This document provides an introduction and overview of the edited book "Automation & Control - Theory and Practice". The book contains 18 chapters organized into four parts covering various topics related to automation and control. It addresses recent advances in automation, modeling and control, parameter estimation and filter design, and intelligent control. The introduction discusses automation and control concepts and techniques such as programmable logic controllers, distributed control systems, and adaptive, hierarchical, optimal, robust, and stochastic control. It aims to provide a valuable overview of theoretical and practical methods in the field.
5. V
Preface
Automation is the use of control systems (such as numerical control, programmable
logic control, and other industrial control systems), in concert with other applications of
information technology (such as computer-aided technologies [CAD, CAM, CAx]), to control
industrial machinery and processes, reducing the need for human intervention. In the scope
of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization
provided human operators with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of
work, automation greatly reduces the need for human sensory and mental requirements as
well. Processes and systems can also be automated.
Automationplaysanincreasinglyimportantroleintheglobaleconomyandindailyexperience.
Engineers strive to combine automated devices with mathematical and organizational tools to
create complex systems for a rapidly expanding range of applications and human activities.
Many roles for humans in industrial processes presently lie beyond the scope of automation.
Human-level pattern recognition, language recognition, and language production ability are
well beyond the capabilities of modern mechanical and computer systems. Tasks requiring
subjective assessment or synthesis of complex sensory data, such as scents and sounds, as
well as high-level tasks such as strategic planning, currently require human expertise. In
many cases, the use of humans is more cost-effective than mechanical approaches even where
automation of industrial tasks is possible.
Specialized industrial computers, referred to as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), are
frequently used to synchronize the flow of inputs from (physical) sensors and events with the
flow of outputs to actuators and events. This leads to precisely controlled actions that permit
a tight control of almost any industrial process.
Human-machine interfaces (HMI) or computer human interfaces (CHI), formerly known
as man-machine interfaces, are usually employed to communicate with PLCs and other
computers, such as entering and monitoring temperatures or pressures for further automated
control or emergency response. Service personnel who monitor and control these interfaces
are often referred to as stationary engineers.
Different types of automation tools exist:
• ANN - Artificial neural network
• DCS - Distributed Control System
• HMI - Human Machine Interface
• SCADA - Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
6. VI
• PLC - Programmable Logic Controller
• PAC - Programmable Automation Controller
• Instrumentation
• Motion control
• Robotics
Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that deals with
the behavior of dynamical systems. Control theory is
• a theory that deals with influencing the behavior of dynamical systems
• an interdisciplinary subfield of science, which originated in engineering and mathematics,
and evolved into use by the social, economic and other sciences.
Main control techniques assume:
• Adaptive control uses on-line identification of the process parameters, or modification of
controller gains, thereby obtaining strong robustness properties.
• A Hierarchical control system is a type of Control System in which a set of devices and
governing software is arranged in a hierarchical tree. When the links in the tree are
implemented by a computer network, then that hierarchical control system is also a form
of a Networked control system.
• Intelligent control use various AI computing approaches like neural networks, Bayesian
probability, fuzzy logic, machine learning, evolutionary computation and genetic
algorithms to control a dynamic system.
• Optimal control is a particular control technique in which the control signal optimizes
a certain “cost index”. Two optimal control design methods have been widely used in
industrial applications, as it has been shown they can guarantee closed-loop stability.
These are Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian control (LQG).
• Robust control deals explicitly with uncertainty in its approach to controller design.
Controllers designed using robust control methods tend to be able to cope with small
differences between the true system and the nominal model used for design.
• Stochastic control deals with control design with uncertainty in the model. In typical
stochastic control problems, it is assumed that there exist random noise and disturbances
in the model and the controller, and the control design must take into account these
random deviations.
The present edited book is a collection of 18 chapters written by internationally recognized
experts and well-known professionals of the field. Chapters contribute to diverse facets of
automation and control. The volume is organized in four parts according to the main subjects,
regarding the recent advances in this field of engineering.
The first thematic part of the book is devoted to automation. This includes solving of assembly
line balancing problem and design of software architecture for cognitive assembling in
production systems.
The second part of the book concerns with different aspects of modeling and control. This
includesastudyonmodelingpollutantemissionofdieselengine,developmentofaPLCprogram
obtained from DEVS model, control networks for digital home, automatic control of temperature
and flow in heat exchanger, and non-linear analysis and design of phase locked loops.
7. VII
The third part addresses issues of parameter estimation and filter design, including methods
for parameters estimation, control and design of the wave digital filters.
The fourth part presents new results in the intelligent control. That includes building of a
neural PDF strategy for hydroelectric station simulator, intelligent network system for
process control, neural generalized predictive control for industrial processes, intelligent
system for forecasting, diagnosis and decision making based on neural networks and self-
organizing maps, development of a smart semantic middleware for the Internet , development
appropriate AI methods in fault-tolerant control, building expert system in rotary railcar
dumpers, expert system for plant asset management, and building of a image retrieval system
in heterogeneous database.
The content of this thematic book admirably reflects the complementary aspects of theory
and practice which have taken place in the last years. Certainly, the content of this book will
serve as a valuable overview of theoretical and practical methods in control and automation
to those who deal with engineering and research in this field of activities.
The editors are greatfull to the authors for their excellent work and interesting contributions.
Thanks are also due to the renomeus publisher for their editorial assistance and excellent
technical arrangement of the book.
December, 2009
A. D. Rodić
9. IX
Contents
Preface V
I. Automation
1. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 001
Waldemar Grzechca
2. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems Suitable for an
Assembly Task in a Production Environment 013
Eckart Hauck, Arno Gramatke and Klaus Henning
II. Modeling and Control
3. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on
Kriging model 029
El Hassane Brahmi, Lilianne Denis-Vidal, Zohra Cherfi, Nassim Boudaoud and Ghislaine
Joly-Blanchard
4. An approach to obtain a PLC program from a DEVS model 047
Hyeong T. Park, Kil Y. Seong, Suraj Dangol, Gi N. Wang and Sang C. Park
5. A framework for simulating home control networks 059
Rafael J. Valdivieso-Sarabia, Jorge Azorín-López, Andrés Fuster-Guilló and Juan M. García-
Chamizo
6. Comparison of Defuzzification Methods: Automatic Control of Temperature and
Flow inHeat Exchanger 077
Alvaro J. Rey Amaya, Omar Lengerke, Carlos A. Cosenza, Max Suell Dutra and Magda
J.M. Tavera
7. Nonlinear Analysis and Design of Phase-Locked Loops 089
G.A. Leonov, N.V. Kuznetsov and S.M. Seledzhi
III. Estimation and Filter Design
8. Methods for parameter estimation and frequency control of piezoelectric
transducers 115
Constantin Volosencu
9. Design of the Wave Digital Filters 137
Bohumil Psenicka, Francisco García Ugalde and Andrés Romero M.
10. X
IV. Intelligent Control
10. Neural PDF Control Strategy for a Hydroelectric Station Simulator 161
German A. Munoz-Hernandez, Carlos A. Gracios-Marin, Alejandro Diaz-Sanchez, Saad P.
Mansoor and Dewi I. Jones
11. Intelligent Network System for Process Control: Applications, Challenges,
Approaches 177
Qurban A Memon
12. Neural Generalized Predictive Control for Industrial Processes 199
Sadhana Chidrawar, Balasaheb Patre and Laxman Waghmare
13. Forecasting, Diagnosis and Decision Making with Neural Networks and
Self-Organizing Maps 231
Kazuhiro Kohara, Katsuyoshi Aoki and Mamoru Isomae
14. Challenges of Middleware for the Internet of Things 247
Michal Nagy, Artem Katasonov, Oleksiy Khriyenko, Sergiy Nikitin, Michal Szydłowski and
Vagan Terziyan
15. Artificial Intelligence Methods in Fault Tolerant Control 271
Luis E. Garza Castañón and Adriana Vargas Martínez
16. A Real Time Expert System For Decision Making in Rotary Railcar Dumpers 297
Osevaldo Farias, Sofiane Labidi, João Fonseca Neto, José Moura and Samy Albuquerque
17. Modular and Hybrid Expert System for Plant Asset Management 311
Mario Thron and Nico Suchold
18. Image Retrieval System in Heterogeneous Database 327
Khalifa Djemal, Hichem Maaref and Rostom Kachouri
11. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 1
X
Assembly Line Balancing Problem
Single and Two-Sided Structures
Waldemar Grzechca
The Silesian University of Technology
Poland
1. Introduction
The manufacturing assembly line was first introduced by Henry Ford in the early 1900’s. It
was designed to be an efficient, highly productive way of manufacturing a particular
product. The basic assembly line consists of a set of workstations arranged in a linear
fashion, with each station connected by a material handling device. The basic movement of
material through an assembly line begins with a part being fed into the first station at
a predetermined feed rate. A station is considered any point on the assembly line in which
a task is performed on the part. These tasks can be performed by machinery, robots, and/or
human operators. Once the part enters a station, a task is then performed on the part, and
the part is fed to the next operation. The time it takes to complete a task at each operation is
known as the process time (Sury, 1971). The cycle time of an assembly line is predetermined
by a desired production rate. This production rate is set so that the desired amount of end
product is produced within a certain time period (Baybars, 1986). In order for the assembly
line to maintain a certain production rate, the sum of the processing times at each station
must not exceed the station’s cycle time (Fonseca et al, 2005). If the sum of the processing
times within a station is less than the cycle time, idle time is said to be present at that station
(Erel et al,1998). One of the main issues concerning the development of an assembly line is
how to arrange the tasks to be performed. This arrangement may be somewhat subjective,
but has to be dictated by implied rules set forth by the production sequence (Kao, 1976). For
the manufacturing of any item, there are some sequences of tasks that must be followed. The
assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) originated with the invention of the assembly line.
