Foundation-Model-Based Agents in Industrial Automation: Purposes, Capabilities, and Open Challenges

Publikation: Vorabdruck/Dokumentation/BerichtVorabdruck (Preprint)

Beitragende

  • Vincent Henkel - , Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg (Helmut-Schmidt Universität Hamburg) (Autor:in)
  • Felix Gehlhoff - , Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg (Helmut-Schmidt Universität Hamburg) (Autor:in)
  • David Kube - , Bergische Univertsität Wuppertal (Autor:in)
  • Asaad Alnutareb - , Artiquare GmbH (Autor:in)
  • Luis Cruz - , Universidad Antonio Nariño (Autor:in)
  • Bernd Hellingrath - , Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Autor:in)
  • Philip Koch - , Fraunhofer-Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Angewandte Materialforschung (Autor:in)
  • Christoph Legat - , Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Augsburg (Autor:in)
  • Florian Mohr - , Hochschule Trier (Autor:in)
  • Michael Oberle - , Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung (Autor:in)
  • Felix Ocker - , Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH (Autor:in)
  • Thorsten Schoeler - , Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften Augsburg (Autor:in)
  • Mario Thron - , Institut für Automation und Kommunikation e.V. (ifak) Magdeburg (Autor:in)
  • Nico Andre Töpfer - , Fraunhofer-Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Angewandte Materialforschung (Autor:in)
  • Lucas Vogt - , Professur für Prozessleittechnik (Autor:in)
  • Yuchen Xia - , Universität Stuttgart (Autor:in)

Abstract

Foundation models, particularly large language models, are increasingly integrated into agent architectures for industrial tasks such as decision support, process monitoring, and engineering automation. Yet evidence on their purposes, capabilities, and limitations remains fragmented across domains. This work examines how mature foundation-model-based agent systems are in industrial contexts, how their functional profile differs from conventional agent systems, and which limitations persist. A systematic literature survey following the PRISMA 2020 guideline is presented, screening 2,341 publications and synthesising a corpus of 88 publications through a structured coding scheme. The results show that reported systems are predominantly at prototype and early validation stages (75.0% at TRL 4-6), with deployment-oriented evidence remaining rare (9.1%). Operational goals are most frequently positioned in user assistance, monitoring, and process optimisation, while conventional production-control purposes such as planning and scheduling are less prominent. Compared with an established baseline for industrial agent systems, the capability profile reveals substantial gains in human interaction (+37%) and dealing with uncertainty (+35%), but a pronounced deficit in negotiation (-39%). The most widely reported limitations concern lack of generalization, hallucination and output instability, data scarcity, and inference latency. A working definition of foundation-model-based industrial agents is also proposed, bridging conventional agent theory, automation-engineering standards, and the foundation-model paradigm.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Herausgeber (Verlag)arXiv
Seitenumfang35
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 4 Mai 2026
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Externe IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-3368-4130/work/214456907