Cyber-Physical Systems for Production Simulation and Optimization within Complex Industrial Systems

The strong acceleration of the digitalization promoted by Industry 4.0 is transforming process manufacturing industries and is pushing them towards a new vision of the production systems, the so-called Smart Factory or Factories of the Future, where plant structures are more flexible and digitalized, plant processes are dynamic and able to adapt to continuous changings that can affect the production flow. Cyber-Physical Systems are one of the main building blocks of Smart Factory and require the integration of different technical disciplines and different application domains. They include mathematical modelling of physical systems, formal models of computation, simulation of heterogeneous systems, software synthesis, verification, validation and testing. In this Thesis, Cyber-Physical Systems applications for industrial production processes are presented. Methods and technologies that show the advantages in the use of Cyber-Physical Systems, supported by existing tools and frameworks, and devoted to the simulation, optimization, and high-level control of complex industrial production systems in a dynamic environment, are provided. In particular, the use of Multi-Agent Systems as key enabling technology for the realization of Cyber-Physical Production Systems has been investigated. The agent‐based approach represents a paradigm very suited for addressing distributed systems acting in complex and dynamic environments, and it represents a perfect solution to address the new generation of smart distributed process manufacturing industries. The aim of the thesis is to encourage factories to embrace the opportunities of Cyber-Physical Systems-based technologies by addressing concerns and doubts from industrial side and promoting the realization and use of Smart Factories.