Classification of Knowledge Representation Implementations in the Manufacturing Systems Domain

Ontologies are presented as a powerful mechanism for integration of components that are located in different levels of the ISA-95 automation pyramid, which is widely known in the industrial automation domain. Hence, the development of systems that use knowledge representation is a feasible manner for the reduction of efforts, e.g. in vertical communication implementation. This kind of research is challenging because of the quantity of cross-layer information exchange. In fact, as industrial automation systems are, by nature, dynamic, process control components must be capable of adapting fast to changes. Furthermore, reconfiguration of scalable systems can be automated through ontology modeling. This chapter presents an investigation on how representation of knowledge is utilized in different industrial automation developments. In addition, main concepts and requirements for designing knowledge representation implementations are identified and described. Finally, according to this description, a classification of distinct implementations is also presented.