Architecture for EurOpean Logistics Information eXchange

Project Information

AEOLIX

Grant agreement ID: 690797

DOI

10.3030/690797

Project closed

EC signature date 10 June 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 31 August 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 16 220 106,25

EU contribution

€ 16 220 106,25

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN ROAD TRANSPORT TELEMATICS IMPLEMENTATION COORDINATION ORGANISATION - INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS & SERVICES EUROPE
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AEOLIX (Architecture for EurOpean Logistics Information eXchange)

Reporting period: 2018-03-01 to 2019-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

AEOLIX has developed a solution for connecting logistics information systems of different characteristics, intra- and cross-company, for immediate (real-time) exchange of information in support of logistics-related decisions. The ambition was to develop the architecture for a distributed open system for exchange of information among key logistics actors (commercial companies as well as relevant authorities), enabling increased use and impact of such information in the value chain. The AEOLIX Platform represents a critical way forward of supply chain visibility and interoperability through decentralized information sharing. AEOLIX cloud services provide connectivity to multi-actor data and in-house or cloud-based applications, processes and services, thus enhancing collaboration and interoperability, potentially across the entire transport and logistics sector. AEOLIX provides also a comprehensive architecture to enable a digitally secure and regulated logistics services and information sharing through a platform. AEOLIX has tested, validated and demonstrated the collaborative logistics ecosystem in the 12 Living Labs. The selected Living Labs cover all the nine TEN-T corridors. Besides consortium partners, a considerable number of organisations from regional business communities have been involved in the Living Labs, including industry partners (SMEs included) authorities and associations.

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

WP 1 – Project Management
• Establishment of bi-weekly management meetings with core management team.
• The second TESTFEST for the platform 2.0 (Bratislava, October 2018) and the final AEOLIX event (Hamburg, June 2019) for the final platform were held according to the project plan.
• There were organised 11 technical workshops and hackathons (Frankfurt#1,2, Athens, Hamburg#4, Madrid#1,2,3, Berlin#1,2, Karlsruhe#1,2) in order to accelerate the technical development.
• The Coordinator has developed a full work plan for each work package (WP) and Living Lab (LL) and a quality and risk management plan ensuring a very good quality assurance team taking into consideration both risks of the project and also living labs. As complimentary action in period 2, for the LLs Development, Agile Project Management was implemented in order to monitor the LLs development.Two Amendments to the Grant Agreement have been submitted and approved.
• LL12 was launched, which piloted an operational environment of digital freight transport documents at cross-border level in Europe, focusing on e-CMR.
• Organised together with the Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE) the ALICE Collaborative Innovation Day on 4th April 2019 where have been demonstrated the AEOLIX-SELIS common demonstrator.
• Contribution to DTLF I SG2, DTLF II SG2 and ALICE (Physical Internet).
WP2 - Lessons learned, strategic needs and requirements
• Identification of 20 separate previous projects that need further investigation.
• Consolidated all final inputs (including revised and updated use cases) by all LLs to prepare the respective deliverable well before the contractual deadline.
WP3 - IT Ecosystem
• Finalise the implementation of the AEOLIX architecture (AEOLIX Connectivity engine, AEOLIX Dashboard, AEOLIX Toolkit) as an open cloud ecosystem facilitating collaboration and information sharing, real-time and responsiveness, simplified integration and performance in pan-EU logistics applications. As final results, the AEOLIX ecosystem enables the connectivity of the logistics systems, applications or objects from stakeholders from any logistics collaborative environment.
• A specific SDK has been developed for the AEOLIX platform. Provide the Dashboard and the application programming interface (API) with Identification Management using Keycloack.
WP4 - Collaborative data exchange certification framework
• Identified and assessed the key AEOLIX practices for collaborative data sharing (liaised with WP5 LL).
• Defined an architecture for cross entity data exchange and sharing.
• Developed a certification framework to certify company, who want to join the AEOLIX platform.
• Studied of best practices on data sharing of other related projects and initiatives (Cassandra, CORE, iCargo, DTLF).
WP5 – AEOLIX Verification with Living Labs
All LLs have implemented the relevant Technical Use Cases and further have been tested in the verification of the AEOLIX architecture according to the working plan.
12 LLs have been implemented and tested and covered a broad range of logistical arena’s and can be characterised as: Hub, port or terminal oriented; Supply chain visibility and control oriented; Network optimization oriented
WP6 – Impacts monitoring, dynamic assessment and evaluation
• Activities have been ongoing since the first month of the project, so as was ensured that the evaluation and impact assessment methodology needs are accounted for by other WPs well as to ensure that complex procedures related to the evaluation and impact assessment of a large-scale research project, such as AEOLIX, was carefully analysed.
• Identification of evaluation tools, criteria, performance indicators and methods at LL level.
• Definition of the KPIs for evaluation for each AEOLIX technical platform version (V1.0-V2.0-V2.5 and final, respectively).
WP 7 - Dissemination, Communication and Market Outreach
• Branding identity and guidelines have been developed and a sleek looking website has been created.
• The AEOLIX Vision brochure updated and 8 pages leaflet.
• AEOLIX Roll-ups have been produced for visibility at various logistics events and conferences.
• Twitter is used daily for AEOLIX news and event presence and external news relevant to the topic.
WP 8 – Collaborative Business Models and AEOLIX exploitation
• Dedicated workshops for business models and exploitation of activities have been organised to speed the exploitation strategy.
• ERTICO has liaised with the following projects : SMARTRAIL, SELIS, LEARN, CO-GISTICS, InterCor, NOVELOG, iCargo, EURIDICE, SMARTFREIGHT, e-Freight, STRAIGHTSOL, CIMEC & CODECS
WP 9 - Ethics requirements
The purpose of this WP is to make sure that all legal and ethical issues relevant to the Project are known, observed and implemented by all AEOLIX partner.

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 key elements of AEOLIX that are beyond the state of the art are the following:
• Existing services on the market have fragmented characteristics: AEOLIX is the first attempt to establish a collaborative logistics ecosystem for information exchange, enabling end-to-end supply chain visibility across modes, with the potential to connect the logistics sector Europe-wide.
• The cloud-based collaborative logistics ecosystem addressed the need for the deployment of pan-European logistics solutions.
• AEOLIX leveraged and captured the benefits of a one-stop-shop logistics platform, using a strategy that ensures a minimal technology burden for users, especially for SMEs.
• The proposed AEOLIX approach was a major step forward. The novelties are reflected in all its components: (1) a collaborative, secure and resilient IT architecture, which will facilitate secure and trustworthy data management, privacy, identification, authentication and authorisation; (2) appropriate business models and public-private governance based on the specific requirements of AEOLIX for pan-European applications; (3) well-designed LLs for testing, validation, implementation and exploitation of AEOLIX.

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