Dynamic Co-Simulation of Internet-of-Things-Components using a Multi-Agent-System

Cover of Procedia volume 72Authors: Tobias Jung, Payal Shah, Michael Weyrich

Affiliation: University of Stuttgart, Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering, Pfaffenwaldring 47, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany

Reference: Jung, T., Shah, P., & Weyrich, M. (2018). Dynamic Co-Simulation of Internet-of-Things-Components using a Multi-Agent-System. In Procedia CIRP (Vol. 72, pp. 874–879).

Abstract: “The heterogeneity and dynamic of IoT-systems pose new challenges for their simulation, which can be met by a modular co-simulation. Therefore several existing co-simulation approaches are presented and evaluated. A new concept for a dynamic co-simulation of IoT-systems utilizing a multi-agent-system is presented, wherein each IoT-component is simulated in a separate simulation tool. Each separate simulation is represented by an agent, and therefore able to enter a running co-simulation dynamically during runtime, which allows for a “Plug-and-Simulate” behavior. The connection between agents and simulation tools is realized by an interface concept. The presented concept is evaluated by a prototypical implementation.”

DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2018.03.084

Comments: In co-simulation the different subsystems which form a coupled problem are modeled and simulated in a distributed manner. They point out that one of the most common domain-specific standards is CAPE-OPEN which is used to enable co-simulation in the process industry. They cite research at Imperial College on OSN Designer as an example of the co-simulation achieved through CAPE-OPEN. This shows that CAPE-OPEN is widely recognized as the de-facto standard in process simulation. Jung et al. argue further that “However it is not possible for simulation tools to be coupled during run-time.”. This does not seem as a valid statement. If the context in which process simulation is often used, i.e. process design, does not call for dynamic coupling of components, CAPE-OPEN does not prevent this coupling  and indeed the coupling through CAPE-OPEN happens at run-time, not while building a piece of software.

CAPE-OPEN related paper(s) cited:

  • OSN Designer, a tool for predicting organic solvent nanofiltration technology performance using Aspen One, MATLAB and CAPE OPEN. Peshev D. Livingston A. Chemical Engineering Science (2013) vol. 104 pp. 975-987