Method and system for semi-automated generation of machine-readable skill descriptions of production modules

A method for semi-automated generation of a machine-readable skill description of a production module of a flexible production environment comprising a plurality of production lines with one or more production modules each having a set of provided skills, the method comprising:

• one or more processors executing the steps of:
• processing knowledge stored in a knowledge storage with an inductive learning component, the inductive learning component performing class expression learning to create class expressions, with each class expression representing a constraint or property of a skill of the production module, wherein the processed knowledge contains at least:
• instance data of operations previously carried out by the production module and/or other production modules;
• and
• an ontology containing at least a class hierarchy of several production modules and parameters of at least some of the production modules;
• ordering, by a metric, the class expressions, thereby forming an ordered recommender list;
• outputting, by a display of a user interface, the ordered recommender list to a user;
• receiving, by the user interface, one or more user interactions, the user interactions providing a selection of class expressions from the ordered recommender list;
• building the machine-readable skill description with the selected class expressions for the set of provided skills of at least one production module;
• storing the machine-readable skill description in the knowledge storage to enrich the knowledge storage;
• as a function of building the machine-readable skill description for the set of provided skills of at least one production module, matching the set of provided skills with a set of required skills of a manufacturing operation;
• in response to the matching, automatically creating a production plan by assigning one or more production steps of the manufacturing operation to the at least one production module as part of the production plan;
• and
• automatically executing the production plan by controlling the at least one production module to produce a product.