THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd.

❮

❯

THHINK Wireless Technologies is a world-leading expert in custom platforms for diagnostics, health monitoring, telemetry, automation and control. The company has specialist expertise in advanced data analytics, robust, ultra low power embedded wireless sensors and energy harvesting. We develop innovative solutions for the aerospace, marine, automotive, rail, nuclear and agricultural sectors. We also perform cutting edge research and development for many leading companies to create innovative solutions. Working in partnership with industry, academia and the European Commission the company stays at the forefront of technology, driving innovation and looking to the future.

Find out more about our expertise and how we can help your organisation.

"Innovative solutions and technology expertise for the Aerospace, Automotive, Marine, Rail, Nuclear and Agriculture sectors."

COMPANY

THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd. was founded in 2009 after more than a decade of research and development in wireless and energy harvesting technologies, monitoring solutions and AI data analytics. The vision of THHINK is to create innovative technology solutions for ubiquitous sensing and computing to achieve a more efficient, interconnected and environmentally sound future. We are experts in the development of custom platforms for diagnostics, condition/health monitoring, telemetry and control with specialist expertise in robust, ultra-low power embedded wireless sensors and energy harvesting. We are leaders in the development of innovative new products for applications in the aerospace, marine, automotive, rail, nuclear and agricultural sectors. THHINK engineers have many years experience providing innovative research and products for Formula 1 Racing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, NASA, and the MoD.

THHINK provides Expert Advice to the European Commission on innovative electronics, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The company is also on the UK’s Energy Harvesting Steering Group and Thermoelectric Industrial Advisory Group.

Professional Services & Capabilities

Strategic monitoring of remote assets, equipment and environments
Wireless data acquisition over a range of operating distances
Wireless sensing hardware
Advanced monitoring and control software
Energy harvesting/scavenging for efficient remote power provision
Scientific data analytics
Applications engineering and design expertise
Proof-of-concept and business case trade studies
Forward future concepts research and development

Areas of Expertise

Applications

Health monitoring systems - on-condition and predictive
Wireless monitoring and control systems
Autonomous and unmanned systems
Distributed systems
Fault tolerant systems
Systems of Systems
Mixed Criticality Systems
Automated and adaptive manufacturing
More Electric Aircraft Technologies
Radar systems

Wired and Wireless

Databus technologies (copper-wired, glass and plastic fibre optic)
Mobile and radio communications ( GSM, 3G 4G-LTE, UMTS, HSDPA, VHF and UHF )
Satellite data communications and telemetry
Satellite-based global location tracking of assets
Underwater / Subsea communications

Design, Development and V&V

Modelling and co-simulation
Control system design
Multi-objective optimisation
Data analytics and AI
Cost modelling of Life Cycle Costs
Product Family definition
Certification - Aerospace, Marine, Nuclear

Advanced Electronics

Energy Harvesting generators: Vibration, Thermal, Solar, RF energy
Multi-core processor and signal processing technologies
FPGA technologies
Integrated circuit reliability
Advanced sensor technologies and MEMS
Nanotechnologies

THHINK engineers have worked on a number of key programmes including:

AEROSPACE | Tornado, Eurofighter, JAS-39, SAAB 2000, Apache Helicopter, Control Technology Programme, HiPECS, Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter, Airbus A380, More Electric Aircraft, BROADEN, DAME, Active Flow Control, Boeing 777, Boeing Dreamliner and ASTRAEA

MARINE | Ship automation systems, marine gas turbine engines, waterjet technologies, azimuth thrusters and the design of reactor control systems for nuclear submarines. Autonomous unmanned systems, long-endurance operations and persistent-presence maritime surveillance. Satellite and underwater communications and remote monitoring for metocean, environmental, maritime surveillance and offshore oil & gas applications

ENERGY | Industrial gas turbine engines, wind turbines, solar technologies and nuclear power stations

AUTOMOTIVE | Ford, Jaguar and Formula-1 racing technologies

RAIL | Network Rail infrastructure monitoring and introduction of wind and solar energy harvesting technologies for powering stations

SPACE | Columbus Programme

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Haydn Thompson BSc, PhD, CEng, FIET, MIEEE, MRAeS, MAIAA

Professor Haydn Thompson, BSc, PhD. CEng has over 35 years' experience working in a mixture of senior industrial research and development roles in flight control systems, space programmes and radar signal processing applications for leading companies. From 1993- Feb. 2013 he was the Programme Manager of the Rolls-Royce Control and Systems University Technology Centre. He is Managing Director and founder of the THHINK Group of companies. He is recognised and used by the European Commission as an expert in many fields, CPS, IIoT, AI, aerospace, automotive, autonomous vehicles, smart agriculture, advanced electronics, etc. and is a consultant to a range of companies and government bodies. He defines Strategic Technology Roadmaps across Europe and for companies such as Rolls-Royce.

