Continue joint research on digital twin, security and edge computing, collaborate on testbeds

The Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™), now incorporating OpenFog, and Plattform Industrie 4.0 today announced that they have deepened their relationship. The two organizations work together to drive global interoperability and advance the IIoT. Leaders from each organization will be available to discuss their joint projects at Hannover Messe.

The first of these new joint projects undertaken by the two organizations will focus on security, edge computing, Industrie 4.0 components and digital twin. To demonstrate and validate that the concepts and standards work, we will produce a whitepaper on a common understanding of digital twins as well as set-up joint testbeds. IIC will be in Hall 8, Stand D23 and Plattform Industrie 4.0 will be in Hall 8, Stand D24.

"Plattform Industrie 4.0 was the first agreement we signed with a national organization three years ago and our joint work has been working extremely well," said IIC Executive Director Dr. Richard Soley. "We enjoy shared goals for the manufacturing space and complement each other well with Plattform Industrie 4.0's depth of knowledge in manufacturing and supply chain and our horizontal view across many industries."

"We are more than happy to be able to continue the success story of our collaboration," said Plattform Industrie 4.0 Secretary General Henning Banthien. "This is the right time to take another big step towards implementation of Industrie 4.0. The asset administration shell is already being put into practice and we are looking forward to launch more joint testbeds to make Industrie 4.0 a reality for companies big and small."

"This is good news for the industry that IIC and Plattform Industrie 4.0 are working together. There is an evolution of digital twin going on right now and it's important that the two most influential organizations driving IIoT and Industrie 4.0 are so closely aligned," said SAP President Digital Supply Chain & Manufacturing Hala Zeine. "Industry standards only work if everyone agrees to the same standard. Ensuring global collaboration makes a lot of sense and is good for the entire supply chain."

In addition to their joint projects, IIC and Plattform Industrie 4.0 plan to launch joint testbeds. One potential testbed complementary to both organizations is the IIC Smart Factory Web testbed, operated by IIC since September 2016 and led by Fraunhofer IOSB and KETI, with participants Microsoft and SAP. This testbed investigates integrated architectures and technologies for a web of distributed smart factories based upon the international standards OPC UA and AutomationML. Next, digital twins based on the concepts of the asset administration shell of the Plattform Industrie 4.0 will be evaluated. This testbed will be demonstrated at the IIC member pavilion at Hannover Messe.

At the Plattform Industrie 4.0 pavilion the first interoperable asset administration shells developed conformant to the development-ready specification(s) of the asset administration shell of the Plattform Industrie 4.0 will be presented. There are several talks at the Forum Industrie 4.0 for deepening the knowledge of the asset administration shell as a clearly defined implementation of a digital twin. To mention only some of them: "The Administration Shell on its way to a dependable specification" from Dr. Michael Hoffmeister (Festo), "Semantics for the Asset Administration Shell - what is still to be done" from Dr. Birgit Boss (Bosch) and "Package file format for the exchange of information in the value chain of Industrie 4.0" from Dr. Marco Mendes (Schneider Electric). The panel discussion Talk@3 on 2nd April "The Digital Twin - Interoperability into the Cloud" will give further insight.

The two organizations first demonstrated their collaboration at Hannover Messe 2017 where they presented a joint real-time demonstration that showed the IIC Industrial Internet Security Framework and the concepts of secure cooperation in cross company environments developed by the Plattform Industrie 4.0. Mimicking a real-world, multi-vendor, distributed environment, the demonstration integrated demos from more than 20 IIC member companies and Plattform Industrie 4.0 partner companies spanning multiple booths at Hannover Messe and remote sites around the world.

In 2018, IIC and Plattform Industrie 4.0 published a joint whitepaper − Architecture Alignment and Interoperability - which documents the highly complementary nature of, and details the mapping and alignment between, their two leading IIoT reference architecture models: the IIC Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) and the Plattform Industrie 4.0 Reference Architectural Model Industrie 4.0 (RAMI 4.0).

About the Plattform Industrie 4.0

Plattform Industrie 4.0 is the central network to advance digital transformation towards Industry 4.0. In close cooperation with politics, industry, science, associations and trade unions, it develops and coordinates information and networking services in order to make Industrie 4.0 solutions better known among companies and to deploy them on site. As one of the largest international and national networks, it supports companies - particularly medium-sized companies - in implementing Industrie 4.0. It provides companies with decisive impulses through examples of company practices from across Germany and other countries as well as concrete recommendations for action and test environments. The platform's numerous international co-operations underscore its leading role in international discussions on Industrie 4.0. For further information, visit www.plattform-i40.de.

About the Industrial Internet Consortium

The Industrial Internet Consortium, now incorporating OpenFog, is the world's leading membership program transforming business and society by accelerating the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The IIC delivers a trustworthy IIoT in which the world's systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a program of the Object Management Group (OMG). For more information, visit www.iiconsortium.org.

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