Test environment for modern automation

As part of the project ‘Expansion of a Platform for New Technologies, Education and Industrial Cooperation (TEACHER Demonstrator)’, the inIT working group ‘Interconnected Automation Systems’ led by Prof. Dr. Henning Trsek is expanding an existing demonstrator platform. This was set up in the earlier DEVEKOS research project in collaboration with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA).

The project's goal is to establish an open, practical testing environment where modern communication technologies and Industry 4.0 applications can be tested and developed further, with a focus on research, teaching, and industrial collaboration.

From demonstration to practical I4.0 platform

The project is based on the OPC UA demonstrator, which shows a production process for manufacturing fidget spinners in SmartFactoryOWL. Its special feature: the design is based entirely on a manufacturer-independent communication approach with OPC UA and skill-based engineering.

In the current project, this demonstrator is being expanded to create a platform on which central Industry 4.0 topics can be experienced, combined and tested realistically. The focus is primarily on interoperability, i.e. the interaction of a wide variety of technologies and systems in industrial environments.

Testing new technologies in combination

The future 'TEACHER' platform is intended to serve as a practical testing environment in which established standards such as OPC UA, MQTT and Time Sensitive Networking (TSN), as well as concepts such as the Administration Shell (AAS) and digital twins, can be connected to each other. This will generate concrete use cases for research, teaching and, in particular, small and medium-sized enterprises.

‘It is important to us to look not only at individual technologies, but also at their meaningful combination. Especially in existing plants, so-called “brownfield” environments, holistic solutions are in demand,’ explains Alexander Toppka, who is responsible for the operational side of the project. 

TRiNNOVATION OWL is a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space as part of the federal-state initiative ‘Innovative University’.