realization shows how the ARPF can be easily integrated with prevalent BPMS. Our evaluation findings from a simulation scenario indicate that ARPF can improve Industry 4.0 processes with regard to AR task execution quality and cost savings.
Enterprise Architecture (EA) Frameworks (EAFs) have attempted to support comprehensive and cohesive modeling and documentation of the enterprise. However, these EAFs were not conceived for today’s rapidly digitalized enterprises and the associated IT complexity. A digitally-centric EAF is needed, freed from the past restrictive EAF paradigms and embracing the new potential in a data-centric world. This paper proposes an alternative EAF that is digital, holistic, and digitally sustainable - the Digital Diamond Framework. D2F is designed for responsive and agile enterprises, for aligning business plans and initiatives with the actual enterprise state, and addressing the needs of EA for digitized structure, order, modeling, and documentation. The feasibility of D2F is demonstrated with a prototype implementation of an EA tool that applies its principles, showing how the framework can be practically realized, while a case study based on ArchiSurance example and an initial performance and scalability characterization provide additional insights as to its viability.
Databases are becoming an ubiquitous and integral part of most software as the data era and the Internet of Everything unfolds. Alternative database types such as NoSQL grow in popularity and allow data to be stored and accessed more simply or in new ways. Thus, software developers, not just database specialists, are more likely to encounter and need to deal with databases. Virtual Reality (VR) technology has grown in popularity, yet its integration in the software development tool chain has been limited. One potential application area for VR technology that has not been sufficiently explored is database-model visualization. This paper describes Virtual Reality Immersion in Data Models (VRiDaM), a generic database-model approach for visualizing, navigating, and conveying database-model information interactively. It describes and explores both native VR and WebVR solution concepts, with prototypes showing the viability of the approach.
As the amount of software source code increases, manual approaches for documentation or detection of software design patterns in source code become inefficient relative to the value. Furthermore, typical automatic pattern detection tools are limited to a single programming language. To address this, our Design Pattern Detection using Machine Learning (DPDML) offers a generalized and programming language agnostic approach for automated design pattern detection based on machine learning (ML). The focus of our evaluation was on ensuring DPDML can reasonably detect one design pattern in the structural, creational, and behavioral category for two popular programming languages (Java and C#). 60 unique Java and C# code projects were used to train the artificial neural network (ANN) and 15 projects were then used to test pattern detection. The results show the feasibility and potential for pursuing an ANN approach for automated design pattern detection.
DEKXTROSE: An Education 4.0 Mobile Learning Approach and Object-Aware App Based on a Knowledge Nexus
(2020)
The exponential growth in knowledge coupled with the decreasing knowledge half-life creates a challenging situation for educational programs - particularly those preparing software engineers for their very dynamic high-technology field. Teachers in high technology education areas are challenged in selecting and making relevant knowledge intuitively accessible to students, especially with regard the highly dynamic digital and software technologies. This paper contributes a knowledge nexus-based multimedia approach aligned with Higher Education 4.0 for creating learning apps on mobile devices that support multiple didactic models, leverage intrinsic curiosity and motivation, support gamification, and enable digital collaboration. Object recognition is used to trigger learning paths, and various didactic methods are supported via workflow-like learning flows to support group or team-based learning. A prototype app was realized to demonstrate its feasibility and an empirical evaluation in software engineering shows the didactic potential and advantages of the approach, which can be readily generalized and applied to the arts, sciences, etc.
The volume of program source code created, reused, and maintained worldwide is rapidly increasing, yet code comprehension remains a limiting productivity factor. For developers and maintainers, well known common software design patterns and the abstractions they offer can help support program comprehension. However, manual pattern documentation techniques in code and code-related assets such as comments, documents, or models are not necessarily consistent or dependable and are cost-prohibitive. To address this situation, we propose the Hybrid Design Pattern Detection (HyDPD), a generalized approach for detecting patterns that is programming-language-agnostic and combines graph analysis (GA) and Machine Learning (ML) to automate the detection of design patterns via source code analysis. Our realization demonstrates its feasibility. An evaluation compared each technique and their combination for three common patterns across a set of 75 single pattern Java and C# public sample pattern projects. The GA component was also used to detect the 23 Gang of Four design patterns across 258 sample C# and Java projects as well as in a large Java project. Performance and scalability were measured. The results show the advantages and potential of a hybrid approach for combining GA with artificial neural networks (ANN) for automated design pattern detection, providing compensating advantages such as reduced false negatives and improved F1 scores.