Services in Automation

Abstract

Automation and ICT are moving more closely together, in particular against the background of concepts such as the digital factory or Industry 4.0. The Internet of Things and Internet of Services are applied in fields such as medicine, energy (e.g. smart grid) and manufacturing. The term service is used in different application domains and therefore it is part of different technologies. The architecture based on services is ambiguous and difficult to understand. This paper considers the characteristics, the models and the application of services in automation. It covers an abstract view of services, as assumed in I40, their structure, semantics and integration into automation devices, as well as the automatic configuration of service systems. The paper reflects the discussion at the EKA 2014 workshop.