Description of manufacturing processes using AutomationML

The engineering of manufacturing systems has been changed within the last years. Based on the increasing application of intelligent software tools the programming and configuration of control devices can be made on higher abstraction layers than before. In parallel the usable amount of control devices, information processing units, and engineering tools has increased. Several vendors have developed their own tool sets to enable a most efficient application of their devices. Hence, a very heterogeneous tool landscape has been established. This trend will continue. Standardization can assist the development and application of all-purpose tools as well as support the application of best-of-bread tools. This article intends to support this standardization process by discussing the application of the AutomationML data format with respect to its applicability for manufacturing process description. It will be shown that AutomationML can be exploited to model the workflow of process and its relationship to products and manufacturing resources in an abstract and tool independent way. Thereby, manufacturing tools and resources, work pieces, and geometrical and time related process flow as well as their characteristic parameters are combined appropriately. Thus, this paper presents a way to transmit process descriptions and process requirements between engineering tools for the first time.