ESCOM
Balanced edge-cloud environments for sovereign component service systems in manufacturing applications
| Short description |
| ESCOM is developing an edge-cloud platform for the manufacturing sector that provides machine users with vendor-independent access, through digital services, to important machine components - such as motor spindles or gearboxes - and to the often highly specialised know-how of their manufacturers regarding use and operation. |
ESCOM is developing a shared edge-cloud data space for machine end users and component manufacturers for machines in the manufacturing industry. The aim of this edge-cloud environment is to reduce the resource consumption of the entire system while increasing machine availability. It also enables secure and sovereign data transfer. By using openly available and largely standardised digital technologies, ESCOM encourages vendor-independent exchange between manufacturers and end providers, thus promoting the development of demand-driven innovations. The edge-cloud data space also allows component manufacturers to include both machine manufacturers and end users in digital business models of a sovereign edge data economy that is not bound to any one system.
Market perspectives and product claims
Edge-cloud environments offer enormous potential for the development of new business models, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Large volumes of data are generated at the edge of the network, on the shop floor. This data needs to be processed into information in a decentralised and distributed manner, meeting strict time constraints and immediately providing added value for production. Machine components are important data providers as they are installed close to the process. Using microelectronics and sensor technology, these components provide valuable information not only on their own condition, but also on the process. They thus enable cost savings by improving process stability or reducing emissions through resource-saving use.
The extensive application of component service systems in open, sovereign edge-cloud environments creates opportunities for component manufacturers and machine manufacturers to tap into new market potential with demand-oriented innovations. In this way, ESCOM advances the innovative capacity of European industry and infrastructure providers and also contributes to the reshoring of global production capacities to Europe.
Challenge and innovation
The main challenge addressed by the project is that of developing digital services within an open data service ecosystem that enables sovereign access to data regarding important machine components. Microelectronics and sensor technology must be integrated in machine components for this purpose in order to provide valuable information about the condition of the components and the production process. ESCOM implements the services by using artificial intelligence (AI) to transfer the know-how about the component design, available in the form of simulation models, into services. These simulation models describe the overall behaviour of the components and map their influence on process quality (prescriptive quality) and the degree of component wear (predictive maintenance).
ESCOM's solutions transform the complexity of the simulation models and their time-consuming calculation, performed using AI-supported model reduction processes in the cloud, into services that are executed at the edge level.
The project relies on standards and open-source software to ensure secure and sovereign data exchange, with the GAIA-X data infrastructure serving as foundation. This infrastructure will enable the exchange of smart service offerings from component manufacturers via the product-service representation which is based on the Industrie 4.0 Plattform’s concept of the asset administration shell (AAS). The physical components are represented in this case by virtual models known as digital twins.
Use cases
The provision of know-how services for machine components is being developed, tested and evaluated in the project on the basis of two use cases. In the first use case, a digital nameplate is created for motor spindles, offering machine users a commissioning service. In addition, there are plans to develop real-time AI services for the efficient use of motor spindles. These can detect problematic operating speeds, unbalanced tool systems, and gaps by combining machine control data with real-time data from vibration sensors, displacement sensors and temperature sensors.
The second use case aims to market the use of ball screw drives in machine tools in a digital business model. Rather than purchasing the ball screw drives at a fixed price, machine users acquire them via machine leasing rates with a flexible share that is based on the load of the component during operation. To determine this flexible share, the wear on the ball screw drive is calculated using AI. Machine users benefit from the consequent reduced investment costs and transparent process costs. In this way, the component manufacturer can optimise the ball screw drive in terms of lubricant consumption and maintenance, improving overall competitiveness. With miniaturisation of the sensor technology, integration into as many models as possible is expected in the future.
Consortium
Berger Holding GmbH & Co. KG, GMN Paul Müller Industrie GmbH & Co.KG, CONTACT Software GmbH, Datarella GmbH, Tvarit GmbH, Institute for Automation and Communication (ifak), Technical University of Darmstadt
Benefits
| Current situation | Future vision |
| Existing platforms in the manufacturing industry create lock-in effects for users. | ESCOM facilitates vendor-independent access for machine users to know-how offerings from component manufacturers, delivered in the form of digital services for use in edge-cloud environments. |
| Most innovations originate from a supply-oriented market perspective. | By facilitating collaboration between manufacturers and users within a shared data space, ESCOM enables innovations that are demand-oriented. |
| The asset administration shell (AAS) conceived by the Plattform Industrie is not yet in use to ensure data sovereignty. | ESCOM draws on experience from other projects to secure data sovereignty, in particular from the areas of distributed ledger technology, blockchain, and smart contracts, and applies this experience for data-sovereign use of the AAS. The AAS can thus be used for the European Manufacturing Data Space. |
| Building resilience mechanisms for adaptive, responsive production requires enormous effort, as company-internal and external information must be seamlessly integrated. | With ESCOM, resilience mechanisms for adaptive, responsive production can be designed and orchestrated in future on the basis of cross-company information exchange via open data service ecosystems - from the edge level on the shop floor to production control and planning through to the cloud. |
