Orchestration of Container-Based Distributed Real-Time Control Applications

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Armin Lechler
• Subject Area: Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544536759

Software development for programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is typically monolithic and for explicit target systems, such as proprietary PLC runtime environments. As a monolithic control application ages, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain and expand. The components have low reusability, can only be put into production integrated into the overall application. To counter these disadvantages, the use of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) has already found its way into control technology. In order to make the advantages of modular control architectures, in particular the freedom in the design of individual modules, fully available and thus to achieve the necessary flexibility in hardware-related control technology as well, a methodology for managing the software modules is required. This means that the individual modules, which are encapsulated in containers, must be automatically made available on target systems as needed and must be able to be updated during runtime. The goal of the project is to design methods for orchestrating heterogeneous control modules in container-based control architectures while taking real-time capability into account. For this purpose, a container orchestrator is introduced for the cross-computing node management of control modules encapsulated in containers. This is to enable the distribution of control modules to computer nodes. The basis for this is a concept for the abstraction of module-internal execution models to a uniform description of the processor requirements at container level. In addition, methods for continuous deployment at runtime are to be researched, which allow continuous updating of control modules without having to consider suitable time windows. The validation will be carried out on the basis of real manufacturing processes within an already available model factory on industrial robots and 5-axis milling machines.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Verl