Reconfigurability For Industry 4.0 Middleware Software Architectures

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is about creating an intelligent network of machines to handle readjustment in the production system and increase productivity effectiveness. Understanding reconfigurability of the Cyber-Physical System (CPS) becomes important towards successful architecting advanced production systems. This paper proposes a definition of reconfigurability for I4.0 middleware software architecture. The contribution of the paper is a definition of reconfigurability that enables reasoning about reconfigurable I4.0 middleware software architectures. We demonstrate how the reconfigurability definition supports architectural reasoning about reconfigurable middleware through a case study on actual running middleware in the university I4.0 laboratory.