Helgeson et al (Helgeson et al, 1961) were the first to propose the ALBP, and Salveson
(Salveson, 1955) was the first to publish the problem in its mathematical form. However,
during the first forty years of the assembly line’s existence, only trial-and-error methods
were used to balance the lines (Erel et al,, 1998). Since then, there have been numerous
methods developed to solve the different forms of the ALBP. Salveson (Salveson, 1955)
provided the first mathematical attempt by solving the problem as a linear program. Gutjahr
and Nemhauser (Gutjahr & Nemhauser, 1964) showed that the ALBP problem falls into the
class of NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems. This means that an optimal solution
is not guaranteed for problems of significant size. Therefore, heuristic methods have become
the most popular techniques for solving the problem. Author of this book chapter
1
12. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice2
underlines the importance of the final results estimation and proposes for single and two-
sided assembly line balancing problem modified measures.
2. Two-sided Assembly Lines
Two-sided assembly lines (Fig. 1.) are typically found in producing large-sized products,
such as trucks and buses. Assembling these products is in some respects different from
assembling small products. Some assembly operations prefer to be performed at one of the
two sides (Bartholdi, 1993).
Fig. 1. Two-sided assembly line structure
Let us consider, for example, a truck assembly line. Installing a gas tank, air filter, and
toolbox can be more easily achieved at the left-hand side of the line, whereas mounting
a battery, air tank, and muffler prefers the right-hand side. Assembling an axle, propeller
shaft, and radiator does not have any preference in their operation directions so that they
can be done at any side of the line. The consideration of the preferred operation directions is
important since it can greatly influence the productivity of the line, in particular when
assigning tasks, laying out facilities, and placing tools and fixtures in a two-sided assembly
line (Kim et al, 2001). A two-sided assembly line in practice can provide several substantial
advantages over a one-sided assembly line (Bartholdi, 1993). These include the following: (1)
it can shorten the line length, which means that fewer workers are required, (2) it thus can
reduce the amount of throughput time, (3) it can also benefit from lowered cost of tools and
fixtures since they can be shared by both sides of a mated-station, and (4) it can reduce
material handling, workers movement and set-up time, which otherwise may not be easily
eliminated. These advantages give a good reason for utilizing two-sided lines for
assembling large-sized products. A line balancing problem is usually represented by
a precedence diagram as illustrated in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Precedence graph
Station n
Conveyor
Station 1 Station 3
Station (n-2)Station 4Station 2
Station (n-3) Station (n-1)
1 4
52
3
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
(4, L)
(5, E)
(3, R)
(6, L)
(4, E)
(4, R)
(5, L)
(4, E) (5, E)
(8, E)
(7, E)
(1, R)
13. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 3
A circle indicates a task, and an arc linking two tasks represents the precedence relation
between the tasks. Each task is associated with a label of (ti, d), where ti is the task processing
time and d (=L, R or E) is the preferred operation direction. L and R, respectively, indicate
that the task should be assigned to a left- and a right-side station. A task associated with E
can be performed at either side of the line. While balancing assembly lines, it is generally
needed to take account of the features specific to the lines. In a one-sided assembly line, if
precedence relations are considered appropriately, all the tasks assigned to a station can be
carried out continuously without any interruption. However, in a two-sided assembly line,
some tasks assigned to a station can be delayed by the tasks assigned to its companion
(Bartholdi, 1993). In other words, idle time is sometimes unavoidable even between tasks
assigned to the same station. Consider, for example, task j and its immediate predecessor i.
Suppose that j is assigned to a station and i to its companion station. Task j cannot be started
until task i is completed. Therefore, balancing such a two-sided assembly line, unlike a one-
sided assembly line, needs to consider the sequence-dependent finish time of tasks.
3. Heuristic Methods in Assembly Line Balancing Problem
The heuristic approach bases on logic and common sense rather than on mathematical
proof. Heuristics do not guarantee an optimal solution, but results in good feasible solutions
which approach the true optimum.
3.1 Single Assembly Line Balancing Heuristic Methods
Most of the described heuristic solutions in literature are the ones designed for solving
single assembly line balancing problem. Moreover, most of them are based on simple
priority rules (constructive methods) and generate one or a few feasible solutions. Task-
oriented procedures choose the highest priority task from the list of available tasks and
assign it to the earliest station which is assignable. Among task-oriented procedures we can
distinguish immediate-update-first-fit (IUFF) and general-first-fit methods depending on
whether the set of available tasks is updated immediately after assigning a task or after the
assigning of all currently available tasks. Due to its greater flexibility immediate-update-
first-fit method is used more frequently. The main idea behind this heuristic is assigning
tasks to stations basing on the numerical score. There are several ways to determine
(calculate) the score for each tasks. One could easily create his own way of determining the
score, but it is not obvious if it yields good result. In the following section five different
methods found in the literature are presented along with the solution they give for our
simple example. The methods are implemented in the Line Balancing program as well.
From the moment the appropriate score for each task is determined there is no difference in
execution of methods and the required steps to obtain the solution are as follows:
STEP 1. Assign a numerical score n(x) to each task x.
STEP 2. Update the set of available tasks (those whose immediate predecessors have been
already assigned).
STEP 3. Among the available tasks, assign the task with the highest numerical score to the
first station in which the capacity and precedence constraints will not be violated. Go to
STEP 2.
The most popular heuristics which belongs to IUFF group are:
IUFF-RPW Immediate Update First Fit – Ranked Positional Weight,
14. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice4
IUFF-NOF Immediate Update First Fit – Number of Followers,
IUFF-NOIF Immediate Update First Fit – Number of Immediate Followers,
IUFF-NOP Immediate Update First Fit – Number of Predecessors,
IUFF-WET Immediate Update First Fit – Work Element Time.
3.2 Two-sided Assembly Line Balancing Heuristic Method
A task group consists of a considered task i and all of its predecessors. Such groups are
generated for every un–assigned task. As mentioned earlier, balancing a two–sided
assembly line needs to additionally consider operation directions and sequence dependency
of tasks, while creating new groups (Lee et al, 2001). While forming initial groups IG(i), the
operation direction is being checked all the time. It’s disallowed for a group to contain tasks
with preferred operation direction from opposite sides. But, if each task in initial group is E
– task, the group can be allocated to any side. In order to determine the operation directions
for such groups, the rules (direction rules DR) are applied:
DR 1. Set the operation direction to the side where tasks can be started earlier.
DR 2. The start time at both sides is the same, set the operation direction to the side where
it’s expected to carry out a less amount of tasks (total operation time of unassigned L or R
tasks).
Generally, tasks resulting from “repeatability test” are treated as starting ones. But there is
exception in form of first iteration, where procedure starts from searching tasks (initial tasks
IT), which are the first ones in precedence relation. After the first step in the first iteration
we get:
IG (1) = {1}, Time{IG (1)} = 2, Side{IG (1)} = ‘L’
IG (2) = {2}, Time{IG (2)} = 5, Side{IG (2)} = ‘E’
IG (3) = {3}, Time{IG (3)} = 3, Side{IG (3)} = ‘R
where:
Time{IG(i)} – total processing time of ith initial group,
Side{IG(i)} – preference side of ith initial group.
To those who are considered to be the first, the next tasks will be added, (these ones which
fulfil precedence constraints).
Whenever new tasks are inserted to the group i, the direction, cycle time and number of
immediate predecessors are checked. If there are more predecessors than one, the creation of
initial group j comes to the end.
First iteration – second step
IG (1) = {1, 4, 6}, Time{IG (1)} = 8, Side{IG (1)} = ‘L’
IG (2) = {2, 5}, Time{IG (2)} = 9 , Side{IG (2)} = ‘E’
IG (3) = {3, 5} , Time{IG (3)} = 7 , Side{IG (3)} = ‘R’
When set of initial groups is created, the last elements from those groups are tested for
repeatability. If last element in set of initial groups IG will occur more than once (groups
pointed by arrows), the groups are intended to be joined – if total processing time (summary
time of considered groups) is less or equal to cycle time. Otherwise, these elements are
deleted.
In case of occurring only once, the last member is being checked if its predecessors are not
contained in Final set FS. If not, it’s removed as well. So far, FS is empty.
First iteration – third step
IG (1) = {1, 4}, Time{IG (1)} = 4, Side{IG (1)} = ‘L’
15. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 5
IG (2) = {2, 3, 5}, Time{IG (2)} = 12, Side{IG (2)} = ‘R’
Whenever two or more initial groups are joined together, or when initial group is connected
with those one coming from Final set – the “double task” is added to initial tasks needed for
the next iteration. In the end of each iteration, created initial groups are copied to FS.
