Industrial Internet groups agree to align architecture efforts

Representatives of Platform Industrie 4.0 (I4.0) and the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) agreed to align their architecture efforts and have agreed to create a clear roadmap to ensure future interoperability.

By Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) March 9, 2016

Representatives of Platform Industrie 4.0 (I4.0) and the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) agreed to align their architecture efforts—respectively, the Reference Architecture Model for Industrie 4.0 (RAMI4.0) and the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA). Both sides recognize the complementary nature of the two models and an initial draft mapping showing the direct relationships between elements of the models, and a clear roadmap to ensure future interoperability. Additional possible topics included collaboration in the areas of IIC Testbeds and I4.0 Test Facility Infrastructures, as well as standardization, architectures and business outcomes in the Industrial Internet.

Prof. Dr. Siegfried Russwurm, technical director of Plattform Industrie 4.0, CTO and member of the managing board of Siemens AG, said, "Collaborating with other initiatives is important, especially for Germany’s export-oriented economy. We are highly interested to cooperate intensively with others in order to pave the way for global standards. Cooperating with IIC—and with other consortia—is an important step in the right direction."

Dr. Richard Mark Soley, executive director of the IIC, said, "The effort shows that smart technical people can bridge any gap and find a way to solve problems that might otherwise have created barriers to entry in the adoption of IoT technology for industrial applications. I applaud the participants and thank them for their initial work, and look forward to a successful collaboration moving forward."

The meeting constituted an informal group, which will continue their work on exploring potential alignment between I4.0 and IIC. 

Platform Industrie 4.0 (I4.0)

https://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Navigation/DE/Home/home.html 

Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)

www.iiconsortium.org 

– Edited from an Industrial Internet Consortium press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering industrial networking stories.