Multi-objective device selection approach for component-based automation systems

Composing distributed automation systems from components is challenging due to large variety and number of available components on the market. Multiple criteria need to be considered such as functional coverage, price, interoperability, vendor homogeneity, and energy. The paper introduces a novel heuristic approach for selecting devices considering such criteria. The performance of the approach is compared against alternative approaches in practical relevant scenarios. The results show that the approach is able to identify good design solution candidates according to the criteria and outperforms alternative approaches in the combination of quality and computational performance.