First iteration – fourth step
FS = { (1, 4); (2, 3, 5) },
Side{FS (1)} = ‘L’, Side{FS (2)} = ‘R’
Time {FS(2)} = 12, Time {FS(1)} = 14,
IT = {5}.
In the second iteration, second step, we may notice that predecessor of last task coming from
IG(1) is included in Final Set, FS(2). The situation results in connecting both groups under
holding additional conditions:
Side{IG(1)} = Side{FS(2)},
Time + time < cycle.
After all, there is no more IT tasks, hence, preliminary process of creating final set is
terminated.
The presented method for finding task groups is to be summarized in simplified algorithm
form. Let U denote to be the set of un – assigned tasks yet and IGi be a task group consisting
of task i and all its predecessors (excluded from U set).
STEP 1. If U = empty, go to step 5, otherwise, assign starting task from U.
STEP 2. Identify IGi . Check if it contains tasks with both left and right preference operation
direction, then remove task i.
STEP 3. Assign operation direction Side{ IGi } of group IGi . If IGi has R-task (L-task ), set the
operation direction to right (left). Otherwise, apply so called direction rules DR.
STEP 4. If the last task i in IGi is completed within cycle time, the IGi is added to Final set of
candidates FS(i). Otherwise, exclude task i from IGi and go to step 1.
STEP 5. For every task group in FS(i), remove it from FS if it is contained within another task
group of FS.
The resulting task groups become candidates for the mated-station
FS = {(1,4), (2,3,5,8)}.
The candidates are produced by procedures presented in the previous section, which claim
to not violate precedence, operation direction restrictions, and what’s more it exerts on
groups to be completed within preliminary determined cycle time. Though, all of candidates
may be assigned equally, the only one group may be chosen. Which group it will be – for
this purpose the rules helpful in making decision, will be defined and explained below:
AR 1. Choose the task group FS(i) that may start at the earliest time.
AR 2. Choose the task group FS(i) that involves the minimum delay.
AR 3. Choose the task group FS(i) that has the maximum processing time.
In theory, for better understanding, we will consider a left and right side of mated – station,
with some tasks already allocated to both sides. In order to achieve well balanced station,
the AR 1 is applied, cause the unbalanced station is stated as the one which would probably
involve more delay in future assignment. This is the reason, why minimization number of
stations is not the only goal, there are also indirect ones, such as reduction of unavoidable
delay. This rule gives higher priority to the station, where less tasks are allocated. If ties
occurs, the AR 2 is executed, which chooses the group with the least amount of delay among
the considered ones. This rule may also result in tie. The last one, points at relating work
16. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice6
within individual station group by choosing group of task with highest processing time. For
the third rule the tie situation is impossible to obtain, because of random selection of tasks.
The implementation of above rules is strict and easy except the second one. Shortly
speaking, second rule is based on the test, which checks each task consecutively, coming
from candidates group FS(i) – in order to see if one of its predecessors have already been
allocated to station. If it has, the difference between starting time of considered task and
finished time of its predecessor allocated to companion station is calculated. The result
should be positive, otherwise time delay occurs.
Having rules for initial grouping and assigning tasks described in previous sections, we
may proceed to formulate formal procedure of solving two – sided assembly line balancing
problem (Kim et. al, 2005).
Let us denote companion stations as j and j’,
D(i) – the amount of delay,
Time(i) – total processing time (Time{FS(i)}),
S(j) – start time at station j,
STEP 1. Set up j = 1, j’ = j + 1, S(j) = S(j’) = 0, U – the set of tasks to be assigned.
STEP 2. Start procedure of group creating (3.2), which identifies
FS = {FS(1), FS(2), …, FS(n)}. If FS = , go to step 6.
STEP 3. For every FS(i), i = 1,2, … , n – compute D(i) and Time(i).
STEP 4. Identify one task group FS(i), using AR rules in Section 3.3
STEP 5. Assign FS(i) to a station j (j’) according to its operation direction, and update S(j) =
S(j) + Time(i) + D(i). U = U – {FS(i)}, and go to STEP 2.
STEP 6. If U , set j = j’ + 1, j’ = j + 1, S(j) = S(j’) = 0, and go to STEP 2, otherwise, stop the
procedure.
4. Measures of Final Results of Assembly Line Balancing Problem
Some measures of solution quality have appeared in line balancing problem. Below are
presented three of them (Scholl, 1999).
Line efficiency (LE) shows the percentage utilization of the line. It is expressed as ratio of
total station time to the cycle time multiplied by the number of workstations:
100%
Kc
ST
LE
K
1i
i
(1)
where: K - total number of workstations,
c - cycle time.
Smoothness index (SI) describes relative smoothness for a given assembly line balance.
Perfect balance is indicated by smoothness index 0. This index is calculated in the following
manner:
K
1i
2
imax STSTSI (2)
where:
STmax - maximum station time (in most cases cycle time),
17. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 7
STi - station time of station i.
Time of the line (LT) describes the period of time which is need for the product to be
completed on an assembly line:
KT1KcLT (3)
where:
c - cycle time,
K -total number of workstations,
TK – processing time of last station.
The final result estimation of two-sided assembly line balance needs some modification of
existing measures (Grzechca, 2008).
Time of line for TALBP
K K 1LT c Km 1 Max t(S ),t(S ) (4)
where:
Km – number of mated-stations
K – number of assigned single stations
t(SK) – processing time of the last single station
As far as smoothness index and line efficiency are concerned, its estimation, on contrary to
LT, is performed without any change to original version. These criterions simply refer to
each individual station, despite of parallel character of the method.
But for more detailed information about the balance of right or left side of the assembly line
additional measures will be proposed:
Smoothness index of the left side
K
1i
2
iLmaxLL STSTSI (5)
where:
SIL- smoothness index of the left side of two-sided line
STmaxL- maximum of duration time of left allocated stations
STiL- duration time of i-th left allocated station
Smoothness index of the right side
K
1i
2
iRmaxRR STSTSI (6)
where:
SIR- smoothness index of the right side of two-sided line,
STmaxR- maximum of duration time of right allocated stations,
STiR- duration time of i-th right allocated station.
18. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice8
5.
An
gra
Fig
Ta
Fig
Numerical exa
n numerical exam
aph and processin
g. 3. Precedence g
Number of tas
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
able 1. Input data
g. 4. Assembly lin
amples
mple from Fig. 3
ng times are know
graph for single li
sk Processin
1
5
4
3
2
6
3
1
7
6
3
2
of numerical exa
ne balance for IUF
3. will be conside
wn and there are
ine
ng Time
ample – IUFF Ran
FF-RPW and IUF
ered. The numbe
given in Table 1.
Weight
29
27
28
22
11
24
21
19
18
11
5
2
nked Positional W
F-NOF methods
er of tasks, prece
.The cycle time is
Positional Ran
2
1
3
4
5
7
6
8
11
9
10
12
Weight
edence
s 10.
nk
19. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 9
Fig. 5. Assembly line balance for IUFF-NOP and IUFF-NOIF methods
Fig. 6. Assembly line balance for IUFF-WET method
Method K Balance LE SI LT
IUFF-RPW 5
S1 – 1, 3, 2
S2 – 6, 4, 8
S3 – 7, 9
S4 – 10, 5
S5 – 11, 12
86% 5,39 45
IUFF-NOF 5
S1 – 1, 3, 2
S2 – 6, 4, 8
S3 – 7, 9
S4 – 10, 5
S5 – 11, 12
86% 5,39 45
IUFF-NOIF 6
S1 – 1, 2, 3
S2 – 5, 4, 7, 8
S3 – 6
S4 – 9
S5 – 10, 11
S6 – 12
71,67% 9,53 52
20. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice10
Ta
Ta
Th
in
Fig
IU
IU
able 2. Results of b
Nu
able 3. Input data
he results of heuri
a Gantt chart – Fi
g. 7. Gantt chart o
UFF-NOP 6
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21. Assembly Line Balancing Problem Single and Two-Sided Structures 11
Before presenting performance measures for current example, it would be like to stress
difference in estimation of line time form, resulting from restrictions of parallel stations. In
two – sided line method within one mated-station, tasks are intended to perform its
operations at the same time, as it is shown in example in Fig. 7., where tasks 7, 11
respectively are processed simultaneously on single station 3 and 4, in contrary to one –
sided heuristic methods. Hence, modification has to be introduced to that particular
parameter which is the consequence of parallelism. Having two mated-stations from Fig. 7,
the line time LT is not 3*16 + 13, as it was in original expression. We must treat those
stations as two double ones (mated-stations), rather than individual ones Sk (4). As far as
smoothness index and line efficiency are concerned, its estimation, on contrary to LT, is
performed without any change to original version. These criterions simply refer to each
individual station, despite of parallel character of the method. But for more detailed
information about the balance of right or left side of the assembly line additional measures
(5) and (6) was proposed (Grzechca, 2008).
