Communication and container reconfiguration for cyber-physical production systems

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, aims to advance flexibility and reconfigurability in current production systems. This paper sets cyber-physical production systems in context with Industry 4.0 concepts and architectures. The combination points out the importance of the interplay between communication and component reconfiguration when changes occur. A solution that utilizes fog computing, container-based deployment and Kubernetes functionality is presented and evaluated in simplified reconfiguration scenarios. The findings show the feasibility and the challenges of the solution and point towards further research to successfully create reconfigurable cyber-physical production systems.