Case study: From legacy to connectivity migrating industrial devices into the world of smart services

Europa has launched multiple initiatives and research projects to remain competitive in a globalized world and keep industry and manufacturing on-shore. Funded by EU and member countries, project ARROWHEAD[1] focuses research and innovation for collaborative automation using interoperable services for smart production, to improve quality, efficiency, flexibility and cost competiveness. This includes an important new aspect called “Smart Services”, which aims to apply SOA (service oriented architecture) to maintenance and service of production systems and its parts, which still carry a huge potential for further gains in cost and energy savings. However, there will be no “big bang”. How can we turn present-day variety of diverse, specialized, and legacy loaded embedded systems into connected, SOA based cooperating participants of the Internet of Things (IoT)? This case study portrays the solution followed in ARROWHEAD WP1.1, for devices used in end-of-line (EoL) test systems in automotive powertrain production.