Name Value
LE 84,38%
LT 30
SI 4,69
SIR 2
SIL 3
Table 4. Numerical results of balance of two-sided assembly line structure
6. Conclusion
Single and two-sided assembly lines become more popular in last time. Therefore it is
obvious to consider these structures using different methods. In this chapter a heuristic
approach was discussed. Single assembly line balancing problem has very often difficulties
with the last station. Even optimal solution ( 100 % efficiency of workstations except the last
one is impossible to accept by production engineers in the companies. Different heuristic
methods allow to obtain different feasible solutions and then to choose the most appropriate
result. Two-sided assembly line structure is very sensitive to changes of cycle time values. It
is possible very often to get incomplete structure of the two-sided assembly line (some
stations are missing) in final result. We can use different measures for comparing the
solutions (line time, line efficiency, smoothness index). Author proposes additionally two
measures: smoothness index of the left side (SIL) and smoothness index of the right side (SIR)
of the two-sided assembly line structure. These measurements allow to get more knowledge
about allocation of the tasks and about the balance on both sides.
7. References
Bartholdi, J.J. (1993). Balancing two-sided assembly lines: A case study, International Journal
of Production Research, Vol. 31, No,10, pp. 2447-2461
Baybars, I. (1986). A survey of exact algorithms for simple assembly line balancing problem,
Management Science, Vol. 32, No. 8, pp. 909-932
22. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice12
Erel, E., Sarin S.C. (1998). A survey of the assembly line balancing procedures, Production
Planning and Control, Vol. 9, No. 5, pp. 414-434
Fonseca D.J., Guest C.L., Elam M., Karr C.L. (2005). A fuzzy logic approach to assembly line
balancing, Mathware & Soft Computing, Vol. 12, pp. 57-74
Grzechca W. (2008) Two-sided assembly line. Estimation of final results. Proceedings of the
Fifth International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
ICINCO 2008, Final book of Abstracts and Proceedings, Funchal, 11-15 May 2008, pp.
87-88, CD Version ISBN: 978-989-8111-35-7
Gutjahr, A.L., Neumhauser G.L. (1964). An algorithm for the balancing problem,
Management Science, Vol. 11,No. 2, pp. 308-315
Helgeson W. B., Birnie D. P. (1961). Assembly line balancing using the ranked positional
weighting technique, Journal of Industrial Engineering, Vol. 12, pp. 394-398
Kao, E.P.C. (1976). A preference order dynamic program for stochastic assembly line
balancing, Management Science, Vol. 22, No. 10, pp. 1097-1104
Lee, T.O., Kim Y., Kim Y.K. (2001). Two-sided assembly line balancing to maximize work
relatedness and slackness, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp.
273-292
Salveson, M.E. (1955). The assembly line balancing problem, Journal of Industrial Engineering,
Vol.6, No. 3. pp. 18-25
Scholl, A. (1999). Balancing and sequencing of assembly line, Physica- Verlag, ISBN
9783790811803, Heidelberg New-York
Sury, R.J. (1971). Aspects of assembly line balancing, International Journal of Production
Research, Vol. 9, pp. 8-14
23. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 13
X
A Software Architecture for Cognitive
Technical Systems Suitable for an Assembly
Task in a Production Environment
Eckart Hauck, Arno Gramatke and Klaus Henning
ZLW/IMA, RWTH Aachen University
Germany
1. Introduction
In the last years production in low-wage countries became popular with many companies
by reason of low production costs. To slow down the development of shifting production to
low-wage countries, new concepts for the production in high-wage countries have to be
developed.
Currently the highly automated industry is very efficient in the production of a small range
of products with a large batch size. The big automotive manufacturer like GM, Daimler and
BMW are examples for this. Changes in the production lines lead to high monetary
investments in equipment and staff. To reach the projected throughput the production is
planned completely in advance. On the other side a branch of the industry is specialized in
manufacturing customized products with small batch sizes. Examples are super sports car
manufacturers. Due to the customization the product is modified on a constant basis. This
range of different manufacturing approaches can be aggregated in two dilemmas in which
companies in high wage countries have to allocate themselves.
The first dilemma is between value orientation and planning orientation. Value orientation
implies that the manufacturing process involves almost no planning before the production
phase of a product. The manufacturing process is adapted and optimized during the
production. The antipode to value orientation is planning orientation. Here the whole
process is planned and optimized prior to manufacturing.
The second dilemma is between scale and scope. Scale means a typical mass production
where scaling effects make production more efficient. The opposite is scope where small
batch sizes dominate manufacturing.
The mainstream automotive industry represents scale focused production with a highly
planning oriented approach due to the grade of automation involved. The super sports car
manufacturer is following a scope approach which is more value oriented.
These two dilemmas span the so called polylemma of production technology (Fig. 1)
(Brecher et al, 2007). The reduction of these dilemmas is the main aim of the cluster of
excellence "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries" of the RWTH
Aachen University. The research vision is the production of a great variety of products in
2
24. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice14
small batch sizes with costs competitive to mass production under the full exploitation of
the respective benefits of value orientation and planning orientation.
To reach the vision four core research areas were identified. These areas are “Individualized
Production Systems”, “Virtual Production Systems”, “Hybrid Production Systems” and
“Self-optimizing Production Systems”. Self-optimizing production systems try to realize
value orientated approaches with an increase in the planning efficiency by reusing gained
knowledge on new production conditions.
The research hypothesis is that only technical systems which incorporate cognitive
capabilities are capable of showing self-optimizing behavior (Heide 2006). In addition to
that these Cognitive Technical Systems can reduce the planning efforts required to adapt to
changes in the process chain (Brecher et al. 2007). In this chapter a software architecture for
such a Cognitive Technical System will be described and a use case in the context of
assembly processes will be presented. Section 2 will deal with the definition of the terms
“Self optimization”, “Cognition” and “Cognitive Technical System”. Section 3 deals with
related work in the context of Cognitive Technical Systems and the involved software
architectures. The fourth section describes an excerpt of the functional as well as the non-
functional requirements for a Cognitive Technical System. Afterwards the software
architecture will be presented. The sixth section will introduce an assembly use case and the
chapter closes with a final conclusion in section 7.
2020
2006
dilemma
reduced
dilemmas
timeline
scale
scope
planning-
orientation
value-
orientation
resolution of the
polylemma of
production
20202020
20062006
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reduced
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scale
scope
planning-
orientation
value-
orientation
planning-
orientation
value-
orientation
resolution of the
polylemma of
production
resolution of the
polylemma of
production
Fig. 1. Polylemma of Production Technology
2. Definition of Terms
2.1 Self-Optimization
Self-optimization in the context of artificial systems includes three joint actions. At first the
current situation has to be analyzed and in a second step the objectives have to be
determined. These objectives can be contradictive. In this case a tradeoff between the
objectives has to be done by the system. The third step is the adaption of the system
behavior. A system can be accounted for a self-optimizing system if it is capable to analyze
and detect relevant modifications of the environment or the system itself, to endogenously
25. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 15
modify its objectives in response to changing influence on the technical system from its
surroundings, the user, or the system itself, and to autonomously adapt its behavior by
means of parameter changes or structure changes to achieve its objectives (Gausemeier
2008). To adapt itself, the system has to incorporate cognitive abilities to be able to analyze
the current situation and adjust system behavior accordingly.
2.2 Cognition
Currently, the term “Cognition” is most often thought of in a human centered way, and is
not well defined in psychology, philosophy and cognitive science. In psychology Matlin
(2005) defines cognition in the context of humans as the “acquisition, storage, usage and
transformation of knowledge”. This involves many different processes. Zimbardo (2005)
accounts, among others, “perception, reasoning, remembering, thinking decision-making
and learning” as essential processes involved in cognition. These definitions cannot be easily
transferred to artificial systems. A first approach to the definition of “Cognition” in the
context of artificial systems is given in Strasser (2004). She based her definition on Strube
(1998):
“Cognition as a relatively recent development of evolution, provides adaptive (and hence,
indirect) coupling between the sensory and motor sides of an organism. This adaptive,
indirect coupling provides for the ability to learn (as demonstrated by conditioning, a
procedure that in its simplest variant works even in flatworms), and in higher organisms,
the ability to deliberate”.
Strasser develops from this the definition that a system, either technical or biological, has to
incorporate this flexible connectivity between input and output which implies the ability to
learn. Thereby the term learning is to be understood as the rudimentary ability to adapt the
output to the input to optimize the expected utility. For her, these are the essential
requirements a system has to incorporate to account for being cognitive.
This definition is to be considered when the term “Cognition” is used. It should be stated
that this definition is the lower bound for the usage of the term. Therefore this does not
imply that a system which can be accounted as “Cognitive” is able the incorporate human
level cognitive processes.
2.3 Cognitive Technical Systems
With the given definition for “Self-optimization” and “Cognition” the term “Cognitive
Technical System” can be defined. Also a description of the intermediate steps involved in
development towards a Cognitive Technical System able of incorporating cognitive
processes of a higher level can be given.
The definition used in the context of this chapter is that an artificial system, which
incorporates cognitive abilities and is able to adapt itself to different environmental changes,
can be accounted as Cognitive Technical System.
Fig. 2 shows the different steps towards a Cognitive Technical System capable of cognition
on a higher level. As cognitive processes of a higher level the communication in natural
language and adaption to the mental model of the operator can be named. Also more
sophisticated planning abilities in unstructured, partly observable and nondeterministic
environments can be accounted as cognitive processes on a higher level.
26. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice16
The current situation of human machine interaction in the context of a production
environment is as follows (left part of the picture): Cognitive processes occur only in
humans. The technical system, which consists of an Interaction System and a Technological
Application System, is not cognitive in the sense of Strasser (2004). The interaction happens
in a classical way via a human-machine-interface embedded in the Interaction System. The
output of the Technological Application System is evaluated and optimized by the human
operator only. This also means that only the human operator can reflect about the output of
the Technological Application System and improve it by adapting the parameters of the
processes via the human-machine-interface.
