Motivated by political regulations and rising energy prices, companies strive for implementing energy management and for reducing their energy consumption. It is an expenditure of work for the energy manager to gather all relevant information about the facilities and machines (e.g. meaning of measurement and control signals, limits of these quantities, installed nominal capacities). In many cases, there is digital planning data from the planning, construction and commissioning phases. Using AutomationML, this information can be used collaboratively not only for engineering and maintenance but for energy monitoring and optimization. In this study, an industrial robot and two conveyors are integrated in the wide-spread energy management software suite EnEffCo. We document the method and results. Implications for deriving optimization formulations are discussed.

The manufacturing sector has witnessed a rapid rise in the importance of energy-efficient operation. For finding optimal set-points for industrial facilities, optimization problems of increasing complexity occur. Key challenges are the leak of derivative information and the curse of dimensionality. For systematic reduction of the search-space by decomposition of the model, a methodology for the inclusion of topology knowledge in the optimization procedure is developed. An implementation of OptTopo (Optimization based on Topology), embedded in a testbed, demonstrates its advantages compared to popular out-of-the-box-optimization. OptTopo could be integrated in energy management software offering advanced set-point control for complex facilities.

Energy efficiency is an emerging topic for companies in the industrial sector. The optimization of existing machines by advanced control is increasingly approached. For interconnected systems, we present a general procedure to include topology knowledge in an automated set-point optimization routine. This paper demonstrates an exemplary algorithm, applied to a parallel connection of two chillers for test purposes.

Optimizing the energy efficiency of machine tools automatically is promising. There are several metrics to be considered when it comes to automated optimization approaches in serial production which are especially quality, technical availability, and cycle time. These are not supposed to be impaired whereas they are indicated as a central obstacle. The measurements and the machine data show the actions happening in the machine which also leads to the data-driven traceability of machine states. This article presents a method to formulate the necessary expert knowledge to optimize the energy efficiency of a machine tool and is basically done by a decision tree which leads to a set of rules which will be explained in this article. This set of rules coordinate an optimization algorithm, which technically manipulates selected variables under the given rules. The development and is a result of a research which was done at the serial production of camshafts at the MB plant in Berlin.

For advanced control of technical systems reliable system identification methods are essential. The data-driven framework Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) by Kutz and Brunton is extended in order to tackle hysteresis-controlled systems. In order to gain robustness, a so called proximity hysteron is introduced. This paper presents this extension and documents experiments with simulations of an academic example and an industrial chiller system. A proof of concept is followed by experiments which show that strong nonlinearities as well as inadequate sampling rates can critically impair the algorithm.

Industrial facilities are complex and heterogeneous systems in permanent technological change. The ambitions towards smart factories heighten the requirements for the flexible interconnection of various devices. These industrial entities are controlled, observed and optimized by many services. The tuning of process parameters of several linked components in order to boost the overall energy efficiency is one example of such services. AutomationML (AML) provides a hierarchical description language for industrial systems considering both structure and properties. An extension of the established standard allows for intuitive modeling of energy optimization problems. An approved energy performance indicator (EnPI) methodology was integrated in the libraries of AML in order to simplify and shorten the modeling procedure for the optimization task. The procedure is demonstrated using the example of an industrial cooling system.