Outcomes, Insights and Best Practices from IIC Testbeds: Smart Factory Web Testbed
process data. A new IIC testbed for the
brokering of production and logistic services
was proposed in conjunction with IIC
member NEC’s, the Negotiation Automation
Platform. An alliance with IIC liaison,
International Data Spaces Association
(IDSA), brought the implementation of an
IDS connector for trustworthy data exchange
between factories and the Smart Factory
Web portal. Furthermore, the IIC ecosystem
fostered collaboration between PI4.0 and
the IIC, facilitated the international
dissemination of the benefits of standards in
a testbed, and promoted work on the
description of assets of IIC members.
security, including the application of OPC UA
and AutomationML standards.
In choosing partners, it was important that
the prospective organization was a leading
innovator in IIoT in the manufacturing
domain and a strong promoter of open
standards. In addition, expertise with the
standards used in the Testbed was required
to participate.
IIC I NTERACTIONS
The 3-tier architecture of the Industrial
Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) was
applied in two places within the testbed: 1)
in each model factory and 2) in the Smart
Factory Web with gateways to the factories
in the edge tier. The testbed has also
adopted the general terminology used in the
IIRA, a crucial step to facilitate clear
messaging to the rest of the industry.
There have also been benefits for the
companies operating the model factories—
Fraunhofer
IOSB
and
KETI.
Both
organizations perform applied research and
development for industry. Through the
Smart Factory Web Testbed, they aim to
improve and better market their own
offerings in the field of IIoT and automation.
In addition, the Smart Factory Web Testbed
is a showcase for products and technologies
of participating companies, enhancing their
market opportunities. The network of
companies taking part will form an
‘innovation community’ supported by KETI
and Fraunhofer IOSB to identify and fill
technology gaps by linking the knowledge
and requirements of users, companies and
research organizations. KETI and Fraunhofer
IOSB advise companies on technology
assessment and development of technology
roadmaps. Furthermore, the Smart Factory
Web Testbed has been integrated into
training programs offered by Fraunhofer
IOSB and KETI on industrial automation and
The activities of the Smart Factory Web
Testbed have contributed to several aspects
of the IIC. The Smart Factory Web Testbed is
a candidate vehicle for an IIC-PI4.0
collaboration aiming to trial the PI4.0
specification Details of the Asset
Administration Shell which defines how data
exchange shall happen between Industrie
4.0 components based upon international
standards. In addition, Fraunhofer IOSB is
using testbed results and its own experience
to contribute to the whitepaper “Digital
Twin and Asset Administration Shell,
Concepts and Application”, of the IIC-PI4.0
Joint Task Group. The IIC DDIM TG
(Distributed Data Interoperability and
Mananagement Task Group) is working on a
whitepaper to be published in 2019 dealing
with IoT information models for semantic
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March 2019