Fig. 2. Steps in the development of Cognitive Technical Systems
The intermediate step (middle of the picture) is the incorporation of basic cognitive
processes in the Interaction System. The technical system could now be accounted for a
Cognitive Technical System. The cognitive processes can involve reasoning and decision
making. The Cognitive Technical System has to incorporate a knowledge base upon which
decisions can be derived. These cognitive processes are embedded in the Interaction System
which communicates with the Technological Application System but also controls it.
The right part of the picture shows a visionary Cognitive Technical System. Such a system
incorporates cognitive processes on all levels, which means that the human-machine-
interaction is based on multimodal communication. In addition to that the human-machine-
interface adapts itself to the mental model of the human operator during the communication
process. This increases the efficiency of the communication process dramatically. Therefore
the human-machine-interface incorporates cognitive abilities. In addition the Interaction
System incorporates cognitive processes in the communication with the Technological
Application System which also embeds cognitive capabilities. This means that the
communication can be alleviated to a higher level. The systems only exchange concepts of a
certain kind and the subsequent tasks are derived by the system itself. A human related
communication which corresponds to such an exchange of concepts would be the task of
writing a report. This involves many steps to be enacted by the receiver of the task which
are not communicated. Nonetheless is the result in accordance to the “intentions” of the
human who gave the task.
In addition such a system would be able to evaluate the output of the process and with that
the parameters which lead to it. This enables self-optimizing behavior. The evaluation
process is depictured as a feedback system from the Cognitive Technical System (lower right
27. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 17
part). In relation to manufacturing processes, a Cognitive Technical System can control
entities of the Technological Application System like robots, belt conveyors, etc. to conduct
different tasks. Also a multitude of Cognitive Technical Systems can cooperate to control a
process chain and optimize it as a whole in respect to the optimization objectives given to
the systems.
Task descriptions can be given to the system in a more abstract way. A possible description
could be the shape of the product or certain product properties. With this description the
Cognitive Technical System derives the needed steps to produce the desired product. A
description on such an abstract level is hugely underspecified which corresponds to a task
description given from one human to another (Hägele 2008). To derive the missing
information needed to solve the task a massive knowledge base is mandatory.
3. Related Work
Due to the vast research efforts in different fields like artificial intelligence, software
engineering, electrical engineering, etc. this section does not intent to give a complete
overview, but present a selection of related work with the focus on software architectures.
As possible application fields for Cognitive Technical Systems the autonomous vehicle
control, manufacturing environments as well as service robotics can be identified. There are
many more fields which are not evaluated further in this context.
In the field of autonomous vehicle control the DARPA grand challenges in 2005 and 2007
showed that the control of ground vehicles in a semi-unstructured environment with the
constraints of following the rules of the road is possible (Montemerlo et al. 2006). The
software architectures used in these Cognitive Technical Systems followed a multi layer
approach with the extensive use of state machines (Urmson et al. 2007).
In autonomous robots many architectural approaches are proposed (Karim 2006, Konolige
1998, Gat 1998 et al.). These software architectures focus on the combination of a deliberative
part for the actual planning process with a reactive part for motion control (Putzer 2004).
In production technology, the cluster of excellence “Cognition for Technical Systems”
(CoTeSys) is researching software architectures for Cognitive Technical Systems in
production environments (Ding et al. 2008). The research focuses on the implementation of
cognitive abilities in safety controllers for plant control. In this context the human machine
cooperation is the main evaluation scenario.
All described approaches do not focus on the application of Cognitive Technical Systems in
an assembly operation.
4. Requirements
4.1 Functional Requirements
This section describes the functional requirements for a Cognitive Technical System suitable
to act in a production environment. A functional requirement is a requirement which can be
noticed during the operation of the system (Sommerville 2007).
The functional requirements that a Cognitive Technical System must fulfill are the capability
to process different sensor inputs (visual, tactile or electric sensors) and aggregate them to
extract essential information. Based on this information, the Cognitive Technical System
must process the information and find the next best action concerning the current
28. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice18
environmental state and the given objective. To change the environment according to the
next action derived by the Cognitive Technical System, external entities like robot actuators
or conveyor belts have to be controlled.
The Cognitive Technical System must interact with a human operator via a human-machine-
interface. The actual design of the human-machine-interface is not part of the functional
requirements (Cockburn 2003) but is specified in the non-functional requirements. To derive
a decision out of the received information, the system must have a knowledge base which
contains the domain knowledge. Also the procedural knowledge about the different
operations it has at his disposal, for changing its environment must be stored.
The environment of a production facility adds a further functional requirement for a
Cognitive Technical System. The communication via different protocols with machinery like
programmable logic controllers (PLC) and multi-axis robots has to be ensured.
4.2 Non-Functional Requirements
Non-Functional requirements are defined as requirements which specify criteria that can be
used to judge the operation of a system, rather than specific behaviors (Sommerville 2007).
The non functional requirements for the human-machine-interface derive from DIN ISO
9355-1 and can be separated in 14 categories, which will not be described here in detail.
The requirements for the software architecture are partly derived from ISO 9126. The
following categories are considered the essential ones and will be described in more detail:
Modularity, Extendibility, Flexibility
Robustness and Reliability
Response times
Information- and Datamanagement
External communication
User Interaction
Modularity, Extendibility, Flexibility
The software architecture of a Cognitive Technical System suitable for an assembly task in a
production environment has to meet the requirements of modularity, extendibility and
flexibility. Modularity in this context means, that components can be interchanged without
redesigning the whole system. This concerns the user interface, the different controller
components and the decision making components. This demands the encapsulation of
single functionalities within components and the usage of well defined interfaces between
them. The software architecture must be extendable in the sense that new components can
be integrated without much effort. This satisfies also the requirement of flexibility.
Robustness and Reliability
In a production environment the requirements for the reliability and the robustness of a
system are high. The technical system must have a high reliability because of the high costs
of a possible production stop in case of a system failure. Because of this certain safety
measures must be implemented in the Cognitive Technical System. This can be realized
through redundancy of components or by fault tolerant code. This also ensures a high
robustness.
Response times
In a production environment processes are optimized for high throughput. This puts further
constraints on the software architecture of such a system. The response time must be low
enough to react to sudden changes in the environment. The deliberative part of the
29. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 19
Cognitive Technical System can not derive decisions in real time due to the amount of
knowledge processed. Therefore the overall response time of the system has to be ensured
by a mechanism which does not depend on deliberative decision making.
Information- and Datamanagement
The information flow in the Cognitive Technical System is quite extensive. The sensory
information has to be processed and routed to the concerning components. The software
architecture has to incorporate an internal communication to feed the information to the
components. In addition, storage of the data in different repositories has to be ensured due
to the high bandwidth and the amount of accumulated data.
External communication
The Cognitive Technical System has to communicate with the different entities in a
production environment. These can be physical entities like robots and programmable logic
controller, but also different bus protocols (CAN-Bus and Process Field Bus (PROFIBUS))
have to be supported by the respective interfaces. Also a simple extendibility of these
interfaces must be possible.
User Interaction
The Cognitive Technical System has to ensure the communication with the user of the
system. The user input has to be processed and the decisions of the Cognitive Technical
System have to be presented to the user.
4.3 Conclusion
The functional and non-functional requirements for the system influence the design of the
software architecture. Especially the requirements of a production environment by
demanding a low response time of the system define the software architecture. Furthermore
the reliability is an important requirement.
5. Software Architecture
5.1 Multilayer approach
To meet the functional and non-functional requirements a software architecture for a
Cognitive Technical System suitable for assembly tasks has to incorporate multiple
components.
The system has to work with different levels of abstractions. This means that the
deliberative mechanism cannot work on the direct sensor data received from the
Technological Application System. Therefore an abstraction of the received data is
necessary. This demands a component which can aggregate the received information for the
deliberative mechanism. To meet the requirement of a low response time a control
mechanism has to be incorporated which can act without waiting for the deliberative
mechanism to respond. Also, the Cognitive Technical System has to be able to control the
production facilities as well as ensure a human machine communication. Especially the
concepts of modularity and reliability were the driving factors for the chosen approach. To
meet these requirements a multilayer approach for the software architecture of the system
was chosen (Gat 1998).
Fig. 3 shows the software architecture embedded in the human-machine-interaction. The
Cognitive Technical System incorporates the Technological Application System as well as
the Interaction System. The software architecture separates the Interaction System into four
30. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice20
layers which incorporate the different mechanisms required. The Presentation Layer
incorporates the human machine interface and an interface for the modification of the
knowledge base. The Planning Layer is the deliberative layer in which the actual decision
for the next action is made. The Coordination Layer provides services to the Planning Layer
which can be invoked by the latter to start action execution. The Reactive Layer is
responsible for a low response time of the whole system in case of an emergency situation.
The Knowledge Module contains the necessary domain knowledge of the system.
