I4Production
The vision of a resilient factory
...through knowledge and assistance systems.
Your contact person
Prof. Dr.-Ing., Prof. e.h., MBA Carmen Constantinescu
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organization
Scientific Lead of I4Production
I4Production
Designing a resilient factory
I4Production aims to realize the vision of the resilient factory through knowledge and assistance systems for intelligent decision-making. The resilient factory is the next step in the development of production, in which the factory always operates at optimum utilization and capacity.
Implementation of a cognitive digital twin on the way to resilient production
The overarching goal of I4Production is the seamless connection between people and digital systems in the factory of the future, as well as the synchronization of the digital with the real world in real time using the following developments:
- People as universal sensors;
- Intelligent, cooperative and autonomous networking between people and/or production systems;
- The connection between people and digital twins to share experiences without borders.
Guiding principle of I4Production
The central idea of I4Production is a production floor populated with scalable networks of technical sensors and monitored by 3D laser scanners top-down and bottom-up on primary factory objects (processes, people, machines, tools, parts, etc.), as well as an environment of cognitive digital twins shared and queried by usage-related applications from the factory environment. All these applications are flexibly integrated into the IoT-based infrastructure and are demonstrated for real-time monitoring of the relevant processes.
Proactive production
Real-time monitoring of production performance and understanding its context enables a decisive paradigm shift in factory operations from demand-driven requirements and reactive decision-making to adaptability, conscious material flow and the fluidity of resources: to proactive production. This new paradigm for production is achieved through the integration of powerful IoT technologies.
The overarching goal of I4Production is to achieve resilient production. I4Production focuses on scientific and technical goals, more precisely: the development and characterization of cognitive digital twins in the factory. The solution is a learning context assistance system for resilient production and continuously integrated feedback loops at product and production level.
The development of these results is the focus of the project:
- A virtual engineering environment for resilient production
- System-capable, learning assistance system for resilient production
- Prototypes and three validated demonstrators
- Economic efficiency, production concepts, strategies and scenarios of the future
- Implementation strategies and application scenarios for resilient production
Another important focus objective is the promotion of intensive cooperation in the areas of research and teaching within the international project network:
The projects in Germany (I4Production and DIREKT) cooperate with the Global Innovation Linkage project at Swineburne University in Australia. An intensive exchange is to be promoted here, particularly in the area of comprehensive digitalization and optimization of technical processes in the direction of production safety through the use of state-of-the-art digitalization and IoT technologies.