IoT,IIoT, digital twin
Smart Service World: Internet-based services for the economy
More and more infrastructures, machines and objects are equipped with intelligent functions and networked through the Internet. The Internet of Things refers to the global networking of various objects. In addition to data exchange, networking enables the realisation of cooperative value-added processes across physical distances and the creation of new business fields for companies in all sectors. This is often linked to changes in business models and value chains.
The spread of the Internet of Things
The networking of devices continues to increase strongly. Three factors are essential for this: 1. the increasing connectivity of different objects with each other or with the Internet as a transmission medium. 2. More and more industrial components have processing capabilities through modern processors. 3. hardware components have become cheaper overall as a result of technological progress and diversity has increased significantly.
Internet of Things as the driver for artificial intelligence in production with Big and Small Data
The digitalisation of manufacturing and production processes means that more and more data is being recorded. The Internet of Things is also creating knowledge bases that are available for higher-level intelligence. From this, methods of machine learning and automated model building are used. This leads to great potential for optimisation, such as faster identification of the causes of faults. The basic idea of machine learning is to gain knowledge from experience after a general solution specification has been given. If less data is available, case-based reasoning approaches are suitable as a form of artificial intelligence. It is therefore all the more crucial that we also base our research on small data - a situation that mainly affects SMEs, in which a basis for artificial intelligence is to be created despite the lack of data abundance.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
The Internet of Things in the industrial environment (Industrial Internet of Things) plays a fundamental role in the digitalisation of classic manufacturing and production facilities. In contrast to IoT, the concepts do not focus on consumers and users, but on the data-driven optimisation of industrial processes and the automation of their workflows. The intelligent networking of machines and their environment provides a decisive information advantage in order to accelerate decisions or flexibly adapt business processes. A central role is played by sensors and sensor data, which provide the database for self-learning machines and contribute to an expansion of knowledge within the production process through analysis. The aim is to create a constant and real flow of information which evaluates the usage data obtained from production and controls it directly back into the process. In this process, the machines in use are independently able to recognise what they need for the ongoing production process or when the next maintenance is due. Our research examines the potential of the industrial Internet of Things for the future and competitiveness of a company, looks for optimisation potential in the analysis area and identifies newly emerging business areas.
Industrial Internet of Things at the Centre for Industry
The potential of the Industrial Internet of Things are already highlighted in the Industry 4.0 Centre. For example, approaches to decentralised production organisation demonstrate the advantages of flexibility within the framework of Internet-based production control. By allowing products to navigate independently through the production process, they can react independently to changes in the event of machine unavailability or failure, thus ensuring uninterrupted production.
New view on value networks: collaborative digital twin
Decentrally organised, medium-sized production and supplier networks are characteristics of mechanical and industrial engineering. Industry 4.0 technologies can contribute to competitive advantages here by making cooperation in these value-added networks efficient. This includes the approach of a digital twin, which collects, prepares and presents system-related data in usable form as a digital image of machines. In addition to internet-based control concepts within the factory, we are already researching the cross-factory, international networking of production sites and are investigating the extension of modern planning and organisational principles to company-wide production networks and entire supply chains.