The activities of ConnectedFactories cluster projects have increased during the last quarter. All of the projects are now running at full steam.

Launched in 2016, ConnectedFactories aims to establish a structured overview of available and upcoming technological approaches and best practices. The project identifies present and future needs, as well as challenges, of the manufacturing industries.

ConnectedFactories is undertaking a number of analysis activities and events and has published a Digital Mapping Framework. The main goal of the Digital Mapping Framework is to establish a solid approach for describing and analysing what is present on the market in terms of technologies that support the deployment of digital manufacturing platform (i.e. platforms support the interaction between manufacturing systems, devices, workers and different software-based tools and services).

Facilitated by ConnectedFactories, the cluster comprises ten projects. Under the overall theme of digital automation - collaborative manufacturing and logistics, six projects are focussing on digital platforms for factory automation:

• AUTOWARE - Wireless, autonomous, reliable and resilient production operation architecture for cognitive manufacturing
• DISRUPT - Decentralised architectures for optimised operations via virtualised processes and manufacturing ecosystem collaboration
• Daedalus - Distributed control and simulation platform to support an ecosystem of digital automation developers
• FAR-EDGE - Factory automation edge computing operating system reference implementation
• SAFIRE - Cloud-based situational analysis for factories providing real-time reconfiguration services
• SCALABLE4.0 - Scalable automation for flexible production systems

Four projects are focused on supply chains and logistics:

• COMPOSITION - Ecosystem for collaborative manufacturing processes
• DIGICOR - Decentralised agile coordination across supply chains
• NIMBLE -  Collaboration network for industry, manufacturing, business & logistics in Europe
• vf-OS - Virtual factory open operating system

Within its activities to stimulate synergies and cross-fertilisation, ConnectedFactories also developed links to further projects within and outside the Factories of the Future partnership.

ConnectedFactories | Digital Mapping Framework | FoF-11-2016 Projects