Industrial Internet Consortium Research Articles

Guest Editorial: Advanced Industrial Communication Systems: A Sneak Peak to the Ecosystem of Next Generation Industrial Communications

Advanced industrial communication systems are fundamental pillars of the ongoing digital transformation of industrial systems. Initiatives like the Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet Consortium aim at increasing the overall production efficiency leveraging on fast, reliable, and deterministic communication technologies. The improvements of information and communication technologies (ICT), driven by the tremendous influence of the consumer market, result in positive relapse for the industrial ICT, allowing an ever-increasing amount of data and information to be gathered from systems, machines, and devices. On the other hand, the availability of low-cost computational capabilities permitted to easily process these “Big Data,” generating on-the-fly trend forecasts for the management systems, which, in turn, allow to issue actions for controlling the manufacturing processes in real time. The ensemble of all these technologies is generally addressed with the term industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Smart Factory Web—A Blueprint Architecture for Open Marketplaces for Industrial Production

The paper describes a reference architecture for open marketplaces to be used for networked stakeholders in industrial production ecosystems. The motivation for such an endeavor comes from the idea to apply the basic principle of the platform economy to offer functions of an asset “as a service” to industrial production, including the associated supply chain networks. Currently, commercial offers of “production as a service” usually lead to proprietary systems with the risk of platform vendor lock-ins. Hence, there is a need for an open approach that relies upon international (emerging) standards, especially those from IETF, IEC, the Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA). The presented approach enables federation of marketplaces according to well-defined interfaces. This article proposes a technology-independent open architecture derived from functional and non-functional system requirements and driven by the idea of the Smart Factory Web, a testbed of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). Furthermore, the architecture of the Smart Factory Web (SFW) platform is presented and assessed against the current and future demands of open federated marketplaces for industrial production ecosystems.

Software Architecture of a Fog Computing Node for Industrial Internet of Things.

In the design and development process of fog computing solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), we need to take into consideration the characteristics of the industrial environment that must be met. These include low latency, predictability, response time, and operating with hard real-time compiling. A starting point may be the reference fog architecture released by the OpenFog Consortium (now part of the Industrial Internet Consortium), but it has a high abstraction level and does not define how to integrate the fieldbuses and devices into the fog system. Therefore, the biggest challenges in the design and implementation of fog solutions for IIoT is the diversity of fieldbuses and devices used in the industrial field and ensuring compliance with all constraints in terms of real-time compiling, low latency, and predictability. Thus, this paper proposes a solution for a fog node that addresses these issues and integrates industrial fieldbuses. For practical implementation, there are specialized systems on chips (SoCs) that provides support for real-time communication with the fieldbuses through specialized coprocessors and peripherals. In this paper, we describe the implementation of the fog node on a system based on Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC ZU3EG A484 SoC.

A Man in the Era of Digitalization of Society

Currently, one of the trends in the development of countries is the process of digital transformation, which affects all spheres of society. The transformation of countries’ economies is carried out with the help of such technologies as robotics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data groups. The transformation process, being global, gets its specific name in each country. In Russia, this is “digital economy”, which is defined in the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On National goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024” as a strategy for the future development of Russia In Germany, it is “Industry 4.0”, represented by the concept of K. Schwab, in the United States, the concept of transforming society based on digital technologies is called “Industrial Internet Consortium”. In Japan, the Government has developed the “Society 5.0” strategy in conjunction with the Keidanren Association of Japan. The result of the digitalization process will be the creation of a new world based on digital technologies, in which new values and management technologies arise. The purpose of this article is to analyze the digital age as a space for the emergence of digital risks, to identify their impact on modern people. The study uses general philosophical methods that make it possible to describe modern digital civilization. Within the framework of the risk concept, digital risks arising in various spheres of society’s life are described. The positive effects of the development of the digital economy, which forms a new digital world and a new person are highlighted and described. Today, the future of civilization is determined by the development of the digital economy, which determines the basic mechanisms of society’s existence. At the same time, it will be a world filled with various kinds of risks, threats to society, the economy and the individual. The article raises questions related to the impact of the digital economy on a person living in the conditions of the global information space. Keywords: digital economy, digital risks, digital age, risk, digitalization, digital generation, competencies

Prospects of standardization of the internet of things in international communication organizations

