Arrowhead Tools for Engineering of Digitalisation Solutions

Project Information

Arrowhead Tools

Grant agreement ID: 826452

DOI

10.3030/826452

Project closed

EC signature date 10 May 2019

Start date 1 May 2019

End date 31 July 2022

Funded under

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

Total cost

€ 83 757 196,26

EU contribution

€ 21 154 991,47

Coordinated by

LULEA TEKNISKA UNIVERSITET
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Arrowhead Tools (Arrowhead Tools for Engineering of Digitalisation Solutions)

Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Arrowhead Tools ambition is to substantially reduce the engineering costs for digitalization/automation solutions. For this purpose the Arrowhead Tools very ambitious grand challenges was defined as:
- Engineering costs reduction by 20-50% for a wide range of automation/digitalisation solutions
- Tools chains for digitalization and automation engineering and management
- Training material and kits for professional engineers

Actual results are cost and time savings off exceptional 30-95% as verified and validated in more than 20 industrial use cases.

For the further and wider commercialization of automation and digitalization services and products there is a clear need for engineerings tools that can bridge legacy operational technology (OT) and new Internet technology (IT). The Arrowhead Tools technology approach is based on microservices and service oriented architecture (SOA). The provided engineering tools and procedures enables simple integration of state of the art automation and digitalization engineering procedures and tool with microservice based automation/digitalization technology and associated engineering tools and procedure.

Technology impact and exploitation is primarily through making the technology available as open source with the Eclipse Arrowhead project. Thus extending the Eclipse Arrowhead architecture and reference implementation platform, current release is v4.4.1. Some 15 companies have created the commercial eco system in support of and as a basis for exploitation of the Eclipse Arrowhead technology. The official launch of the commercial ecosystem was a March 30, 2022 open webinar with more than 100 attendees.

Concrete commercial exploitation of the technology is already achieved by by more than 5 companies, Arrowhead Tools partners and as well companies external to the Arrowhead Tools project. The exploitation by external companies clearly shows that the project dissemination and open source approach is effective.

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

Improved industrial productivity while reducing environmental impact can be achieved with automation and digitalization solutions. Current cost of automation engineering prohibits a wider automation in our society. In addition current production productivity is not increasing despite the introduction of more IoT technology to the existing automation which primarily is based on legacy technology. This is often referred to the productivity paradox, see figure below.

A major reason therefore is the low flexibility offered by legacy automation technology in combination with increasingly very high cost for integration of legacy and new Internet (e.g. IoT, BigData, AI, System of System) technology. Still automation is a key approach to improve industrial productivity while also reducing environmental impact and supporting sustainability.

The Arrowhead Tools project set forth to reduce the automation solution engineering cost by 20-50%. The approach is based on microservice architecture and associated implementation methodology, engineering tools and integration platform. This is realized as the Eclipse Arrowhead microservice architecture and associated implementation platform. The Eclipse Arrowhead technology is provided as open source under the umbrella of Eclipse foundation. Thus ensuring a wide availability and long term governance with a well established IP governance supported by the Eclipse foundation.

The Eclipse Arrowhead technology have been validated and verified in more than 20 industrial use cases representing all phases of standardized (IEC 81346) automation solution engineering procedure. The verification and validation results shows engineering cost and time reduction by 30-95% compared to current industrial state of the art.

One concrete examples of concrete technology uptake by non-Arrowhead Tools partner is the Thingwave company who uses the Eclispe Arrowhead framework in their products. This can be seen in multiple videos. A testimony letter from Thingwave is attached.
Three major actions has been important for the current impact and industrial uptake of the project results.

- Making core architecture and implementation platform open source under Eclipse ECL2 license with Eclipse IP checking mechanisms applied for every code release. Current release is v4.4.1
- Forming of the Eclipse Arrowhead commercial ecosystem, currently having 15+ players involved. A kick-off webinar has been executed March 30, with more than 100 attendees
- First exploitation based on Arrowhead Tools use case results. Eclipse Arrowhead Technology already in first early commercial exploitation in e.g. semiconductor production (Infineon), automative production (Volvo), building production (Lindbäcksbygg, Podcomp), mining (Boliden), logistics (DAC). A testimony letter from DAC is attached.

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 Arrowhead Tools common technology have been validated and verified in more than 20 industrial use cases representing all phases of standardized (IEC 81346) automation solution engineering. Validation and validation provides engineering cost and time reduction by 30-95% compared to current industrial state of the art.

A single example thereof is installation of new sensors in semiconductor production with Infineon Dresden. Here lead time has been reduced from 3 months to 1 day, while at the same time, reducing the involved number of people from 7 to 2.

The Arrowhead technology substantially reduces investment cost of automation and digitalization solutions. This allows for significant more automation addressing productivity, green and sustainable operation for the money invested. The Arrowhead technology supports evolution over time allowing the integration with old legacy technology as well as new and upcoming technologies.

The Arrowhead technology is open source and free to use. Entering the Arrowhead path to automation only requires updates of understanding and skills on automation requirements and some engineering. In support of this there are a number technology provider companies offering services to the market. These companies are now organizing them selfs within the Eclipse Arrowhead commercial ecosystem. In addition a number of European universities offers professional training and curricula courses to the market.
The wider exploitation of the technology is supported through the long term governance established thanks to Eclipse foundation and the Eclipse Arrowhead project. Notable here is that several SME’s, RTO’s and universities (project partners and non-project partners) already are offering products, services, training and educational curricula to the open market.

Additionally integration of Arrowhead technology with other Eclispe technology is currently ongoing. A first example is the ongoing work integrating the Bosch.io lead Eclipse Ditto project with a prototype Arrowhead digital twin tool. Another example is the Arrowhead SysML profile integration with the Eclipse IDE and Papyrus tools. This is projected to facilitates engineering automation savings beyond the currently results reported by the Arrowhead Tools project. In this well know open source engineering tools are being integrated with and enhanced by Arrowhead technology.

The concept of Arrowhead Tools based on identified needs for establishing Digital industry.