Periodic Reporting for period 1 - iNGENIOUS (Next-GENeration IoT sOlutions for the Universal Supply chain)
Berichtszeitraum: 2020-10-01 bis 2022-03-31
During the last decades, supply chains have become huge networks of individuals, organizations, resources, and activities involved in the creation, delivery, and sale of products to the end users. In such complex environments where multiple players with several and various roles are involved, the complexity, variability, and volatility have become some of the main risks to address by companies and organizations. To tackle this, new technological advances are necessary to catalyse the digitalization of supply chain management, changing products and services creation and delivery, and enabling the exchange of information in new ways along the different actors.
Under this paradigm, iNGENIOUS exploits some of the most innovative and emerging technologies in line with the standardised trend, contributing to the Next-Generation IoT (NG-IoT) and proposing technical and business enablers to build a complete platform for supply chain management solutions. The project has defined six use cases (UCs) for converging the IoT solutions brought to the NGI scope with the real needs that the next generation supply chain will require: Automated Robots with Heterogeneous Networks (Factory UC), Transportation Platform Health Monitoring (Transport UC), Situational Understanding and Predictive Models in Smart Logistics (Port Entrance UC), Improve Driver's Safety with Mixed-Reality and Haptic Solutions (AGV UC), Inter-Model Asset Tracking Via IoT and Satellite (Ship UC), and Supply Chain Ecosystem Integration (DVL/DLT UC).
Under this paradigm, iNGENIOUS exploits some of the most innovative and emerging technologies in line with the standardised trend, contributing to the Next-Generation IoT (NG-IoT) and proposing technical and business enablers to build a complete platform for supply chain management solutions. The project has defined six use cases (UCs) for converging the IoT solutions brought to the NGI scope with the real needs that the next generation supply chain will require: Automated Robots with Heterogeneous Networks (Factory UC), Transportation Platform Health Monitoring (Transport UC), Situational Understanding and Predictive Models in Smart Logistics (Port Entrance UC), Improve Driver's Safety with Mixed-Reality and Haptic Solutions (AGV UC), Inter-Model Asset Tracking Via IoT and Satellite (Ship UC), and Supply Chain Ecosystem Integration (DVL/DLT UC).
The work performed in the first 18 months of the project is detailed in the Mid-term report. This work is mostly technical as the project is highly focused on IoT technologies.
This work focused on UC definition and development of components for each UC, as well as setup, testing, and validation on end-to-end infrastructures. The tight integration of all technologies is key to enabling the innovative UCs of the iNGENIOUS project. For this purpose, a cross-layer architecture that enables them has been designed and represented in (Figure iNGENIOUS cross-layer architecture) , showing all technical components contributed by partners. This architecture has been defined and detailed in D2.2.
The D1.2 deliverable and the Mid-term report detail the progress made towards developing new or improved components and their integration. They relate to the six use cases of the iNGENIOUS project as follows:
Factory UC: factory robots, automated guided vehicles, flexible PHY/MAC, smart IoT apps and APIs for improved factory operations.
Transport UC: vibro-acoustic sensors, secure compute module, 5G satellite, monitoring tools.
Port Entrance UC: sensors in port, AI/ML models for optimizing port operations, visualization tools.
AGV UC: automated guided vehicles, mixed-reality (MR) cockpit and haptic gloves.
Ship UC: sensors in container, smart IoT gateway, 5G satellite.
DVL/DLT UC: Data Virtualization Layer (DVL), TrustOS-based DLT interoperability layer.
All UCs: networking infrastructure, including 3GPP-and non-3GPP modems, various radio access technologies, 5G Core components, AI/ML-enhanced MANO, M2M platforms.
This work focused on UC definition and development of components for each UC, as well as setup, testing, and validation on end-to-end infrastructures. The tight integration of all technologies is key to enabling the innovative UCs of the iNGENIOUS project. For this purpose, a cross-layer architecture that enables them has been designed and represented in (Figure iNGENIOUS cross-layer architecture) , showing all technical components contributed by partners. This architecture has been defined and detailed in D2.2.
The D1.2 deliverable and the Mid-term report detail the progress made towards developing new or improved components and their integration. They relate to the six use cases of the iNGENIOUS project as follows:
Factory UC: factory robots, automated guided vehicles, flexible PHY/MAC, smart IoT apps and APIs for improved factory operations.
Transport UC: vibro-acoustic sensors, secure compute module, 5G satellite, monitoring tools.
Port Entrance UC: sensors in port, AI/ML models for optimizing port operations, visualization tools.
AGV UC: automated guided vehicles, mixed-reality (MR) cockpit and haptic gloves.
Ship UC: sensors in container, smart IoT gateway, 5G satellite.
DVL/DLT UC: Data Virtualization Layer (DVL), TrustOS-based DLT interoperability layer.
All UCs: networking infrastructure, including 3GPP-and non-3GPP modems, various radio access technologies, 5G Core components, AI/ML-enhanced MANO, M2M platforms.
The iNGENIOUS project seeks to optimize logistics and the supply chain using a wealth of real-time data made available by the Internet of Things (IoT) together with innovations in every architectural layer.
