Autonomic Mediation Middleware for Smart Manufacturing

The purpose of the Industry 4.0 initiative is to bring together IT technologies and production processes to enable the emergence of smart, connected manufacturing. Integration is, however, a complex activity that requires rethought in the context of manufacturing. Indeed, new, challenging requirements are emerging, such as dynamicity, heterogeneity, or autonomicity. Here, the authors present Cilia, a mediation middleware designed for smart manufacturing. Cilia is based on service-oriented components. It provides dynamic and autonomic features, allowing great flexibility at runtime with minimum human intervention. The authors also apply a real use case that involves supervision and maintenance of pumping stations.