Standards-based integration of mobile fleets as industrial assets

Authors

  • Fernando Arbulu Fernández Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco (EHU)
  • Ekaitz Hurtado Pando Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco (EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4196-4685
  • Federico Pérez González Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco (EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5334-7572
  • María Luz Álvarez Gutiérrez Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco (EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4739-1267
  • Oskar Casquero Oyarzabal Dpto. Ingeniería de Sistemas y Automática, Escuela de Ingeniería de Bilbao, Universidad del País Vasco (EHU) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4191-5648
  • Aintzane Armentia Díaz de Tuesta Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6612-241X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17979/ja-cea.2026.47.13805

Keywords:

Multi-agent systems, Interoperability, Mobile robots, Coordination of multiple vehicle systems, intelligent manu

Abstract

The integration of mobile robot fleets into Industry 4.0 requires going beyond mere technical interoperability to enable their incorporation into flexible manufacturing systems. This paper presents a standards-based approach for integrating fleet managers as aggregated industrial assets, covering their configuration, provisioning, and operation. The proposal combines the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) standard and the Capability-Skill-Service (CSS) model to model the fleet as an aggregated industrial asset with its own identity, using VDA 5050 as a cross-cutting element for its operational management. Based on this description, an extension of the Self-configurable Manufacturing Industrial Agents (SMIA) framework is proposed, generating an autonomous agent called SMIA FM. This entity is provisioned with the standardized definition of the fleet, interacts with the manufacturing system via FIPA-ACL, and orchestrates the fleet’s mobile robots via VDA 5050. Its validation in a ROS 2 simulated environment demonstrates the functional viability of the proposal.

References

AMR fleet management: AI as a driver of efficiency [WWW Document], n.d. KUKA Germany. URL https://www.kuka.com/en-de/products/amr-autonomous-mobile-robotics/amr-fleet-management-software (accessed 5.13.26).

Ekaitz Hurtado, 2026. SMIA Operator [WWW Document]. URL https://github.com/ekhurtado/SMIA/tree/main/additional_tools/smia_operator_agent (accessed 1.25.26).

Engra, n.d. LOGIBLOCK | Plataforma modular para PYMEs - Robotnik®.

Robotnik. URL https://robotnik.eu/es/projects/logiblock/ (accessed 5.13.26).

Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, 2002. FIPA Abstract Architecture Specification.

Hurtado, E., Burgos, A., Armentia, A., Casquero, O., 2025. Self-configurable Manufacturing Industrial Agents (SMIA): a standardized approach for digitizing manufacturing assets. J. Ind. Inf. Integr. 47, 100915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2025.100915

Hurtado, E., Sarachaga, I., Armentia, A., Casquero, O., 2026. An open-source reference framework for the implementation of type 3 Asset Administration Shells. Software Impacts 27, 100807. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.simpa.2025.100807

Industrial Digital Twin Association e.V., 2024. Specification of the Asset Administration Shell. Part 1: Metamodel.

Industrial Digital Twin Association (IDTA), 2024. IDTA 02017-1-0 Asset Interfaces Description.

Köcher, A., Belyaev, A., Hermann, J., Bock, J., Meixner, K., Volkmann, M., Winter, M., Zimmermann, P., Grimm, S., Diedrich, C., 2023. A reference model for common understanding of capabilities and skills in manufacturing. at - Automatisierungstechnik 71, 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1515/auto-2022-0117

Macenski, S., Foote, T., Gerkey, B., Lalancette, C., Woodall, W., 2022. Robot Operating System 2: Design, architecture, and uses in the wild. Sci. Robot. 7, eabm6074. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abm6074

MiR Fleet [WWW Document], n.d. URL https://mobile-industrial-robots.com/es/productos/software/mir-fleet (accessed 5.13.26).

NVIDIA Corporation, 2026. isaac_ros_mission_client [WWW Document]. Isaac ROS. URL https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/repositories_and_packages/isaac_ros_cloud_control/isaac_ros_mission_client/index.html (accessed 5.7.26).

Open Robotics, n.d. ROS 2 Documentation: Jazzy documentation [WWW Document]. ROS 2 Documentation. URL https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/index.html (accessed 5.7.26).

Sakurada, L., De La Prieta, F., Leitao, P., 2025. The Role of Multi-Agent Systems in Realizing Asset Administration Shell Type 3. Future Internet 17, 270. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17070270

Verband der Automobilindustrie e.V., Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V., 2022. Interface for the communication between automated guided vehicles (AGV) and a master control.

Downloads

Published

2026-09-01

Issue

No. 47 (2026)

Section

Computadores y Control

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Fernando Arbulu, Ekaitz Hurtado, Federico Pérez, María Luz Álvarez, Oskar Casquero, Aintzane Armentia

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.