Fig. 3. Software architecture embedded in the human machine interaction
At the beginning the human operator gives the desired goal to the Cognitive Technical
System via the Presentation Layer. This goal g* is then transferred to the Planning Layer
where the next action u* is derived based on the actual world state y* and the desired goal
g*. The actual world state is based on the measured variables y from the sensors in the
Technological Application System which are transferred via the Reactive Layer. In the
Coordination Layer y is then aggregated to y*. To derive y*, the sensor data y at a discrete
time t 0
R
is taken into account. y(t) yn
R denotes the current vector of the current
measured variables at time t. This vector is then transformed in the world state y*(t). This
means that the base on which all decisions in the Planning Layer are made is the actual
world state y* at a certain time t. Therefore the decision process must not take too long,
because the state of the Technological Application System can have changed significantly in
the meantime.
The next best action u* derived in the Planning Layer is sent back to the Coordination Layer,
where the abstract description of the next best action u* is translated into a sequence of actor
commands u, which are sent via the Reactive Layer to the Technological Application
System. There, the sequence of commands is executed and the changed environmental state
is measured again by the sensors. If the new measured variables y of the Technological
Application System indicate an emergency situation the Reactive Layer ensures a low
31. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 21
response time. Then the sensor data is processed directly in the Reactive Layer and the
according actor commands are executed.
Fig. 4 shows the software architecture in more detail. The different layers and their
components will be described in more detail in the following section.
Fig. 4. Software Architecture of the Cognitive Technical System with components based on a
multilayer approach
5.2 Presentation Layer
The Presentation Layer is responsible for the interaction with the user. It incorporates the
human-machine-interface which is designed for the special requirements given by
interacting with a technical system with cognitive capabilities.
The domain knowledge k is encoded in a fixed representational formalism. One possibility
is the structuring of k in an ontology. The knowledge engineer encodes the domain
knowledge specifically to the task the system has to enact. This is done prior to the system
start. During the operation of the system a human operator is interacting with the system.
This operator specifies a task description g, which is transferred to the component
Presentation Compiler. In case of an assembly task the description g can be the description
of the shape of parts to be assembled and the description of the location and forms of the
parts in the final assembly. This can be done, but is not restricted to, using a graphical
representation, e. g. a CAD program. The Presentation Compiler has to translate this task
description g into a goal state g* which can be interpreted by the Cognitive Processor of the
Planning Layer.
Due to the changing environment the behavior of a cognitive system is not perfectly
predictable in advance. Therefore, the actual state of the system should always be
transparent to the operator. The actual state w* of the system is given to the Presentation
Compiler, where w* is aggregated to a human interpretable machine feedback w which is
then transferred to the operator via the Human Machine Interface.
32. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice22
5.3 Planning Layer
The Planning Layer contains the core elements that are responsible for decision-finding. It
contains the Kernel and the Cognitive Processor as components. The Kernel distributes the
signal flows in the Planning Layer. The Cognitive Processor computes the next best action
u* based on the goal state g* and the current world state y*. If the Cognitive Processor
cannot derive a next best action it can send a query q* for more information to the
Knowledge Module.
The Kernel component then invokes the action execution according to the action returned by
the Cognitive Processor. In case of a request for more information, the Kernel queries the
Knowledge Base for actions applicable on the objects in y*. According to the actual
processor used, the Knowledge Base returns the knowledge k* via the Knowledge Compiler.
The additional knowledge is then considered in the computation of the next best action. Fig.
5 shows the activity diagram for the Cognitive Processor. In the rare case that the Cognitive
Processor could not find an action and the Knowledge Base could not return k*, the
Cognitive Processor queries the human operator for the next action. The user can then either
give the next action or change the environmental state. This means that the user changes the
environment physically without telling the system explicitly about this. The system then
recognizes the new environmental state via the measured variables y, reasons about the new
world state y* and derives the next best action u* based on y*.
Fig. 5. Activity diagram of possible actions of the Cognitive Processor
Several architectures have been developed for the understanding of the human control
behavior. The EPIC (Executive-Process Interactive Control) architecture combines cognitive
and perceptual operations with procedural task analysis (Keiras 2004). The different
33. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 23
interconnected modules, called processors, operate in parallel. The Soar architecture is a
cognitive architecture based on the “unified theory of cognition” (Newell 1994), which aims
to model general intelligence (Laird 1996). It models behavior as selection and application of
operators to a state. A state represents the current situation of knowledge and problem-
solving, and operators transfer knowledge from one state to another. At runtime, Soar tries
to apply a series of operators in order to reach a goal (Laird 1996). Control in Soar refers to
conflict solution and is implemented as a deliberate and knowledge-based process. ACT-R
control is regarded as an automatic process by using an automatic conflict resolution
strategy (Johnson 1998). Of these architectures the Soar architecture was chosen as the
Cognitive Processor (Hauck 2008).
Soar is a rule based production system. Rules are fired if they match elements of the inner
representation of the current y* and modify this representation. Via input- and output-links
Soar is capable of communication with its environment, e.g. to retrieve a new world state or
invoke actions. In addition, a combination of the Soar architecture with a classical planning
algorithm like Fast Forward (Hoffmann 2001) is currently investigated. This provides the
ability to exploit the capabilities of Soar but also enables the generation of a quick plan to
solve a task.
5.4 Coordination Layer
The Coordination Layer is the executable layer of the Cognitive Technical System. It
provides executable services to the Planning Layer. These services correspond to the actions
the Cognitive Processor can invoke. The Coordinator in the Coordination Layer also
processes the measured variables y received from the Reactive Controller via the Reactive
Layer and aggregates this information to the current world state y*.
Also, the Coordinator component receives the next action u* to be executed. The abstract
service invoked by u* is a sequence of actor commands u. A simple example is the stapling
process of two blocks. Provided the positions of the two are known, the service
move(blockA,blockB)then invokes the sequence of moving the actor, e. g. a robot, to the
position of blockA, grasping it and transferring it to the position of blockB and releasing it.
u is stored in the Coordinator component and will be executed with parameters given by u*.
u is then executed in the Technological Application System via the Reactive Layer. That
way, the Planning Layer is exculpated from the details of the robot movements, e. g. the
exact coordinates of the block-locations, etc., which leads, due to a reduced problem space,
to faster decisions.
5.5 Reactive Layer
The Reactive Layer and in it the component Reactive Controller is responsible for the low
level control of the system. The vector of the measured variables y is observed for values
which indicate a possible emergency situation. The Reactive Controller responds then with
the according actor commands u.
This ensures low response times in case of an emergency. The Reactive Controller cannot
ensure a safe behavior for the system as a whole. This means if a wrong actor command
sequence is sent to the actors in the Technological Application System the Reactive
Controller does not check this sequence for potential consequences for the Technological
34. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice24
Application System according to the current state. This has to be done by the Cognitive
Processor.
5.6 Knowledge Module
The Knowledge Module contains the Knowledge Base which contains the necessary domain
knowledge for the Cognitive Technical System to perform the desired task. The domain
knowledge k in the Knowledge Base has to be translated in a form which is interpretable by
the Cognitive Processor. This is done by a Knowledge Compiler, which consists of two
components: The Reasoner and the Mediator. The Reasoner queries the Knowledge Base
and receives additional knowledge k. This knowledge is then translated into an
intermediate format k’ and transferred to the Mediator. The Mediator then compiles the
knowledge k’ into the syntax k* which is then processed by the Cognitive Processor. Fig. 6
shows the signal flows and the involved components. In case of an additional information
request q* by the Cognitive Processor the Mediator first translates q* in q’ and the Reasoner
accesses the Knowledge Base to infer the requested information.
For assembly tasks, the domain knowledge has to contain the involved actors controlled by
the Cognitive Technical System. The formalism used for the domain knowledge is the Web
Ontology Language (OWL) (Smith 2004). To store the procedural knowledge, which is used
by the cognitive processor in form of production rules the original form is not sufficient.
Therefore, an extension to the OWL, the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) (Horrocks et
al. 2004) in combination with a description formalism for the direct representation of
procedural knowledge in the ontology is used.
Fig. 6. Component diagram of the Knowledge Module
5.7 Conclusion
The multilayer approach ensures the encapsulation of different information abstractions in
different layers. The components in the Planning Layer operate with the highest abstraction
of information. The Cognitive Processor invokes the corresponding service according to the
next best action. The different services manipulate the environment without dealing with
the low level constraints given by the used actors. The Coordination Layer contains the
service description in form of sequences of actor commands, which the Reactive Layer than
executes and controls.
Due to this approach, the system can deal with a continuously changing environment and
adapt itself to it. The system is hybrid in a double fold sense of the word. It connects a
continuously stream of input signals with their discrete representation in states and includes
reactive and deliberative components.
35. A Software Architecture for Cognitive Technical Systems
Suitable for an Assembly Task in a Production Environment 25
6. Example: Control of an Assembly Cell
The schematic layout of a robot cell, which is controlled by the Cognitive Technical System
is shown in Fig. 7. It consists of two robots and a transport system, which transfers the parts
via a conveyor belt. The first robot grasps the incoming parts and puts it on the conveyor.
The parts colors and contours are identified by an object recognition software via a CCD
camera. If the part is needed for the assembly at hand, the second robot grasps the part and
transfers it either to the assembly area in case the part is needed immediately, or to the
buffer area. In case that an object is not needed the conveyor transports the object to the
leaving part container and it is being discharged. The second robot is equipped with a three
finger robot hand to conduct complex gripping operations.
