ZERO-ENABLING SMART NETWORKED CONTROL FRAMEWORK FOR AGILE CYBER PHYSICAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS OF SYSTEMS

Project Information

Zero-SWARM

Grant agreement ID: 101057083

DOI

10.3030/101057083

Project closed

EC signature date 18 May 2022

Start date 1 June 2022

End date 28 February 2025

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 9 939 688,79

EU contribution

€ 8 052 023,00

Coordinated by

ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Zero-SWARM (ZERO-ENABLING SMART NETWORKED CONTROL FRAMEWORK FOR AGILE CYBER PHYSICAL PRODUCTION SYSTEMS OF SYSTEMS)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Green Digital Transformation is the adoption of digital technology to transform services or businesses, through replacing non-digital or manual processes with digital processes or replacing older digital technology with newer ones, for sustainable production. An example of such transformation is Industry 4.0 (I4.0) i.e. a revolutionary method in industrial production, based on digitalization and automatization of the entire production process. The aim of Zero-SWARM was to achieve climate neutral and digitized production via a multidisciplinary, human centric, objective oriented innovative approach resulting in technical solutions for open swarm framework, non-public 5G network, active information continuum and digital twin.
The project established a unique forum where separately maturing technologies of 5G and cloud-edge continuum, data technologies and analysis (including data spaces and GAIA-X Federated Secure Data Infrastructure) and operational technology (automation and agility) break their siloes to co-design and co-create. This innovative approach demonstrated through 10 trials. The objective of Zero-SWARM was to showcase key achievements such as smart assembly, sustainable powertrains, improved resilience with remote operation, 5G powered PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) for real time distributed control systems, safe and autonomous transport of goods in factory, 5G enabled process aware AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles), plug & connect 5G for industry, mobile intelligent agents for zero plastic waste, smart maintenance and optimization, remote quality control for zero defect resilient manufacturing.
The project incorporated three (3) nodes (north, center and south) featuring industrial test facilities from previous public/private investments co/created with reputable industry players. Aligned with its technical activities, Zero-SWARM included a tailored engagement program towards a wide audience, including collaboration with Digital Innovation Hubs and key initiatives in Europe. The program allowed them to become the pioneers of the Zero-SWARM technologies, establishing an impact pathway to last after the project end.
Zero-SWARM put emphasis on developing a variety of learning materials to promote skill development of talented workforces with minimum efforts in prominent twin transformation, which will strongly contribute to build up European leadership in sustainable data driven manufacturing.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Zero-SWARM presented a reference Architecture aligned with Reference Architectural Model for Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0) the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and relevant standards. Also, a secure and trusted cybersecurity architecture was introduced based on relevant standards IEC 62443-1-1 and ISO/IEC TR19249.
The project has tackled the problem of creating a run-time information continuum enabling awareness in the industrial domain. This involves the use of multiple technologies such as:
1. An edge-cloud data infrastructure that allows trustable data exchange between application scenarios in the industrial domain,
2. An Asset Administration Shell (AAS) and digital twins of the manufacturing equipment,
3. Distributed stream computing from Operational Technologies (OT) to Internet Technologies (IT),
4. Predictive models of intelligent agents, and integration of federated learning services.
In the scope of 5G telecommunications, Zero-SWARM has analyzed the enhancements of 5G Non-Public Network communications and found the methodology for simple and fast provisioning, operation and diagnosis of 5G private networks. The project defined 5G-edge devices, integrating local sensor networks into existing infrastructures with added computing power for application-specific data preprocessing and extended specifications of 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA)
The project developed standards-based toolkits for life-cycle management of real-time CPSoS (Cyber Physical System of Systems). Focus has been on:
1. Extension of the IEC-61499 standard runtime with discovery and self-declaration functionalities for reconfiguration
2. Integration between IEC-61499 standard and Edge Computing framework
3. Development of an AI-dedicated version of the toolchain for field practitioners,
4. Development of cyber-security methodologies and solutions for the OT-IT connection.
The developed Zero-SWARM technologies were trialed in 10 real life industry scenarios defined and split on 3 nodes across North, Centre and South Europe.
The project developed a business model on the exploitation of Key Exploitable Results (KERs) and a stakeholder community. An Expression of Interest public call was issued and an engagement package was prepared to allow external stakeholders to test the Zero-SWARM technologies.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Zero-SWARM ambition was to provide a methodological and technological framework to address quick uptake of advanced 5G technologies by the European manufacturing sector, for the engineering of the major aspects of a data-driven, connected, CPSoS-based, trusted production. The Zero-SWARM technologies use the existing open source systems and software tools, leveraging on interoperability and flexibility principles recognised in the technological areas of 5G and data science, and I4.0 communities, which allowed outcomes to be made available to open source communities and Digital Innovation Hubs.

The technologies developed by Zero-SWARM were demonstrated and showcased results beyond the State of the Art. These include the abovementioned reference architecture aligning with I4.0 RAMI, IIoT and the reference cybersecurity architecture, based on standards IEC 62443 and ISO/IEC TS 19249. A novel Public Network Integrated Non-Public Networks (PNI-NPN) deployment option with a new scheduling scheme were proposed to facilitate the needs of adapting 5G in the I4.0 context.

Other results beyond the State of the Art include the Zero-SWARM Distributed stream computing within the Edge-Cloud Continuum Architecture which allows seamless exchange and exposure of information for AI based applications enabling real time decision making.

Innovative work also conducted on the extension of the IEC 61499 standard for distributed automation platform to allow Dynamic Device and Environment Recognition, Real-time Reconfiguration and Dynamic Resource allocation. A plugin for IEC 61499 was designed to allow embedding AI functions and offers best practices for developing Function Blocks within the IEC 61499 development environment.