IT support of mechatronic networks: A brief survey

The contribution of IT in reshaping the industrial automation contexts is undeniable. If years of investment in research have not been in vain, the next generation of automation devices shall be IT enabled. This research has been carried out in multidisciplinary teams fusing the Academia and Industry and has developed along two main lines: theoretical production paradigms and IT middleware support. This paper mainly concerns the second as it provides the instantiation mechanisms for the former. There is an ongoing dispute between Multiagent and Service Oriented concepts and platforms as implementation constructs. The literature is vast in detailing their application potential and inherent benefits. There is however a set of technical challenges that must be addressed if the next generation of IT-ready devices is to be properly exploited and the true value of emerging production paradigms extracted. In this context, the present paper reviews the main technical challenges matching them against a brief survey on recent research initiatives and supporting platforms.

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