Concept and Implementation of a Factory Simulation

Current technological trends, such as cyber-physical systems and the industrial internet of things (IIoT), blur boundaries between software and hardware development. Industrial software systems control whole production factories by using advanced information technology approaches. Hence, the development of such systems requires a tight integration of data and processes between the different software systems, e.g., programmable logic controllers, production planning systems, or enterprise resource planning software.
This thesis provides the concept and implementation of a factory simulation including the development of a programmable logic controller (PLC) application based on PLC programming languages. The PLC application controls the execution of customizable production processes and generates process data, e.g., sensor data, production logs, or alarm events, which can be further analyzed, for example, in condition monitoring applications.