CoCoS

Brief description

CoCoS is developing a smart information and communication infrastructure with the ability to both recognise the different components of a production line, such as machines and workpieces, and to network them with each other. It is also designed to form a communications bridge between the production, logistics and other management systems used that could then be designed as a distributed and virtual bridge. Separate networking of independent production systems at different locations is also to be made possible. No in-depth skills will be required, neither for commissioning the production line nor for any necessary adjustments.

Challenge

The transformation of the world of production has already begun: Consumer and investment goods are becoming more complex and varied, their production cycles narrower and the time between development and market launch shorter. It is almost impossible for today's production systems to keep pace with this. Their components can rarely be reconfigured, they are rigidly interconnected and controlled strictly according to hierarchies. Up to now, networking across different production sites has been very complicated.

Target

This aim of the CoCoS project is therefore to develop an information and communication platform that will remove these barriers. This will begin with the machines, transport equipment and workpieces in a production line which will be networked using sensors, actuators, software and communication systems. The CoCoS platform will connect these systems to form a smart, networked production system. In this way, production at suppliers and producers will be included across different operating facilities and logistics service providers integrated. Despite all of this, it will be possible to adapt the system quickly and easily to new production processes.

Technologies

The CoCoS platform will feature several levels (multi-layer approach). The lowest level, the "physical networking platform" connects the components of a production line to form a communication network. It integrates the customary networks and communication equipment in production, such as wifi, industrial ethernet or RFID, and supplements network management methods which have not been widely used up to now in production networks: self-configuration, self-optimisation, self-healing, anomaly detection, virtualisation and mature security management. CoCoS will also integrate wireless sensor networks. In order to efficiently process the huge quantity of sensor data expected, in-network data processing methods will be tested in the project where simple calculations can already be carried out in the network in order to lessen the load for the central components.

The "services platform" is the next level after this communication base. This is where all components of the cyber-physical production system, whether machine, workpiece or transport system, are first described in a uniform manner as information objects with dedicated data and services, for instance, for status monitoring. An innovative runtime environment enables the implementation and use of added-value services, for instance, for production planning or control. From a user perspective, the production system is now a collection of information objects on one service platform and the user can use these (virtual) services via apps on a smart phone, tablet or PC and combine them to create new production workflows. CoCoS hence provides the user with a production control system that allows him to install, monitor, maintain, control and reconfigure production processes.

The various production systems will be connected across production sites and company borders using the Virtual Fort Knox (VFK) cloud infrastructure from Stuttgart-based Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation. Thanks to VFK, IT services can be made available to the production sector in a simple, flexible and secure manner.

Use case

CoCoS will be tested in a cross-company demonstrator. For the production of plug connectors or housings, for instance, at Bosch in Schwieberdingen, the DFKI Smart Factory in Kaiserslautern as a supplier and machines for parts production at DMG Electronics in Pfronten will be connected to each other via the VFK cloud.

Partners: Robert Bosch GmbH (consortium leader), Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI), DMG Electronics GmbH, trustsec IT-solutions GmbH, TU Berlin, XETICS GmbH