Global trends such as mass customization and lot size one, demand flexibility, autonomy and adaptability in production. Interoperability of devices is a key challenge as production systems evolve into Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). As part of the German strategic project Industrie 4.0 (I4.0), concepts and solutions for continuous digitization of production are being developed, in order to meet these numerous challenges. The concept of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) was introduced in order to provide data and information in a standardized and semantically described manner, thus enabling interoperability and easy interaction. In this paper, we show how users can translate a semantic description of plants, machines or individual components that are based on a standardized Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA) information model, into the AAS information model.

Employees are increasingly using electric vehicles (EVs) as their choice of company car. This means modern companies are becoming owners of EV fleets that need to charge on company premises. Without an effective charging strategy the cost of running an EV charging infrastructure for a large fleet of company EVs quickly becomes prohibitive. For this purpose, we investigate three different charging strategies: (i) a “naive” baseline strategy, (ii) intelligent charging (using an optimal schedule) and (iii) multi-location intelligent charging (i.e. allowing charging at home). Experimental results from simulations show how the selection of a charging strategy affects the number of adequately charged EVs as well as infrastructure utilization. Multi-location intelligent charging is the most effective strategy.

There has been an increased interest in both the augmented reality (AR) and ubiquitous computing (Ubicomp) research communities to integrate these two technologies. In an attempt to introduce visual interaction into location-aware applications we have developed a prototype that lets users experience a Ubicomp environment visually. Some system issues we came across in accomplishing this task are described.