A Hierarchical Domain-Specific Language for Cyber-physical Production Systems Integrating Asset Administration Shells

Due to the distributed architecture of cyber-physical production systems (CPPS), the design of automation software is difficult and error-prone. It requires process domain-specific knowledge and a service-oriented approach to be able to design a requirement-specific solution. Previous software design methods for CPPS have several drawbacks. Either these insufficiently take into account the properties of distributed systems or, in the case of Domain-Specific Languages (DSL), their focus lies on interaction logic rather than on production-specific specialties. Similarly, the possibilities for using information from the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) have so far not been integrated. Therefore, we propose a new service-oriented hierarchical DSL consisting of layers with different levels of abstraction, allowing successive and distributed software design with different degrees of detail. Hence, both process engineers and software engineers can work together during the software developing process. By incorporating information from the AAS, a static and also dynamic parameterization of the individual DSL services becomes possible. Finally, a case-study in the field of process engineering demonstrates the advantages and the applicability of the proposed approach.