Whitepaper 3: AI engineering and functional architecture

Introduction

The research project ProKInect focuses on collaborative condition monitoring with distributed AI agents. It addresses the cross-company development and use of condition monitoring systems for production facilities. Such cross-stakeholder development still presents a challenge. This white paper outlines the steps taken in ProKInect in a sequence that demonstrates how this challenge can be met.

Description of the working method

The general working method is consistent with the usual procedure for cross-company project processing. It should be noted, however, that in this case there is a significantly higher number of links between the working groups compared to “classic” projects. The initial step in the development process is to create a collection of potential roles in which employees could encounter the system to be developed. Starting from this, a list of ideas is compiled based on the roles and their associated benefits for the development of the system. To achieve this, Participants are asked to adopt the perspective of various roles involved with the target system and describe the tasks they would like the system to fulfill, with the goal in mind. After the requirements have been collected in a next step, the functional decomposition of the defined benefits begins. This process is conducted in parallel with the creation and maintenance of a digitally expandable image of the functional architecture developed in the process. The most effective method for this stage is to continue the cooperative collaboration in online meetings with a shared view of an online board. The software and hardware functions required to provide the defined benefits are broken down from a high-level overview to a detailed, multi-level hierarchy. The starting point is aligned with the data flow, i.e., where the required data originates in physical processes on the real machine. It is to be expected that the development team will first agree on a consensus at the points in the architecture where physical processes are acquired from the machine. Based on these elements, experience has shown that the agreement then continues in the direction of the signal flow. The next phase is then initiated in parallel, commencing with the functions on which there is consensus. This entails determining which partner or individual will be responsible for the subsequent design and, ultimately, the implementation of the selected function.

Figure 2: Overview of the section of the online whiteboard with the entire functional architecture

It is essential that all interfaces are coordinated and documented in a systematic manner. It is the responsibility of the person managing the development team to ensure that this is given particular attention. Along the data flow, there will be interfaces between functions that are developed by different individuals, potentially by different partners, or that are allocated to different technical instances. The actual implementation of the functions begins step by step with the completion of the individual interface agreements. Once the development is complete, the results are tested in one or more demonstration cases.