Research firm Gartner defines IoT as a network of physical objects that contain the means to interact with the environment and with each other, as well as to transmit information about their status and receive commands. McKinsey offers a less abstract definition: IoTs are sensors and drives built into physical devices and Internet connections over wired or wireless networks. IoT is developed not only by device manufacturers, but also by specialized organizations, including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Industrial Internet Consortium and the IETF. In the recommendations of Y.2060 of the International Telecommunication Union, called the Overview of the Internet of Things, the Internet of Things appears as «a global infrastructure that provides complex services by connecting physical and virtual things based on existing and evolving, functionally compatible information and communication technologies». A thing in this definition means an object of the physical or virtual world that can be identified and connected to communication networks. A device in the context of IoT is an element of equipment that has the required communication capabilities and can perform measurements, operate under certain conditions, enter, store and process data. As is typical of any new concept, the process of standardizing the Internet of Things has gone from understanding the network architecture, requirements and capabilities of «things» and ways to apply them to specific technologies that allow to organize the Internet of Things direct interaction of «things» with each other and with devices and people from the outside environment. The article considers the peculiarities of the main organizations involved in IoT standardization at the global level, identifies technological, economic and social benefits of ISO standards, offers a variant of building a topology for the study of IoT protocols, which corresponds to the architecture of the Internet of Things.

Грядущие экономические перемены на мировом рынке под воздействием 4.0 и последующих революций

The leading countries have taken the direction of the vector towards digitalization. In the CIS countries, this direction means “digital economy”, but in other countries, it is Industry 4.0 (Germany), in the USA — Industrial Internet Consortium. In fact, this is one and the same process — the translation of the economy into a digital mode, technology, an algorithm for expressing phenomena and actions, goods and services, thoughts, artificial intelligence, etc. Other countries went further by announcing the development of strategy 5.0 (Japan) or 6.0 (China). Many countries do not have rich natural resources, so they completely depend on the quality of education of the new generation, and it needs to be prepared for revolutionary changes. Therefore, the emphasis is on children — this is our future — the theme is as relevant as ever. Humanity is subject to a number of shocks. They are reducing the number of employees, aging populations, declining global competitiveness of production, the need to upgrade infrastructure, environmental problems, lack of natural resources, issues of tackling natural disasters and countering terrorism. There was a necessity to create a universal concept that would go beyond sectoral problems and respond primarily to social needs and needs.

Security and Privacy in the Industrial Internet of Things: Current Standards and Future Challenges

The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly becoming an integral component of the industrial market in areas such as automation and analytics, giving rise to what is termed as the Industrial IoT (IIoT). The IIoT promises innovative business models in various industrial domains by providing ubiquitous connectivity, efficient data analytics tools, and better decision support systems for a better market competitiveness. However, IIoT deployments are vulnerable to a variety of security threats at various levels of the connectivity and communications infrastructure. The complex nature of the IIoT infrastructure means that availability, confidentiality and integrity are difficult to guarantee, leading to a potential distrust in the network operations and concerns of loss of critical infrastructure, compromised safety of network end-users and privacy breaches on sensitive information. This work attempts to look at the requirements currently specified for a secure IIoT ecosystem in industry standards, such as Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and OpenFog Consortium, and to what extent current IIoT connectivity protocols and platforms hold up to the standards with regard to security and privacy. The paper also discusses possible future research directions to enhance the security, privacy and safety of the IIoT.

Sustainable Seafood Resources by Applying Industry 4.0: A Short Note

The First, Second, Third Industrial Revolutions started with the advent of steam and waterpower, electric power and mass manufacturing techniques, and information technology and automation, respectively [1,2]. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, is a much-discussed topic in the literature nowadays [1]. According to Industrial Internet Consortium (2017) [3], Industry 4.0 is defined as “the integration of complex physical machinery and devices with networked sensors and software, used to predict, control and plan for better business and societal outcomes”. When it is looked as a single interpretation of the above, it is rather difficult to connect how the application of the concept Industry 4.0 can help sustain the seafood natural resources from the coastal environment.

A review of edge computing reference architectures and a new global edge proposal

Edge Computing represents the activities of IoT (Internet of Things) devices at the border or limit of the network connected to the remote Cloud. The latest research in this field has intended to demonstrate that Edge Computing architectures are the optimal solution to minimising latency, improving privacy and reducing bandwidth costs in IoT-based scenarios. This article is a review of the Edge Computing technology and its reference architectures proposed by the Edge Computing Consortium, Intel-SAP, the FAR-Edge Project and the Industrial Internet Consortium for Industry 4.0. Moreover, this article presents a proposal for a tiered architecture with a modular approach that allows to manage the complexity of solutions not only for Industry 4.0 environments but also for other scenarios such as smart cities, smart energy, healthcare or precision agrotechnology. The main contributions of the proposed architecture reside in the security and privacy provided by blockchain technologies. Finally, the proposed reference architecture is tested by building an IoT platform in a smart agroindustry scenario to reduce bandwidth costs between the Edge and the Cloud. • This article is a review of the Edge Computing technology and its reference architectures. • It presented a proposal for a tiered architecture with a modular approach that allows to manage the complexity of solutions. • The main contributions of the proposed architecture reside in the security and privacy provided by blockchain technologies. • The proposed reference architecture is tested by building an IoT platform in a smart agroindustry scenario.

