Article submitted by Talib Sankal – Research Associate at Fraunhofer IPT
- Tell us about Fraunhofer IPT. What is your core business and role within the project?
The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT develops system solutions for the networked, adaptive production of sustainable and resource-saving products. We optimize new and existing methods, technologies and processes for efficient and ecological production of the future that incorporates climate protection and environmental compatibility into its calculations. Inside the ECOFACT project, we are responsible for WP2 “Holistic monitoring and data-acquisition solutions”.
- Why did your organisation get involved in the ECOFACT project? How does this activity fit with the normal business of your organisation?
At the Fraunhofer IPT we are driving various research projects on development and optimization of new and existing technologies for data-driven services and applications. Especially in the ECOFACT project we are going to enhance a smart sensor system and integrate it into the demo sites. The smart sensor systems allow a decentralized approach of data acquisition, data processing and process monitoring.
- How will the outputs of the ECOFACT project help production system energy performance?
The developed data acquisition solutions are enabling the digitalization of energy consumption data and data acquisition. The solution describes a decentralized approach of data acquisition from the lowest layer of data generation up to the ECOFACT platform. For every producing company it becomes more and more important to get and process this kind of data and optimize their processes. The work done in WP2 will create the infrastructure and the basis to enable a more digitalized monitoring of energy data.
- What are the technical challenges your work in ECOFACT is trying to overcome?
In WP2 the main challenges are the acquisition of energy consumption data from various devices and systems and deliver this data to the ECOFACT platform. The high variety of data access possibilities in the demo sites makes it hard to develop one single solution for data acquisition. Further the integration of existing platforms like the Schneider Power Monitoring Expert, the WINGS Artemis platform and the Smarkia platform in the demo sites and standardized linkage of these platforms to the ECOFACT platform is also one of the main challenges of our WP.
- What positive impacts will the projects have when complete?
The results of the project will be an example and guideline for other production companies to optimize their usage of energy. Especially the results of WP2 will describe a way to achieve a more digitalized data acquisition in the production. Further the development of smart sensor systems will allow the deployment of decentralized energy monitoring network various environments.
View our other partner Q&A’s here.
