ZUVIS: Zustandsvisualisierung von komplexen Produktionsanlagen auf unterschiedlichen mobilen Endgeräten

Demands of automation plants are growing, which leads to recurring plant modifications. These modifications may be caused by conversion of production or integration of new plant components. All these events cause plant downtimes, not only because plant parts need to be interconnected again, but also because the control software needs to be adapted.

Furthermore, automation plants are controlled and monitored by so called control stations. Next to these centralized systems, mobile device also find adoption in this area. However, mobile devices don’t replace the usage of control stations, they are used complementary. While control stations can comprise plant information for multiple users, mobile devices often need to offer user specific information, not least because of their smaller display. Nevertheless, mobile devices offer several advantages, which become apparent when considering plant growth, which can also lead to an increase of tasks in hand.

For instance, a mobile device allows for accessing plant specific information, like the current plant condition, while being location independent. Also, while being physically present inside of a plant, an engineer can directly request for repair-, maintenance-, or plant modification orders.

These aspects represent the research focus of the project ZUVIS. The project focuses on new possibilities of visualizing automation plants itself and its processes. The goal of the research project is the development of a software solution for dynamic 3D – visualization of automation plants and methods for dynamic process data visualization on mobile devices.