Connected, digitalized welding production—Industrie 4.0 in gas metal arc welding

The digitalization and thus the presence of far-reaching, networked information technology have led to fundamental and accelerated changes in society and technology in recent decades. Industrial production technology cannot be viewed isolated in this context and is thus confronted with new expectations on the one hand but also with great potential on the other. Initiatives such as “Industrie 4.0” from Germany, “Made in China 2015” from China, or “Industrial Internet Consortium” from the USA address the need for deliberate promotion of digitalized production systems but are often still at the conceptual stage. This paper describes the basic framework and core elements of Industrie 4.0 and places them in the context of gas metal arc welding (GMAW). Based on this, concepts for autonomous welding production and for utilizing networked information sources for the improvement of product quality are described. The described concepts show the potential added value of networked production systems for gas metal arc welding in terms of process and product optimization and the necessary methodological requirements.

Adapting an agile manufacturing concept to the reference architecture model industry 4.0: A survey and case study

Abstract Industry 4.0 architecture has been studied in a large number of publications in the fields of Industrial Internet of Things, Cyber Physical Production Systems, Enterprise Architectures, Enterprise Integration and Cloud Manufacturing. A large number of architectures have been proposed, but none of them has been adopted by a large number of research groups. Two major Industry 4.0 reference architectures have been developed by industry-driven initiatives, namely the German Industry 4.0 and the US-led Industrial Internet Consortium. These are the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet Reference Architecture, which are being standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission and the Object Management Group, respectively. The first research goal of this article is to survey the literature on Industry 4.0 architectures in a factory context and assess awareness and compatibility with Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet Reference Architecture. The second research goal is to adapt a previously proposed advanced manufacturing concept to Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0. With respect to the first research goal, it was discovered that only a minority of researchers were aware of the said reference architectures and that in general authors offered no discussion about the compatibility of their proposals with any internationally standardized reference architecture for Industry 4.0. With respect to the second research goal, it was discovered that Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 was mature with respect to communication and information sharing in the scope of the connected world, that further standardization enabling interoperability of different vendors’ technology is still under development and that technology standardization enabling executable business processes between networked enterprises was lacking.

Security and Privacy for the Industrial Internet of Things: An Overview of Approaches to Safeguarding Endpoints

Endpoint devices form a core part of the architecture of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Aspects of endpoint device security also extend to related technology paradigms, such as cyberphysical systems (CPSs), edge computing, and fog computing. In this sphere, there have been several initiatives to define and promote safer and more secure IIoT networks, with the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and OpenFog Consortium having developed security framework specifications detailing the techniques and technologies to secure industrial endpoints.

Container-based architecture for flexible industrial control applications

Cyber-physical systems and the Internet-of-Things are getting more and more traction in different application areas. Boosted by initiatives such as Industrie 4.0 in Germany or the Industrial Internet Consortium in the US, they are enablers for innovation in industrial automation. To provide the advanced flexibility in production envisioned for future automation systems, Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), as one of their main building blocks, also need to become more flexible. However, the conservative nature of this domain prohibits changes in the controller architecture impacting the installed base. Currently there exist various approaches that evolve control architectures to the next level, but none of them address flexible function deployment at the same time with legacy support. In this paper, we present an architecture for a multi-purpose controller that is inspired by the virtualization trend in cloud systems which moves from heavyweight virtual machines to lightweight containers solutions such as LXC or Docker. Our solution includes the support for multiple PLC execution engines and adds support for the emulation of legacy engines as well. We evaluate this architecture by executing performance measurements that analyze the impact of container technologies to the real-time aspects of PLC engines.

A Proposal for Applying Adaptive Wireless Communication System for Smart Factory

Activities to deploying devices that connect Internet, said Internet of Things in the industrial domain are accelerating to improve efficiency, prevent down time led by organizations such as Industry 4.0 and Industrial InternetConsortium. Moreover a trend in industrial domain that manufactures have to provide various and small amount of products let manufactures reorganize their manufacturing facilities frequently. In often the case, the most costlyportion of the reorganization is re-cabling cost. Basing on this background, wireless communications are highly desired especially devices that can operate without power line. In this study, we propose a wireless communicationsystem that configure properties of the system such as carrier wave frequency, bandwidth, modulation autonomously depending on application requirements and circumstance of radio wave propagation.

