Abstract: A production support system for generating a plant bill of process, PBoP, from a product bill of process, PdBoP, for a production plant, a corresponding method and a corresponding computer program product is provided. The production support system includes: (a) a reasoning component for determining possible cells; (b) a selection component for selecting all those cells that address operation capabilities used in the PdBoP; (c) an operation capabilities identifying component for identifying, additional operation capabilities for the selected cells which include at least two production entities, PET, based on the operation capabilities of the individual production entities, PET; and (d) a PBoP generating component for generating the PBoP from the PdBoP using the additional operation capabilities identified by the operations identifying component.

Abstract: A method for automatically determining of a changed manufacturing process of a product with changed manufacturing process data, including providing basic data which include historical manufacturing process data of at least one historical manufacturing process of the product, historical product data of the product, target manufacturing process data of a planned manufacturing process or target product data of a planned product classifying the basic data determining the changed manufacturing process with the aid of the classified data, wherein the providing, the classifying, and/or the determining of the changed manufacturing process is carried out with the aid of graph technology. In addition to the method, an apparatus with a computer system for carrying out of the method is provided. The computer system includes at least one insighter engine for the executing of the method and the insighter engine includes at least one data providing tool for providing of the basic data.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for generating an adapted task graph, including the steps of providing a first input data set with at least one task graph and at least one task context and/or a second input data set with at least one constraint and at least one task context, generating an adapted task graph using a trained neural network based on the first input data set and/or the second input data set, and providing the adapted task graph.

Abstract: Providing data generally involves a transformation of an OPC UA data model into an ontology. Such an ontology readily provides desired capabilities for validation, querying, and analytics of the OPC UA data model using sophisticated standard tools adapted to the ontology. A method for transforming a semantically enriched and graph-based data model into a target ontology is suggested. By a first act, identifications of nodes are retrieved of the data model. Subsequently or concurrently, semantic descriptions of one or more references interconnecting one or more nodes are retrieved. These semantic descriptions are expressed by at least one or more predicates and one or more concepts (e.g., classes) in the target ontology to be produced. Eventually, the target ontology is structured by a semantic ontology language and output to a triple store.

Abstract: A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller (PLC) as part of a production process within an automation system includes the intelligent PLC receiving automation system data and a semantic context model comprising a plurality of ontologies providing formal specifications of conceptual entities associated with the automation system. The intelligent PLC creates one or more semantic annotations for the automation system data using the semantic context model. These semantic annotations are stored along with the automation system data in a non-volatile storage medium included in the intelligent PLC.

Abstract: Production logs and industrial ontologies are processed with an inductive logic program performing class expression learning in order to create class expressions, with each class expression representing a constraint or property of a skill of a production module. The resulting class expressions are ordered by a metric to form an ordered recommender list and displayed to a user for postprocessing. The user selects suitable class expressions from the ordered recommender list, so that the system can build a machine-readable skill description with the selected class expressions. This approach to generating formal, machine-readable skill descriptions minimizes the labor time and domain expertise needed to equip production modules with their skill description. Selecting the correct class expression from the automatically generated ordered recommender list is a much lower effort than manual labeling from scratch.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for checking whether and/or how a technical process may be carried out using a technical system with two or more units having technical capabilities that are potentially relevant to the technical process. At least one ontology is used which describes the technical system and the technical process, and a constraint satisfaction problem is generated using the at least one ontology. In the method, solutions are found for the constraint satisfaction problem. The solutions may be stored or output.

Abstract: A production support system for generating a plant bill of process, PBoP, from a product bill of process, PdBoP, for a production plant, a corresponding method and a corresponding computer program product is provided. The production support system includes: (a) a reasoning component for determining possible cells; (b) a selection component for selecting all those cells that address operation capabilities used in the PdBoP; (c) an operation capabilities identifying component for identifying, additional operation capabilities for the selected cells which include at least two production entities, PET, based on the operation capabilities of the individual production entities, PET; and (d) a PBoP generating component for generating the PBoP from the PdBoP using the additional operation capabilities identified by the operations identifying component.

Abstract: A system may include an insighter engine configured to access conceptual plans for previously manufactured products, and a given conceptual plan may include a bill of materials (BoM), a bill of processes (BoP), and a bill of resources (BoR). The insighter engine may be configured to represent the conceptual plans according to an insighter ontology and apply machine learning, using the conceptual plans represented according to the insighter ontology as training data, to learn a manufacturing constraint not already represented in the conceptual plans. The system may also include a predictor engine configured to access a BoM for a variant product that differs from the previously manufactured products and apply the learned manufacturing constraint to generate a predicted BoP and a predicted BoR for the BoM of the variant product.

