Plug and participate for limited devices in the field of industrial automation

Plug and play technologies are mostly used in the field of hardware technology which means, that users plug new hardware components in their computers and the system reconfigures itself. This kind of technology might be adapted to the plant automation and therefore it could bring a big advantage to enterprises in the sense of providing more flexible plant structures. The paper provides an overview of the Jini plug and participate technology and compares the Jini requirements to the industrial (Java) platforms available today. Due to the fact, that industrial Java platforms often limit device platforms a Jini-like plug and participate technology called Pini is described. Specifically, this technology was originally developed for use on limited devices and their Java platforms.