UML4IoT - A UML profile to exploit IoT in cyber-physical manufacturing systems

Internet of Things is changing the world. The manufacturing industry has already identified that the IoT brings great opportunities to retain its leading position in economy and society. However, the adoption of this new technology changes the development process of the manufacturing system and raises many challenges. In this paper the modern manufacturing system is considered as a composition of cyber-physical, cyber and human components and IoT is used as a glue for their integration as far as it regards their cyber interfaces. The key idea is a UML profile for the IoT with an alternative to apply the approach also at the source code level specification of the component in case that a UML design specification is not available. The proposed approach, namely UML4IoT, fully automates the generation process of the IoT-compliant layer that is required for the cyber-physical component to be integrated in the modern IoT manufacturing environment. A prototype implementation of the myLiqueur laboratory system has been developed to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the UML4IoT approach.