Supporting the engineering of cyber-physical production systems with the AutomationML analyzer

The engineering phase of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) is a multi-disciplinary process in which representatives of diverse engineering disciplines collaborate to deliver a complex CPPS. To ensure optimal project management as well as to avoid risks of inconsistencies between engineering models created by engineers from different disciplines, support is needed for integrating and subsequently analyzing diverse engineering data. AutomationML is an emerging data exchange format for engineering data which makes the first step towards the easier exchange of engineering data. Yet, there is a lack of tool support for integrating, making sense of and analyzing AML files. In this paper, we explore the use of Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies to provide extended functionality on top of AML that allows advanced data analytics on engineering data such as intuitive browsing of interlinked engineering models and queries for project-wide verification and validation activities. As a result of these investigations, we present the AutomationML Analyzer prototypical implementation to showcase some of the functionalities made possible by Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies in this context.