Orchestration of hybrid plants

Towards integration of PackML machines into modular process plants

Abstract

Modular plants are a promising option to address upcoming flexibility, changeability, and interoperability requirements both in discrete manufacturing and process industry. Currently, there are two standards defining orchestration interfaces of physical modules: Module Type Package (MTP) and PackML, used in process and manufacturing plants, respectively. Despite a high-level
similarity, conceptual and technical differences between those two standards have a negative impact on  interoperability. This is especially severe in hybrid  production facilities which utilize both equipment  standards at the same time (e.g., pharmaceuticals or battery production). In this work we address this issue by presenting an automatic mapping from PackML to MTP. Our approach is implemented by extending an MTP  compatible Process Orchestration Layer (POL) system with PackML interfaces and validating it with two independent software implementations of PackML OPC UA interfaces.