A Semantic Approach towards Software defined Automation

Abstract

Software Defined Automation (SDA) is a concept which intends to move automation functionality into a cloud-native environment. This means that functions of classical automation devices are moved to virtualized software. The NAMUR AK 2.8 – Automation Architectures is working on a position paper describing the main principles of Software Defined Automation (SDA) for Core Process Control (CPC) and Monitoring & Optimization. There will be an according paper and presentation of a NAMUR position paper (still work in progress) at the Automation Kongress June 2026 in Baden-Baden which reports about work. The authors of this paper suggest an extension for a semantic path from requirement of an application over offered Capabilities and Skills of a SDA platform down to the deployment. A ontology model forms the basis. There are some special assumptions which guide the ontology model. The ontology model is a designed model which forms the scaffold of the methods and integrates other models. This provides the opportunity to define deterministic rules. The main reason for this decision is that the large amount of well designed and valuable automation models together with the advantages of generative AI can perform the next steps of LLM based automation engineering. Additionally, this work assumes a running automation system, i.e. the data sources are reachable, the application algorithms are implemented and connectivity is possible. The generation of application functionality is not within the scope of this work. The suggested solution allows an incremental approach. i.e., single examples, such as an analytic function of some process variable can be implemented without defining the entire scope of possible applications.