Granulation-based resource classification in Cloud Manufacturing

Cloud Manufacturing, a new manufacturing mode, has the characteristics of service-oriented, knowledge-based, high efficiency and low consumption. Resource virtualization is critical for Cloud Manufacturing, which describes physical resources as cloud services. In this article, a resource virtualization method is proposed for sharing manufacturing resources. By analyzing features of Cloud Manufacturing resources, a multilevel resource virtualization framework is constructed. A multi-granularity resource classification algorithm is presented for cloud services encapsulation, based on which physical resources are flexibly composed to respond business opportunities. Ontology, the fundamental of the proposed method, is implemented by Web Ontology Language and Semantic Web Rule Language, along with a case study validating the proposed method.