The first evaluations of the Cognitive Technical System will only involve parts with a simple
contour, like blocks, spheres etc. This is necessary due to the fact that the object recognition
as well as the color recognition would take much longer for complex objects. The system has
to adapt to different states without the possibility to preplan the whole assembly process.
Therefore the feeding of the parts is stochastic. In addition the actual world state will be
repeatedly checked to evaluate if the internal representation in the Cognitive Technical
System corresponds to the environmental state.
Assembly AreaBuffer
Incoming
Parts Leaving Parts
Switch
V1
V1
V1
Light
Sensor
Robot
Robot
Photo Sensor
Photo Sensor
Photo Sensor
Photo
Sensor
Photo
Sensor
V=0
V1
Fig. 7. Schematic of the assembly cell used for the application of the Cognitive Technical
System
36. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice26
Possible reasons for unexpected changes in the environmental state can be:
Erroneous identification of a part
Dropping or misplacement of a part by the robot
Changes in the current assembly
Erroneous identification of a part can lead to a false building order for the whole assembly
and affect the outcome of an assembly operation significantly. A drop of a part can happen
if the three finger robot hand grasps an object wrong or the object falls during the transfer
operation. The last possible change in an environmental state is the change of the assembly.
This is a scenario where the machine works in cooperation with a human. The change will
then be noticed by the system via the measured variables y. This is not focus of the current
research, but has to be considered for future applications.
Therefore, the Cognitive Technical System has to check the actual world state periodically to
prevent the consequences arising out of these changes in the environmental state. To
evaluate the system, a simple assembly task will be conducted by the system. The most
simplistic geometry is a tower of blocks but this will be extended to the realize of more
complex geometries.
7. Conclusion and Future Work
The multilayer approach for a Cognitive Technical System suitable of conducting assembly
tasks in a production environment is a feasible one. The software architecture meets the
different functional as well as non-functional requirements a production environment has
towards such a system. The current work focuses on the implementation of the software
architecture and simulation of the environmental states. Future work will include the
connection to the assembly cell and the application of the system to more complex object
contours.
For interested readers the following links are recommended:
http://www.zlw-ima.rwth-aachen.de/forschung/projekte/exzellenzcluster/index.html
http://www.production-research.de
8. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the German Research Foundation DFG for the support of
the depicted research within the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology
for High-Wage Countries”.
9. References
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39. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on Kriging model 29
X
Two stage approaches for modeling
pollutant emission of diesel engine
based on Kriging model
El Hassane Brahmi, Lilianne Denis-Vidal, Zohra Cherfi,
Nassim Boudaoud and Ghislaine Joly-Blanchard
University of technology of Compiegne
France
1. Introduction
The automotive industry faces the competing goals of producing better performing vehicles
and keeping development time with low costs. It is crucial for the manufacturers to be able
to produce fuel-economic vehicles, which respect pollutant emissions standards, and which
meet the customers expectations. Accordingly, the complexity of the engines responses we
have to optimize and the number of the parameters to control during the design stage, have
increased rapidly, in the last years.
In order to deliver vehicles, which respond to these requirements, in a reasonable time scale,
companies use design of experiments (DOE) (Schimmerling et al., 1998) in one side, and
modelling, in the other side. DOE is a power tool, but the cost of the experiments and their
duration, particularly in the field of pollutant emissions, can be a limit to their use in
automotive industry.
The engine developers use two main approaches to model engine behaviour. The first one is
based on chemical and physical models, via differential system. This approach is not the
subject of this article, because we have not such models. Furthermore, even when these
models are available, generally, they are time-consuming, impractical for multi-objective
optimisation routines, and fail to capture all the trends in the engine system described by
measured data (like Zeldovich model). All this, is particularly true when the number of the
control parameters is large and engine responses are complex.
Statistical modelling based on carefully chosen measured data of engine performance,
according to an experimental design is an important alternative technique.
Strategies based on Lolimot (Castric et al., 2007) (Local Linear Model Tree) and Zeldovich
mechanisms (Heywood, 1988) have been developed in order to predict emissions of NOx. In
the first case, the corresponding model can lead to singular points, which reduces the
precision of the results. In the second case, the results are not satisfactory enough.
The literature presents several methods based on statistical trainings such as neural
networks. This method gives good results, even in the nonlinear case. However, it is not
adapted to our case, because it requires a great number of experiments to obtain a
3
40. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice30
significant estimate of its parameters, and we are very limited by the small experiments
number which the industrialist is able to realize. The techniques of the design of
experiments (Cochran & Cox, 1957) were conceived to deal with this kind of problems. On
the other hand, recent works (Sacks et al. 1989; Bates et al. 1996; Koehler & Owen, 1996)
suggest that the polynomial models are not adapted to the numerical experiments. For
example, a surface of response of order two is not enough flexible to model a surface
admitting several extrema.
The aim of this paper is to present the result that we have obtained in the field of pollutants
emissions prediction. These results were obtained without the increase of the number of the
experiments that the industrialist can do. We call upon a sophisticated statistical model
resulting from the field of geostatistic named Kriging.
We use this method, through two approaches, in order to improve the prediction of NOx
(nitrogen oxide) emissions, and fuel consumption.
In the first stage, we estimate the response directly from the controllable factors like main
injection timing, pressure in common rail. This can be assimilated to a black box modelling.
In the second stage, we propose an innovative approach that allows us to predict the
response from a functional data. More precisely, we estimate the engine performance from
signals like pressure and cylinder temperature. These signals are obtained from a model of
combustion. The main advantage of the second approach is that it allows us to include a
physical knowledge of combustion. This lack of knowledge is often criticized in the case of
black boxes models.
The Kriging method is very well adapted for the second approach which predicts engine
responses from the state variables (signals) obtained from a physical model of combustion.
This means that this method can be recommended in cases where we have a lot of decision
variables, with a small number of experiences. This is due to the fact that the method is
based on the study of the similarity of the response of interest in different sites, in relation to
the distance separating them. We recall that, Software such as R and Matlab contain a
toolbox to use this method. But unfortunately, the latter are restricted to less than 3
dimensions. Adapting the method to higher dimensions has been considered.
To implement this second approach, a model reduction is needed. This reduction will be
made in two steps:
1) Reducing the number of state variables from 10 to 2 by the study of correlations.
2) Reducing the number of points in each signal using the theory of Fourier.
Once the reduction is made, the Kriging can be applied to the model obtained.
This paper is organized as follows: In the second section, we describe the engine behaviour
and recall the importance of controlling pollutant emissions. In the third section, the
ordinary Kriging techniques are recalled. In the fourth section, two different approaches for
modelling our problem are proposed. An efficient reduction model strategy is considered in
order to apply the Kriging method. Finally, the Kriging method is applied to the reduced
model. In the last section, numerical results are given followed by a short discussion.
2. Engine calibration
The engine calibration is a process which aims at defining the values of the engine control
parameters. During the ten last years, the set of themes “engine calibration” took an
important place in the process of the development of the internal combustion engines.
41. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on Kriging model 31
Indeed, under the impulse of the standards more and more severe, the car manufacturers
are brought to integrate more and more elaborated technologies in the power unit.
Under these conditions, the principles of control used in the past (cartographic approach,
buckles open…) are not enough sufficient. Indeed, the output variables (quantity injected,
advances in lighting or in injection) were primarily given starting from two variables of
entry (speed and load). Today, the use of new technologies in the conception of engines, in
order to reduce the pollutant emissions, as for example EGR (exhaust Gas Recirculation)
(Pierpont et al. 1995), multiply the number of parameters to control, as we can see it in Fig.1.
This figure shows the exponential evolution of number of setting parameters due to the
hardware complexity increase. This makes the cartographic approach impracticable.
Moreover, this kind of approach does not take into account the dynamic of system.
The main drawback of this evolution is the increase of the difficulty to understand the
engine behavior. To deals with all the parameters, we use a Kriging model which we define
in the next section.
Fig. 1. Parameters to tune a diesel engine function of technologies
3. Ordinary Kriging Techniques
Kriging methods are used frequently for spatial interpolation of soil properties (Krige, 1951;
Matheron, 1963). Kriging is a linear least squares estimation algorithm. It is a tool for
interpolation. The aim is to estimate the value of an unknown real function at point ,
given the values of function at some other points for each .
42. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice32
3.1 Ordinary Kriging
The ordinary Kriging estimator �����
� � is defined by:
�����
� � � ∑ �� ������
��� (1)
Where n is the number of surrounding observations ����� and �� is the weight of �����. The
weights should sum to unity in order to make the estimator unbiased:
∑ �� � ��
��� (2)
The weights are also determined such that the following Kriging variance is minimal under
the constraint given by the equation 2:
��� ������
� � � ����
���
This leads to a classical optimization problem with equality constraint. The Lagrange
multiplier theory is used in order to work out this problem. This gives a linear system which
must solved (Davis, 1986).
3.2 Variogram
The variogram is a function representing the spatial dependency. It is obtained from the
stationarity definition. In fact, this stationarity hypothesis is an indispensable condition for
the use of the Kriging method.