Abstract: An autonomous production system including a transformation unit adapted to transform an ontology representation of actions of the autonomous production system into a corresponding planning representation; an artificial intelligence planning unit adapted to compute an action plan including a sequence of instantiated actions based on the planning representation; and a retransformation unit adapted to transform the computed action plan into an ontology language representation providing transparency information about the computed action plan.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for checking whether and/or how a technical process may be carried out using a technical system with two or more units having technical capabilities that are potentially relevant to the technical process. At least one ontology is used which describes the technical system and the technical process, and a constraint satisfaction problem is generated using the at least one ontology. In the method, solutions are found for the constraint satisfaction problem. The solutions may be stored or output.

Abstract: A method for producing rare earth metal-doped quartz glass includes the steps of (a) providing a blank of the rare earth metal-doped quartz glass, and (b) homogenizing the blank by softening the blank zone by zone in a heating zone and by twisting the softened zone along a rotation axis. Some rare earth metals, however, show a discoloration of the quartz glass, which hints at an unforeseeable and undesired change in the chemical composition or possibly at an inhomogeneous distribution of the dopants. To avoid this drawback and to provide a modified method which ensures the production of rare earth metal-doped quartz glass with reproducible properties, during homogenization according to method step (b), the blank is softened under the action of an oxidizingly acting or a neutral plasma.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for determining diagnostic models for time series of a technical system and to a diagnostic method. In the method for determining one or more diagnostic model/s for time series of a technical system for the purpose of diagnosing an event, firstly, one or more diagnostic models are formulated and, in a first act, possible extensions of the diagnostic model/s are determined; in a second act, for each extension of the/each diagnostic model/s, a set of sequences is determined from the time series, in which the extension is contained; in a third act, each sequence of said set is tested to determine whether the sequence is connected with the event; and in a fourth act, the/those extensions for which the ratio of the number of sequences of the set which are connected with the event to the number of sequences of the set is largest, is/are set as the new diagnostic model.

Abstract: A method of operating an intelligent programmable logic controller (PLC) as part of a production process within an automation system includes the intelligent PLC receiving automation system data and a semantic context model comprising a plurality of ontologies providing formal specifications of conceptual entities associated with the automation system. The intelligent PLC creates one or more semantic annotations for the automation system data using the semantic context model. These semantic annotations are stored along with the automation system data in a non-volatile storage medium included in the intelligent PLC.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for actuating a machine is provided in which a relaxed abduction problem is determined in order to explain the greatest possible part of the observations with the fewest possible assumptions. Based upon two preference orders over a subset of observations and a subset of assumptions, tuples are determined so that the theory together with the subset of assumptions explains the subset of observations. On the basis of the formal validity of the approach certain characteristics of the set of results (such as correctness, completeness, etc.) are checked. By the choice of underlying representational language and the preference relations, the complexity of the problem-solving process is influenced and thus flexibly adapted with regard to domain requirements. The invention may be used for any machines, e.g. gas turbines or steam turbines.

Abstract: A method for producing rare earth metal-doped quartz glass includes the steps of (a) providing a blank of the rare earth metal-doped quartz glass, and (b) homogenizing the blank by softening the blank zone by zone in a heating zone and by twisting the softened zone along a rotation axis. Some rare earth metals, however, show a discoloration of the quartz glass, which hints at an unforeseeable and undesired change in the chemical composition or possibly at an inhomogeneous distribution of the dopants. To avoid this drawback and to provide a modified method which ensures the production of rare earth metal-doped quartz glass with reproducible properties, during homogenization according to method step (b), the blank is softened under the action of an oxidizingly acting or a neutral plasma.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for the computer-assisted creation of rules for monitoring and/or diagnosing a technical plant. The system includes a digital knowledge base in the form of a first ontology, including a plant ontology, which describes the technical plant, and a rule ontology, which includes rules, wherein a particular rule is linked by means of a condition relation to concepts in the form of one or more conditions, which refer to one or more concepts of the plant ontology, and is linked by means of a consequence relation to the concept of a consequence derived from the one or more conditions, which consequence refers to one or more concepts of the plant ontology.

Abstract: The invention describes a method for the manufacture of quartz glass that comprises not only doping with rare earth elements and/or transition metals, but also fluorination of the quartz glass. The method described presently allows the diffusion of the dopants during fluorination to be prevented. Moreover, the invention relates to the quartz glass that can be obtained according to the method according to the invention and the use thereof as laser-active quartz glass, for generating light-guiding structures, and in optical applications.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for fluorinating a soot body. The method involves: a) providing a soot body, and b) treating the soot body with a gas mixture containing hydrogen and CnF2n+2 (n=1 or 2) at a temperature in the range of (1,280-n*250)° C. to (1,220-n*100)° C.

Abstract: According to the invention, the intermediate sheath (13) is formed by assembling longitudinal elements (13A) and includes: a first optical material, the refractive index of which differs from the refractive index of the monomode core by at most 10?3; and a second optical material, the refractive index of which is lower than the refractive index of said monomode core and differs therefrom by at least 10?3.