The project is progressing beyond the state of the art in the following directions:
a) Development: At the data management level, iNGENIOUS partners are developing a novel DVL that aggregates a myriad of data sources that are, until now, locked into several, incompatible machine-to-machine (M2M) platforms. At the network level, more flexible, reconfigurable, resilient, and resource-aware components are built to enable semiautonomous network slicing and orchestration of the underlying network. At the things level, novel vibro-acoustic sensors that employ ML techniques have been developed to process measurements at the edge, avoiding sending raw data over the network. Additionally, a novel computer architecture for highly-secure IoT devices has been developed.
b) Implementation and integration: iNGENIOUS create a standard interface granting security and consistency of the IoT data through M2M interoperability. Furthermore, the project innovates by bringing together both novel and existing technologies, including integration different radio access technologies (RATs) and communication protocols. This integration results in a single and unified network level architecture and shared infrastructure to support new IoT UCs. For tactile IoT UCs, immersive head-mounted displays, haptic devices, and low-latency 5G networks are integrated improving efficiency and safe machinery control.
c) Security and privacy: iNGENIOUS takes a cross-layer, vertical approach to security and privacy. At the higher levels, data security is improved across the supply chain by manipulation-proof logging of data records using multiple distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) via a single endpoint for interaction, orchestration, and management via smart contracts. Pseudonymization of personal information is ensured by the DVL. Security and trust are rooted in IoT devices built using a secure-by-default computer architecture and operating system that enables stronger protection of IoT to cloud communication using remote attestation.
d) Validation: The use cases not only validate infrastructure components, but also demonstrate benefits to end users and potential business impact. In the application layer, new artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) mechanisms are employed for more precise predictions, and hence better optimization of logistics operations, than conventional systems. These better predictions are enabled through more accurate tracking of assets, including containers at the sea away from terrestrial networks.
e) Dissemination and standardisation: The interaction with stakeholders and the participation of key industrial actors ensures targeted dissemination of project results and identification of business opportunities (and the risk associated with them). The project actively participates in 3GPP standardisation bodies to leverage the improvements and new innovative solutions earlier discussed. Main aspects cover innovations for lowering the cost (in terms of computational complexity, power consumption, latency, flexibility, etc.) of communication systems.
Additionally, dissemination of the project’s accomplishments is addressed using two major lines of action:
1. Dissemination: contributions in the form of papers and participation in events to convey the preliminary results of technical deliverables and design.
2. Communication: digital dissemination for the iNGENIOUS vision and use cases through virtual medium for communities of 5G stakeholders.
The project is progressing beyond the state of the art in the following directions:
a) Development: At the data management level, iNGENIOUS partners are developing a novel DVL that aggregates a myriad of data sources that are, until now, locked into several, incompatible machine-to-machine (M2M) platforms. At the network level, more flexible, reconfigurable, resilient, and resource-aware components are built to enable semiautonomous network slicing and orchestration of the underlying network. At the things level, novel vibro-acoustic sensors that employ ML techniques have been developed to process measurements at the edge, avoiding sending raw data over the network. Additionally, a novel computer architecture for highly-secure IoT devices has been developed.
b) Implementation and integration: iNGENIOUS create a standard interface granting security and consistency of the IoT data through M2M interoperability. Furthermore, the project innovates by bringing together both novel and existing technologies, including integration different radio access technologies (RATs) and communication protocols. This integration results in a single and unified network level architecture and shared infrastructure to support new IoT UCs. For tactile IoT UCs, immersive head-mounted displays, haptic devices, and low-latency 5G networks are integrated improving efficiency and safe machinery control.
c) Security and privacy: iNGENIOUS takes a cross-layer, vertical approach to security and privacy. At the higher levels, data security is improved across the supply chain by manipulation-proof logging of data records using multiple distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) via a single endpoint for interaction, orchestration, and management via smart contracts. Pseudonymization of personal information is ensured by the DVL. Security and trust are rooted in IoT devices built using a secure-by-default computer architecture and operating system that enables stronger protection of IoT to cloud communication using remote attestation.
d) Validation: The use cases not only validate infrastructure components, but also demonstrate benefits to end users and potential business impact. In the application layer, new artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) mechanisms are employed for more precise predictions, and hence better optimization of logistics operations, than conventional systems. These better predictions are enabled through more accurate tracking of assets, including containers at the sea away from terrestrial networks.
e) Dissemination and standardisation: The interaction with stakeholders and the participation of key industrial actors ensures targeted dissemination of project results and identification of business opportunities (and the risk associated with them). The project actively participates in 3GPP standardisation bodies to leverage the improvements and new innovative solutions earlier discussed. Main aspects cover innovations for lowering the cost (in terms of computational complexity, power consumption, latency, flexibility, etc.) of communication systems.
Additionally, dissemination of the project’s accomplishments is addressed using two major lines of action:
1. Dissemination: contributions in the form of papers and participation in events to convey the preliminary results of technical deliverables and design.
2. Communication: digital dissemination for the iNGENIOUS vision and use cases through virtual medium for communities of 5G stakeholders.