The purpose of this research work is to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a quick response decision platform for middle management in industry. It utilises the strengths of current, but more importantly creates a leap forward in the theory and practice of Supervisory and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and Discrete Event Simulation and Modelling (DESM). The proposed research platform uses real-time data and creates an automatic platform for real-time and predictive system analysis, giving current and ahead of time information on the performance of the system in an efficient manner. Data acquisition as the backend connection of data integration system to the shop floor faces both hardware and software challenges for coping with large scale real-time data collection. Limited scope of SCADA systems does not make them suitable candidates for this. Cost effectiveness, complexity, and efficiency-orientation of proprietary solutions leave space for more challenge. A Flexible Data Input Layer Architecture (FDILA) is proposed to address generic data integration platform so a multitude of data sources can be connected to the data processing unit. The efficiency of the proposed integration architecture lies in decentralising and distributing services between different layers. A novel Sensitivity Analysis (SA) method called EvenTracker is proposed as an effective tool to measure the importance and priority of inputs to the system. The EvenTracker method is introduced to deal with the complexity systems in real-time. The approach takes advantage of event-based definition of data involved in process flow. The underpinning logic behind EvenTracker SA method is capturing the cause-effect relationships between triggers (input variables) and events (output variables) at a specified period of time determined by an expert. The approach does not require estimating data distribution of any kind. Neither the performance model requires execution beyond the real-time. The proposed EvenTracker sensitivity analysis method has the lowest computational complexity compared with other popular sensitivity analysis methods. For proof of concept, a three tier data integration system was designed and developed by using National Instruments’ LabVIEW programming language, Rockwell Automation’s Arena simulation and modelling software, and OPC data communication software. A laboratory-based conveyor system with 29 sensors was installed to simulate a typical shop floor production line. In addition, EvenTracker SA method has been implemented on the data extracted from 28 sensors of one manufacturing line in a real factory. The experiment has resulted 14% of the input variables to be unimportant for evaluation of model outputs. The method proved a time efficiency gain of 52% on the analysis of filtered system when unimportant input variables were not sampled anymore. The EvenTracker SA method compared to Entropy-based SA technique, as the only other method that can be used for real-time purposes, is quicker, more accurate and less computationally burdensome. Additionally, theoretic estimation of computational complexity of SA methods based on both structural complexity and energy-time analysis resulted in favour of the efficiency of the proposed EvenTracker SA method. Both laboratory and factory-based experiments demonstrated flexibility and efficiency of the proposed solution.

Se propone una metodología de desarrollo de aplicaciones de tiempo real estricto que van a ser ejecutadas en plataformas distribuidas abiertas. En esta metodología, el diseñador de la aplicación no conoce la carga de trabajo de la plataforma que será ejecutada concurrentemente junto con la aplicación que diseña. La metodología se basa en el paradigma de reserva de recursos, y utiliza como base el concepto de plataforma virtual, tanto para describir el uso de los recursos que una aplicación requiere, como para ejecutar la aplicación satisfaciendo sus requisitos temporales. La plataforma virtual es utilizada en el proceso de negociación con el servicio de reserva de recursos de la plataforma física, con objeto de obtener una configuración de la aplicación que haga compatible su ejecución con la carga de trabajo que ya se está ejecutando en dicha plataforma. La metodología aborda todas las fases del desarrollo de una aplicación: describe la información que debe asociarse al código de la aplicación para poder ser configurado, así como el proceso que permite analizar independientemente su planificabilidad en base a la plataforma virtual; especifica el proceso de despliegue de la aplicación y define la información que se utiliza para negociar su ejecución con el servicio de reserva de recursos de la plataforma física y para generar los datos de configuración que deben ser asignados al código cuando se ejecute. Todos estos procesos son dirigidos por modelos, por lo que la tesis aborda la definición de las transformaciones de modelos requeridas, así como la formulación de los metamodelos formales utilizados en ellas. Por otro lado, aunque la tecnología es independiente de la plataforma de ejecución, se especifica la funcionalidad que debe ofrecer el servicio de reserva de recursos presente en la misma para dar soporte a la metodología propuesta, y se analiza su compatibilidad con algunas implementaciones actualmente disponibles / This thesis proposes a methodology for the development of hard real-time applications that will be executed in open distributed platforms. When this methodology is applied, the application designer does not know the workload of the platform that will execute concurrently with the designed application. The methodology is based on the resource reservation paradigm, and relies on the concept of virtual platform, both to describe the resources usage required by an application to execute, and to run the application guaranteeing the fulfillment of the specified timing requirements. The virtual platform is also used on the negotiation process with the resource reservation service of the physical platform in order to obtain a configuration of the application that supports its execution together with the current workload running on that platform. The methodology deals with all the phases of the application design: it describes the information that must be associated to the application code in order to obtain a proper configuration, as well as the process that allows an independent schedulability analysis of the application based on its virtual platform; it specifies the application deployment process and defines the information that is used to negotiate the execution of the application with the resource reservation service of the physical platform, and to generate the configuration data that must be assigned to the code when it is executed. The methodology follows a model-driven perspective, so the thesis addresses the required models transformations, as well as the formulation of the metamodels used in them. Moreover, although the technology is independent from the execution platform, the functionality that must be provided by the resource reservation service to support the proposed technology is specified and its compatibility with other implementations is analyzed.