Virtual Factory Open Operating System

Project Information

vf-OS

Grant agreement ID: 723710

DOI

10.3030/723710

Project closed

EC signature date 22 July 2016

Start date 1 October 2016

End date 31 October 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 7 758 580,00

EU contribution

€ 7 758 580,00

Coordinated by

INFORMATION CATALYST FOR ENTERPRISE LTD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - vf-OS (Virtual Factory Open Operating System)

Reporting period: 2018-04-01 to 2019-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The World and manufacturing companies are facing the 4th industrial revolution based on ICT. Traditional factories are increasingly transformed into smart digital manufacturing environments. Currently, the full potential for ICT in manufacturing is far from being fully exploited. Factories are complex systems of systems and there is a need to develop a platform on which future manufacturing applications can be built. Europe should achieve leadership in digital platforms for industry on which value is created (eg embedded OS, autonomous systems building blocks, cloud platforms, data, security, openness, interoperability, etc).
Over the last decades, manufacturing companies have been implementing point-solutions each bringing a specific feature or fixing a specific issue. Resulting from this approach is a highly heterogeneous manufacturing IT landscape. These are already costly to administer, and the further addition of capabilities become even more costly. There is thus a need for a homogeneous manufacturing IT landscape offering manufacturing IT solutions to support manufacturing companies, especially SMEs, to successfully respond to the challenges. Allowing them to be flexible and offer highly customised products, without daunting implementation costs, and thereby maintaining and boosting their competitiveness locally in the increasingly globalised markets SMEs participate in.

The goal of vf-OS Project has been to develop such an Open Operating System for Virtual Factories, composed of a Virtual Factory System Kernel, a Virtual Factory Application Programming Interface, and Virtual Factory Middleware. An Open Applications Development Kit (OAK) has been provided to software developers for deploying Smart Manufacturing Applications (vApps) for industrial users, using the vf-OS Manufacturing Applications Store (vf-Store) to purchase vApps and modules and its Virtual Factory Platform to execute these.
vf-OS Platform provides a range of services to the connected factory of the future to integrate better manufacturing and logistics processes. The vf-Store is open to software developers who, using the free OAK provided, are able to quickly develop and deploy smart applications to enable and optimise communication and collaboration among supply networks of all manufacturing sectors in all the stages manufacturing and logistic processes: demand forecast, planning, supply, manufacturing, distribution, storage, and replacement / recycling.

vf-OS aims to become a reference system software for managing factory related computer hardware and software resources and providing common services for factory computational programs. This operating system is the component of the system software in a physical factory system where all factory application programs will run. This includes full management through virtualisation of the whole factory and related supply networks, including time-sharing schedule tasks for efficient use of the system. The Service Providers, as managers of the vf-OS Platform and the vf-Store, guarantee the quality of the vApps and define a clear revenue business model for the complementors.

Fig: The vf-OS Approach

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

vf-OS has set up the company i4FS in conjunction with project ZDMP which will take the work where vf-OS has finished it and extend to a more commercial stage. It is necessary to note that, although in a more mature state than expected, vf-OS has provided with a working prototype capable of helping the software developers (either individual or as a company), whose main customers are the manufacturing industry, when developing applications for solving their customers’ needs. Besides these main results, within the RP2 the vf-OS project has worked on:
1. Finishing vf-OS components:
- Enablers Framework, the bridge between vf-OS and FI-WARE and FITMAN enablers
- vf-OS Enablers extending functionality not covered by either FIWARE or FITMAN
- A set of design-time tools: Process Designer, IO Toolkit, Data Harmonisation, Data Analytics, SDK, Studio, and Frontend Environment
- An execution environment to host all vf-OS components needed to execute vApps: Platform, Process Execution, Data Storage, Security, Messaging, Pub/Sub, vf-Store
- A set of services for accessing HW devices (Drivers), SW applications (APIs), and external services (ESP)
- Frameworks for providing high value-added services: Data Harmonisation, Data Analytics, IO Toolkit, and ESP
- Community support components, namely: Engagement Hub, Training content, and Developer’s Portal.

2. Technical validations:
- Developing and validating vApps according to the needs of the manufacturing users (vf-OS Pilots Partners)
- Organising 3 Hackathons so part of the SW community of the future has the chance of testing vf-OS as a whole.

3. Exploited vf-OS results dissemination & exploitation channels and means by:
- Organising workshops (both academic and industrial), participating into cluster meetings, writing blog posts, continuously sharing content on social media
- Setting up i4FS Ltd to exploit vf-OS
- Assessing vf-OS market opportunities
- Specifying the IPR and licensing model for success.

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)

vf-OS has provided a working prototype to help software developers when producing vApps to solve the needs of manufacturing industry users. The working prototype of vf-OS Environment, as multi-sided market, is capable of allowing:
1. Software Developers to:
- Develop Smart Manufacturing Applications (vApps) by using the design-time components made available
- Interact with other developers, and creating a community, to solve issues, problems, and exchange of ideas.

2. Manufacturing Users to:
- Host local installations of the vf-OS environment for executing vApps in their IT premises
- Demand or request new vApps to the software developers’ community, through the vf-Store, so their needs are solved by IT professionals.

3. ICT and Manufacturing Providers to:
- Develop their own ICT interfaces and manufacturing connections to access their products (Device Drivers) and/or services (API connectors).

4. Service Providers to:
- Provide 3rd party services, such as hosting, storage, connected cloud services, etc., including those based on developed solutions.


Regarding Exploitation, one of vf-OS’ main results was the formation of a brand-new company called Industry 4 Factory Solutions Limited, hereinafter called i4FS Ltd. i4FS was set up together with ZDMP project partners at the end of September 2019 under the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales. i4FS is a joint initiative and shareholding of vf-OS partners ICE, ASC, ALM, CMS. In addition, Exos -the spin-off company created by UPV- has joined via ZDMP. i4FS will be exploiting all vf-OS components and assets through the activities of software (vApps, i4Apps) development, consultancy, training and deployment of the vf-OS Platform and vf-Store.

Finally, dissemination and impact activities have been one of the key action lines of vf-OS since the beginning. These activities can be organised within the following major areas:
- Face-to-Face activities, reporting the project flagship workshops and hackathons, attended conferences, and collaboration events
- Online Presence and Media, reporting the progress with the website, social media, and multimedia
- Printed Materials, reporting the development of brochures, posters, etc.
- News and Publications, with the newsletters, scientific and industrial publications, as well as other types of news.

vf-OS Logo

vf-OS Approach