Is There a Single Method for the Internet of Things?

The Industrial Internet Consortium predicts the IoT (Internet of Things) will become the third technological revolution after the Industrial Revolution and the Internet Revolution. Its impact across all industries and businesses can hardly be imagined. Existing software (business, telecom, aerospace, defense, etc.) is expected to be modified or redesigned, and a huge amount of new software, solving new problems, will have to be developed. As a consequence, the software industry should welcome new and better methods.

Mini Special Issue on Smart Manufacturing

Industry 4.0, a new industry initiative in Germany, is impacting strongly both on industry and on society. Many newspapers and technical magazines are publishing the state of the art articles on topics such as smart manufacturing based on IoT (Internet of Things), CPPS (Cyber Physical Production System), and cloud-based systems. Other parts of the world have started initiatives such as the IIC (Industrial Internet Consortium) in the US and the IVI (Industrial Value Chain Initiative) in Japan. Smart manufacturing is the key concept underlying these new initiatives. This special issue addresses the most advanced research on smart manufacturing. Subjects cover cyber-physical product-service systems, machinery production lines, manufacturing system simulation, lot-size energy-consumption dependence per production throughput unit, additive manufacturing processes, sensor network technology, production management technology, supply chain management technology, and smart manufacturing reviews. We thank the authors for their careful work and the reviewers for their incisive efforts without which this special issue would not have been possible. We hope that this special issue will trigger further research on smart manufacturing and its advances.

Value Co-creative Manufacturing System for Mass Customization: Concept of Smart Factory and Operation Method Using Autonomous Negotiation Mechanism

This paper proposes smart manufacturing systems for tailor-made rubber runninng shoes production. With the development of information and communication technology, manufacturing machines and products embedded with intelligent sensing devices can connect to each other, and acquire the current conditions and changes of each machine and product. Drastic changes in production fields based on the IoT (Internet of Things) technology have been occurred, and then several countries and companies have been tackling the development of smart manufacturing system such as Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). This paper focuses a concept of value co-creation for improving users’ delights, and describes the constructed smart factory model system based on Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). The current conditions and changes of the simulated production machines and products can be acquired using RF-ID systems. Our smart factory is implemented using a multi-agent system and managed in accordance with the mechanism of the autonomous negotiation such as a combinatorial auction mechanism.

Industrie4.0とIndustrial Internet Consortiumの現状とビジネス・エコシステムの形成に関する論考

Industrie4.0とIndustrial Internet Consortiumの現状とビジネス・エコシステムの形成に関する論考

テーラーメイド設計・生産システムを対象とした価値共創型スマートファクトリの構築

Recently, IoT (Internet of Things) technology has spread in various industry fields, and Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) have worked for making new standardization policies in manufacturing industry. In our project conducted in SIP program, a tailor-made design and manufacturing system based on IoT technology has been developed for value co-creation. In this paper, the brief overview of our project is presented and constructed value co-creative smart factory for tailor-made design and manufacturing system is described.

An industrial big data pipeline for data-driven analytics maintenance applications in large-scale smart manufacturing facilities

The term smart manufacturing refers to a future-state of manufacturing, where the real-time transmission and analysis of data from across the factory creates manufacturing intelligence, which can be used to have a positive impact across all aspects of operations. In recent years, many initiatives and groups have been formed to advance smart manufacturing, with the most prominent being the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), Industry 4.0, and the Industrial Internet Consortium. These initiatives comprise industry, academic and government partners, and contribute to the development of strategic policies, guidelines, and roadmaps relating to smart manufacturing adoption. In turn, many of these recommendations may be implemented using data-centric technologies, such as Big Data, Machine Learning, Simulation, Internet of Things and Cyber Physical Systems, to realise smart operations in the factory. Given the importance of machine uptime and availability in smart manufacturing, this research centres on the application of data-driven analytics to industrial equipment maintenance. The main contributions of this research are a set of data and system requirements for implementing equipment maintenance applications in industrial environments, and an information system model that provides a scalable and fault tolerant big data pipeline for integrating, processing and analysing industrial equipment data. These contributions are considered in the context of highly regulated large-scale manufacturing environments, where legacy (e.g. automation controllers) and emerging instrumentation (e.g. internet-aware smart sensors) must be supported to facilitate initial smart manufacturing efforts.