Service-oriented architecture for the networked, adaptive control of highly individual stem cell production

• Serviceorientierte Architektur für die vernetzte, adaptive Steuerung der hochindividuellen Stammzellproduktion

Jung, Sven; Schmitt, Robert H. (Thesis advisor); Jockenhövel, Stefan (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : RWTH Aachen University (2022, 2023)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2022

Abstract

The regenerative characteristics of stem cells play an essential role for the development of advanced therapies. This has generated a yet unmet demand for large quantities of cell material while their production is mainly driven by a labor-intensive, manual manufacturing competence. As a living product, stem cells bear a natural high variability and complexity, making the introduction of automation technologies at large scale challenging. In conclusion, traditional automation approaches lack the required level of adapting to the individual cell behavior andthe level of flexibility for keeping up with the continuous advances in device technology and biological process development. Innovative information and communication technologies such as ubiquitous connectivity and data availability and computer aided production control and planning systems offer the opportunity to address the increasing complexity while conventional production control systems are too rigid and inflexible for this highly variable and complex domain. Against this background, the goal of this thesis was to develop an appropriate production control architecture using methods of digitalization in the context of Industry 4.0 able to meet the requirements of highly individual products such as stem cells. For this reason, a structured analysis of the business processes was conducted, revealing the requirements for a highly individual production control. Technical characteristics concerning the key tasks of production control systems were identified using terms and definitions of modern production systems. On this basis, promising qualitative and technical design ideas and concepts from digitalization and Industry 4.0 were investigated and translated into the domain of stem cell production. The resulting service-oriented approach was realized in a software prototype implementation and applied to a practical problem in a cell cultivation scenario. Conducting methods of verification and validation confirmed the suitability of the thesis approach. In fact, it was shown that the chosen approach could generally address the demands of a production control for highly individual products.

Institutions

• Chair of Production Metrology and Quality Management [417510]
• Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University [417200]