Private local automation clouds built by CPS: Potential and challenges for distributed reasoning

The employment of cyber-physical systems allows the control of processes in modern production lines. On the other hand, several research works have recently presented how ontology-based knowledge representation can be a suitable method for modelling industrial systems. However, system models are located far away from where the data is generated which adds complexity for cross-domain communications and resource management. Current embedded devices can encapsulate ontological models that can be accessed as local resources. This article presents the integration of interconnected devices as the computational nodes of a cloud which is private and local. In this way, functionalities, such as knowledge management and process control can be performed closer to the industrial equipment. Moreover, this research work discusses the potential and challenges for performing distributed reasoning in the private local automation cloud. In addition, the article describes main aspects of the system architecture and the behaviour of the networked embedded devices in the cloud. The research work results will be used as a high-level roadmap for further system implementation.