Context-Aware Smart Sustainable Factories: Technological Framework

A growing number of research efforts have been undertaken in the area of flexible, ecological and energy efficient manufacturing systems as steps towards the low carbon economy. One of such directions is Sustainable manufacturing assuming resource-efficient, competitive, low-cost and renewable resource-oriented production. In this paper an approach to support of sustainable manufacturing based on the idea of smart factory is proposed. The approach incorporates such technologies as ontology and context management, competence profiling, and smart environment. The ontology and context management technologies enable for unification and formalization of the domain description. The competence profiling simplifies choosing the right person, machine, resource in a particular situation. The smart environment integrates devices (smart factory equipment, information systems, sensors, etc.) that can share information and services. Smart environments based on ubiquitous computing extend boundaries of automation in manufacturing environments due to flexible and seamless integration of different sensors, warehouse management systems, intelligent machine control systems, etc.