Feature model for the specification of industrial indoor location-based services

摘要

The rapid evolution of information technology is the driving force behind the ongoing digital transformation. Ubiquitous communication devices and digital services have become an essential part in most of our lives. Context-awareness enables convenient new forms of interaction and instant delivery of relevant information for a given situation. IT services that provide a benefit to the user based on their current position or the position of another entity, are known as location-based services (LBS). In the context of the ongoing digitization of the manufacturing industry, LBS have the potential to improve processes on the shop floor and in the office environment. Unlike in the B2C sector, however, LBS have not yet found a solid foothold in industrial environments due to a number of barriers hindering the implementation. The main barrier is the lack of a standard indoor positioning solution, which is required for an indoor localization. As a result, the implementation of indoor LBS requires a tailored system comprising an appropriate indoor positioning technology, computational infrastructure as well as compatible software solutions. During the specification phase, it is necessary to evaluate the initial situation and existing hardware and software infrastructure to develop the optimal solution for a given company. In this paper, we present a feature-based approach that uses a feature model to specify industrial LBS for different application categories like asset management, information provision, wayfinding, security and process analytics. For each application category, we have identified the possible LBS features that can be combined to create fitting LBS for the scenario at hand. The feature model facilitates the configuration of individual LBS, taking into account various prerequisites of a company. Furthermore, the feature model is linked to a technology morphology, which enables an accessible containment of the available technological solutions. We use the example use case "automatic tool configuration" to validate the specification approach using the feature model and the technology morphology.