Special Session organized by

Gianluca Manca, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, Marcel Dix, ABB Corporate Research Center, Mannheim, Germany, Amirhossein Najafi, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, Franz C. Kunze, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, Alexander Windmann, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany, Oliver Niggemann, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg, Germany, Mehmet Mercangöz, Imperial College London, UK, Tongwen Chen, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

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Download Call for Papers

Click here to download the special session cfp.

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Focus

Industrial autonomy relies on multiple layers of intelligence, including real-time sensing, digital twins, learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning, distributed multi-agent coordination, and AI assistants for decision support. Semi-autonomous and autonomous operation requires integration with existing control and safety layers, decision-making under uncertainty, runtime monitoring of system limits, and human–machine interfaces that preserve situational awareness and enable appropriate interventions. This session targets methods, architectures, and system components that support industrial plants across autonomy maturity levels; from today’s automation with human supervision to more autonomous operation that remains robust to variability, disturbances, and rare abnormal situations. It also addresses perspectives on the use of AI agents in process industries and the implications for operator roles, safety assurance, and operational performance.

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Topics under this special session include:

• AI agent architectures for plant autonomy, including LLM-based agents, RL, and multi-agent systems
• Data quality, uncertainty handling, and robust AI methods for autonomous systems, including drift and fault tolerance
• Alarm management and abnormal situation handling for autonomous plants
• Control room automation and autonomy, AI-enabled alarm monitoring
• Explainability, trustworthiness, and resilience of autonomous decision-making
• Human–AI interaction and collaboration, including operator roles, shared autonomy, and handover or takeover concepts
• Adaptive and Dynamic HMIs for Enhanced Situational Awareness, Cognitive Load Reduction, and Supervision of Autonomous Functions (Intent, State, and Uncertainty Visualization)
• Cybersecurity for agent‑based and autonomous plant architectures
• Case studies, industrial pilots, and lessons learned from autonomy deployments