Data Exchange in Manufacturing: News and Developments (16th Check-In)

In the regular “Check-Ins” of the Domain Manufacturing, the Industrie 4.0 platform provides information about news on data sharing, Gaia-X, Manufacturing-X & Co. The focus of the virtual exchange format is on specific innovations related to production that have arisen since the last exchange. This article briefly summarizes the main contents of the check-in. The long version of the minutes will be sent out via the Domain Manufacturing mailing list (free registration).

Manufacturing-X: Updates

The Factory-X use case “Condition Monitoring led Services” was recently presented at the Factory-X Customer Sounding Board. There are already a large number of applications that enable condition monitoring in manufacturing today. The problem is that their interoperability and compatibility are limited. The aim is to change this by connecting machine builders, factory operators and component manufacturers.

The “Energy Consumption and Load Management” use case focuses on energy consumption in manufacturing. On the one hand, the energy consumption of machines is to be reduced with the help of standardized, digital twins. On the other hand, load management is to be improved through data exchange, thereby reducing costs.

The technical components in Manufacturing-X were discussed at the Manufacturing-X Technical Council. The AAS, OPC UA and Automation ML, Internet standards as well as the Decentralized Claims Protocol and the Dataspace Protocol with Tractus-X as the most prominent implementation were highlighted.

Manufacturing-X: Project Wind-X

The Wind-X project is concerned with data exchange in the wind energy sector. A data space for wind energy is intended to increase the use of turbine data and its usability for business purposes. The project is being coordinated by ENERCON, a German manufacturer of wind turbines. Manufacturers, suppliers and operators of turbines are also participating in the project, including, for example, the VDMA Power Systems trade association, which also initiated the project

One driver of the project is the EU Data Act. The act will come into force in September 2025 and will enable wind turbine operators to develop new business models for handling turbine data. A demonstrator is to be developed for this in the project. The technical implementation of the project will build on the findings and results of Manufacturing-X, Catena-X and Gaia-X.

Manufacturing-X: RoX

Robotics plays a role in various Manufacturing-X projects, including the RoX project. The project is coordinated by ABB, Siemens, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Fraunhofer IPA. Various integrators and users are also involved in the project; the target sectors are the automotive industry, the packaging industry and the pharmaceutical industry.

Four use cases are being implemented in the project:

• The first use case concerns the loading and unloading of trucks and autonomous transportation, e.g. outdoors or in unstructured and dynamic environments.
• The second use case concerns the picking and kitting of products in warehouse logistics and production. Among others, Mercedes-Benz is involved in the project as a partner in production logistics.
• The third use case focuses on automated production with the help of robotics, e.g. for small batches and in unstructured environments, for cleaning production facilities in the pharmaceutical industry or for welding processes. Boehringer Ingelheim is involved in the project as a partner from the pharmaceutical industry.
• The fourth use case focuses on the AI-supported commissioning of robot systems and the simplified integration of robotics.

RoX is being implemented as part of the IPCEI-CIS (8ra). T-Systems is on board as a technical partner with its Data Intelligence Hub. The aim is to use the Factory-X shared technology layer and the Gaia-X Digital Clearing Houses.

Interested companies can participate in the project as associated partners. Of course, this also applies to Austrian companies.

AAS-EDC connection, Microsoft work on Data Spaces

The Microsoft training platform recently published an article on implementing data spaces with Microsoft Azure. The article describes data spaces as a solution approach for the compliance requirements of various regulations, e.g. around the Digital Product Passport. The authors, Erich Barnstedt and Dominic Betts, describe an implementation proposal for data spaces using the Azure Industrial IoT reference architecture. The calculation of a cross-company product carbon footprint serves as a use case.

The article references other technical components for implementing a data space. These include OPC UA, the Asset Administration Shell and the Eclipse Dataspace Components – the Eclipse Dataspace Connectors access the AAS via an extension from Fraunhofer IOSB. In addition, reference is made to the Dataspace Protocol as the basis for data exchange.

Project update: Flex4Res

The Flex4Res research project is working on making manufacturing lines more flexible with the help of data spaces. Participants in the project include TU Wien, Exoscale and voestalpine High Performance Metals Digital Solutions GmbH. Four use cases are being implemented in the project. They concern the accelerated reconfiguration of machines after a tool change (Use Case 1), the simplified modification of production plans (Use Case 2), the optimization of production planning (Use Case 3) and the reconfiguration of machines during production (Use Case 4).

A status update on the project was recently published. There is now an initial version of the software that will implement the use cases. In technical terms, the focus is on AAS. AI and data analysis solutions are to be integrated into the platform in the future.

Thanks and participation

Thank you for the exchange in the 16th Check-In on data exchange in manufacturing! Feel free to send us comments, additions or criticism to michael.faelbl@plattformindustrie40.at – we welcome feedback of all kinds.

The Check-Ins are open to the public and free of charge; interested parties can sign up to the mailing list. The Check-Ins are made possible by funds from Platform Industry 4.0 Austria – we are financed by membership fees. If the information provided represents added value for you, we would be delighted if you would also become a member of the platform.

This Check-In was also supported through the Twin City Future Innovation Manufacturing Hub (2CFIMH). 2CFIMH is an INTERREG Slovakia-Austria project co-funded by the European Union:

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash