A Cloud-Fog Continuum Computing Architecture for Cyber-Manufacturing Systems

Abstract

Cyber-Manufacturing System (CMS) is a vision for the factory of the future, where physical components and processes are seamlessly integrated with computing processes to form highly adaptive and responsive manufacturing operations. In CMS, manufacturing resources and capabilities are digitized and shared with users and stakeholders through a local area network (LAN) and the Internet. CMS aims to utilize the manufacturing data obtained during all product lifecycle phases to provide agile and scalable manufacturing solutions. Currently, a centralized cloud-based computing environment supported by the distributed Internet of Things (IoT) devices network is used to enable the typical functionalities—such as manufacturing resource sharing and large-scale manufacturing collaborations. However, facing the explosion of manufacturing data from factory floors, cloud-based computing solutions show limitations in providing low-latency services, performing real-time state analysis, configuring the machines, and controlling other executors in the physical manufacturing end. Furthermore, private production data and technical details cannot be appropriately masked in the public cloud platform. In this research, a Cloud-Fog Continuum Computing Architecture is introduced to better utilize and govern the manufacturing data for manufacturing enterprise stakeholders and customers in CMS. A Hadoop-Raspberry Pi computing system is presented as a proof-of-concept of the proposed continuum computing mechanism to provide machining services in CMS.