Everyone has been talking about the future project Industry 4.0 for years. However, there is still a lack of important tools for putting the new industry standard into practice. The PAiCE funding program (Platforms, Additive Manufacturing, Imaging, Communication, Engineering) of the Federal Ministry of Economics is intended to provide a remedy. One associated project is the IC4F (Industrial Communications for Factories) lighthouse project, in which Hamburg-based intralogistics specialist STILL is playing a key role. "Over the past three and a half years, the 15 project partners from industry and research - including Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom AG and Nokia - have developed a technology kit for a trustworthy industrial communications and computing infrastructure," explains Ansgar Bergmann, Project Manager from the Technology & Innovation department, who was responsible for STILL's part in the project. This modular system is based on an open architecture and allows modular extensions for new applications and communication technologies. "The results of our research," Bergmann continues, "will enable users to select suitable information and communication technologies according to the requirements of Industry 4.0 and a specific migration approach." The secure, robust and real-time communication solutions for the manufacturing industry use key technologies from the fields of 5G, multi-access edge computing (MEC), cloud computing, virtualization as well as industrial monitoring and analytics.

In the thick of it instead of just there

Ansgar Bergmann is particularly proud of the fact that STILL not only "simply took part" in this project, but was able to fully contribute its expertise and play a decisive role in its development. "We have put our wealth of experience in the areas of industrial networking and Industry 4.0 to good use. We benefited from the fact that we have already helped to shape several guidelines for industry on behalf of the German government and the VDMA in the past," says the STILL expert. On the other hand, the Hamburg-based intralogistics specialist has also benefited from participating in the IC4F project. Bergmann: "First of all, we proved to ourselves that we have mastered successful networking in the warehouse and that our approaches work. We were also able to gain many new insights, which we will now use profitably for both sides in our collaboration with our customers."

Live demonstrations illustrate project success

This work came to a provisional conclusion on October 22. STILL invited project partners and internal stakeholders to its headquarters on the Elbe. A mobile communications campus network necessary for the project implementation was also set up there by Nokia, which will serve as a pioneer for new communication technologies such as 5G. The pioneering results of the project work were then presented in several live demonstrations. For example, one live demonstration ("Use Case Truck-to-X Communication"), which was largely developed by STILL, dealt with door control in a factory hall. In this use case, both forklift trucks and other factory installations were integrated into a shared communication environment. Indoor localization provided the position data of the forklifts, which was then processed by various applications of the partners involved in the live demonstration. In this example, the door was controlled purely from a virtual world. The gate opened automatically as soon as a forklift truck approached it. This gate control was implemented as a so-called administration shell. Digital twins of the forklift truck and the door were created for this purpose. All physical properties of the forklift truck and door were then made permanently available in the partial models of the administration shell. The virtual model, which controlled the processes, was thus able to continuously compare this data and, for example, only open the gate if the forklift truck actually fits through in terms of its dimensions. In addition, the truck's drive control system is accessed and the driver is warned if it is getting tight. Gate damage such as that which occurs today would therefore be a thing of the past.

High customer benefit

Overall, a number of live demonstrations and a variety of new or expanded industrial use cases were shown in Hamburg during the presence event, e.g. the "Bring your Own Network" approach from Siemens for easier installation of multi-tenant networks in companies or Telekom's modern "certificate management via the cloud", which increases both security and convenience in the field of industrial communication. "These proof-of-concept implementations serve to check the methodology and validate the use cases," says Ansgar Bergmann. The STILL expert is firmly convinced that many of the findings and experiences from the IC4F project will later flow into industrial applications and be of great benefit to STILL's customers. "With this experience behind us, we are the ideal partner when it comes to Industry 4.0 topics or networking in the warehouse," says Ansgar Bergmann confidently.