In the case of ordinary Kriging the expression of the variogram is obtained from the
following definition of intrinsic stationarity:
1) ������ � �� � ������ � � � � � ��, … , ��
2) �������� � �� � ������ � ����� � � � ��, … , �� ��� �
More precisely, the expression of the theoretical variogram, is deduced from the second
condition of intrinsic stationarity. This condition means that the variation of a data set is
only dependent on distance r between two locations, where the variables values are
���� � �� and ����� with � � |�|.
Note that the variogram, ����, is a function of the separation between points � and not a
function of the specific location ���, �� � ��. This mathematical definition is a useful
abstraction, but not easy to apply to observed values.
Consider a set of n observed data: ����, ��� , ���, ���, … ���, ����, where �� is the location of
observation � and �� is the associated observed value. There are
������
�
unique pairs of
observations. For each of these pairs we can calculate the associated separation distance:
� � ��� � ���
To infer the variogram from observed data, we will then use the common formula for the
experimental variogram (Cressie, 1993).
����� �
�
�����
∑ ������ � ������
�
���� (3)
Where:
���� � ���, �� ���� ���� ��� � ��� � � �
���� is the pair number of ���� � �� and �����; ����� is the experimental variogram.
43. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on Kriging model 33
3.3 Variogram Modeling
The experimental variogram presented in equation 3, estimates the theoretical variogram,
for only a finite number of distances. Moreover, it does not necessarily form a valid
variogram. This means, that maybe, it does not concern a negative conditionally function.
Indeed, this condition is necessary to ensure the positivity of the variance of a sum of
random variables (Christakos, 1984).
The experimental variogram is then modeled by a function of negative conditional type and
is defined for all distances. This modeling makes the Kriging possible. A variogram model
should be fitted to such variogram.
A model must be selected among the various forms of the variogram models which exist in
the literature and adjusted of experimental variogram (Arnaud & Emery, 2000 ). This means
that the parameters of the model must be estimated. This adjustment can be done
graphically, but it is usually done with an estimation method such as the weighted least
squares or maximum likelihood method.
Once the variographic model is chosen, and its parameters are estimated, we compute the
weights �� which appear in (1) by solving the following system:
�� � � , with
� �
�
�
�
�
�
������ ������ � ������ 1
������ ������ � ������ 1
� � � � �
������ ������ � ������ 1
1 1 1 1 0�
�
�
�
�
(4)
� � ��� �� � �� ���
And
� � ������� ������ � ������ 1��
Where � is the Lagrange multiplier.
��. � is the variogram model used for adjusting the experimental variogram.
��� is the distance between the locations �� and ��.
The variance of the estimate ��
�
i.e. the square of the standard error at each point is obtained
by the relationship:
��
�
� ��
. �
If we assume that the estimation errors are normally distributed around the true value, then
the probability that the true value will be in ����� � �� is 68 %, while the probability that the
true value will be in ����� � ��� is 95 %, (Davis, 1986).
3.4 Kriging Emulator Validation
The true test of the quality of the fitted emulator model is its ability to predict the response
at untried factor values. In order to maximally exploit the data to aid model fitting, the
emulators are validated using leave-one-out cross validation. This process involves taking
the fitted model and re-fitting it to a subset of non used experimental data.
More precisely, for an experiment with d design factors � � �� � � � �� , the set of n
experimental design points � � �� � � � �� and responses � � �� � � � �� , contain the
information used to build the Kriging model. A cross validation involves predicting at each
design point in turn when that point is left out of the predictor equations. Let ������ be the
44. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice34
estimate of the ����� based on all the design points except ��. The prediction error (the
estimated root mean square error, RMSE) is then calculated as:
���� � �
�
�
∑ ������ � �������
��
��� (5)
An index of the accuracy of the emulator is made by expressing as a percentage of the range
of the response �,
���� � ��� �
����
���������� ���
(6)
4. Two approaches to model engine responses
In this section we present two stage approaches based on Kriging method for the prediction
of NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions, and fuel consumption.
In the first stage, we estimate the response directly from the controllable factor like main
injection timing, pressure in common rail (black box).
In the second stage, we propose an innovative approach that allows us to predict the engine
response from signals, like pressure and cylinder temperature (states variables of
combustion chamber).
4.1 First approach
We recall that the first approach consists to build a Kriging model from the controllable
parameters. Thus, the Kriging was trained on about 300 input/ output sets of points
generated by using D-optimal design method. The training examples cover engine speeds
from 1000 rpm to 5000 rpm in 250 rpm intervals, and load vary from 1 to 23 bar. The data
was generated to cover the cycle point of the engine map in order to construct a global
Kriging emulator. For this reason, our model takes into account the engine speed among the
following control parameters:
Prail : rail pressure, - Main: Main injection quantity,
Mpil1: pilot1 injection quantity, - Pmain: Main injection timing,
Mpil2: pilot2 injection quantity, - Ppil2: pilot2 injection timing,
Ppil1: pilot1 injection timing, -VNT: turbine vane position,
VEGR: EGR valve position, - Volet: position component of admission,
4.2 Second approach
4.2.1 Modelling
In the second approach, we propose an innovative approach that allows us to predict the
response from signals like pressure and cylinder temperature (states variables of
combustion chamber).
More precisely, we decompose the problem of estimation of the engine responses, into two
steps sub problems (Fig.2):
45. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on Kriging model 35
Fig. 2. Coupling of the pollutants and consumption models with the combustion model.
1) The first step consists in simulating the various thermodynamic quantities from a
physical model. In this work, we use the model developed by (Castric et al., 2007), which
takes into account the input parameters. It leads to have a good representation of the
experimental results. This model allows us to generate the following thermodynamic
quantities:
The cylinder low pressure (the alone quantity that we can measure)
The temperature in the cylinder,
The temperature of the fresh gas in the cylinder
The temperature of the mixed gas in the cylinder,
The temperature of the burned gas in the cylinder,
The mass of the fresh gas in the cylinder,
The mass of the entrained gas in the cylinder,
The mass of the burned gas in the cylinder,
The turbulence in the motor,
The fuel vapor mass.
We precise, that each signal is represented by a vector of 1334 components.
2) The second step consists in building a statistical Kriging model, from the 11
thermodynamics quantities generated by the model of combustion.
It is true that the advantage of this procedure is that, it allows us to include a physical
knowledge of combustion. But this approach requires a great time of computing. Indeed to
build Kriging from 11 signals, can pose a serious problem in memory capacity and the
computing time can be considerable. Thus, to be able to implement this procedure, a
reduction of the model is essential.
46. AUTOMATION & CONTROL - Theory and Practice36
4.2.2 Model reduction
The data of the first model can be directly used for the Kriging. It is not the case for the
second one. In the last case the data have to be reduced.
The reduction process begins by studying the different correlations between the state
variables and their corresponding p-value. The chosen criterion consists in testing the p-
value: if it is less than to 0.05, the correlation is significant. This analysis allows us to retain
only two state variables: the cylinder pressure � and the mixed gas temperature in the
cylinder, Te.
In the second step, the number of components of the two remaining signals is reduced. This
is accomplished by using the discrete Fourier transform. The function fft of Matlab returns
the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of a vector, computed with a fast Fourier transform
(FFT) algorithm. After calculating the coefficients, a minimum number of them are retained.
This allows us to reproduce the initial signal, with a relative error approximately less than
0.02.
The reduction of the number of points of each signal is tantamount to minimize the number
of Fourier coefficients representing that signal. The two retained signals representing
respectively the cylinder pressure and the temperature of the mixed gas in the cylinder,
have been reduced to a 40 Fourier coefficients. Each signal has been reconstructed from the
40 kept coefficients, with an acceptable relative error. The following table.1 presents the
relative error committed, for the reconstruction of the two signals from the 40 coefficients
selected:
Relative error =
��������
���
S: is the experimental signal
���� is the reconstruction of the signal S using the fast Fourier transformation.
� . � is the Euclidian norm.
Type of signal relative
error
the cylinder low pressure 0.01
the temperature of the mixed gas in the cylinder 0.02
Table 1. Relative error committed for the reconstruction of two signals.
Figure 3 shows the experimental signals, resulting from the combustion and their
reconstruction by using the fft Matlab function.
47. Two stage approaches for modeling pollutant emission of diesel engine based on Kriging model 37
Fig. 3 Rebuilding of the measured signals (red curve) by using the discrete Fourier
transform (blue curve)
Such reduction makes the Kriging possible. The considered entries of the model are:
�
��������� � ������� � � �������
��������� � ������� � � �������
Where:
i is the index that corresponds to the ith operating point of engine. An operation point of the
engine is defined by engine speed and engine torque
����� is the kept Fourier coefficient for the signal �, which corresponds to the ith operating
point of engine.
5. Application to the estimation of engine responses
In the previous section, we have presented and explained the two approaches used in this
work, in order to model a behavior of diesel engine. Then, this section will be devoted to
present the results respectively obtained by each approach, for the estimation of each
response.
5.1 Numerical results using the first approach
We recall that the construction and the modeling of the experimental variogram is the most
important step in the Kriging method. Thus, in this part, we will start by giving the chosen
model.
Variogram fitting:
Variography modeling is a critical step and most difficult in the construction of a Kriging
model. For this reason, several models were adjusted and then compared. It was difficult to
select the better model graphically. The cross validation facilitates the work. It allows us to
select the one, which minimizes the root mean square error.
Pressure Temperature ��