He has over 100 publications in the field of CPS and IoT applications, including on distributed systems, multi-disciplinary multi-objective optimisation, gas turbine engine control, fault diagnosis and health monitoring, wireless communications, energy harvesting, rapid prototyping and co-simulation. He has also written two books on gas turbine engine control. He is, or has been, a member of the International Federation of Automatic Controls (IFAC) International Aerospace Control, Mechatronics and Real-Time Computing and Control Committees being chair of Embedded Systems, the Institution of Electronic and Electrical Engineers Aerospace Committee, and IET representative on the Learned Society Board of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In addition to running many research programmes with Rolls-Royce working on key programmes, Professor Thompson was the co-ordinator for the European Union funded IST FLEXICON project, led work on the More Electric Aircraft in the Airbus/EU MOET project and led two consortia of 4 Universities in the WICAS and SWIFT projects with Airbus. He has also run successful research programmes with rail companies developing self-powered wireless sensor technologies for infrastructure monitoring. Recent EU projects include CPSoS (Cyber Physical Systems of Systems) where he chaired the Expert Group of Transport and Logistics covering Aerospace, Automotive, Rail, Maritime and Logistics, Road4FAME defining a Roadmap for Manufacturing Research within Europe, PICASSO which promoted Joint EU-US Collaborative Research and Platforms4CPS which defined a strategic roadmap for the future of Cyber-Physical Systems.

Max Ong BEng.Hons, PhD, MIET, MIEEE, MAICD, PRINCE2

Dr Max Ong received a BEng.Hons in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sheffield and a PhD in Automatic Control & Systems Engineering. During this time, he was awarded the Sir Harold West Award and Mappin Award by the University. Max is Technical Director and co-founder of THHINK and has a wealth of experience in a number of domains. Previously Max was joint team for SEAS-DTC Defence and Rolls-Royce UTC CSE who designed and simulated adaptive control systems for an advanced hybrid fuel-electric Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). Additionally, Max conducted extensive R&D on the £4.6M DTi / TSB BROADEN project and the £3.2M e-Science DAME project to develop knowledge-based diagnostic and prognostic monitoring systems that leveraged innovative Grid Computing. The work enabled Rolls-Royce to deliver advanced Equipment Health Monitoring (EHM) in the Aero and Marine business sectors by applying optimal pro-active maintenance strategies within a revolutionary TotalCare programme for Rolls-Royce. Following this, he took on the role of Systems Architect within Rolls-Royce's EPACS aero engineering group.

Dr Max Ong was Chief Technology Officer of FASTWAVE Communications specialising in Autonomous Unmanned Systems, satellite telemetry and underwater sensing/communications for remote monitoring applications across metocean, environmental, maritime surveillance and offshore Oil & Gas industries. As CTO and drone pilot at Fastwave, Max headed the autonomous robotics and unmanned sensors division including operation of KONGSBERG Maritime's 'Seaglider' AUV and eletronic data systems integration across LIQUID ROBOTICS 'Wave Glider' marine robotic vehicles capable of long-endurance missions and persistent-presence maritime surveillance.

Max is a certified PRINCE2 Project Management Professional and member of the IEEE and IET engineering institutions, AAUS Unmanned Systems and Australian Defence RPDE. He is highly experienced in the design and integration of bespoke hardware and software systems for Autonomous and Unmanned vehicles, wireless communications, control systems, distributed systems and strategic decision support.

Daniela Ramos-Hernandez BEng, PhD, CEng, MIET, MIEEE

Dr Daniela Ramos-Hernandez, CEng, has 25 years' experience in a variety of research and development projects. Originally an IBM trained computing engineer working for major banks she decided to pursue a career in research and development gaining a PhD in 1999 in heterogeneous parallel processing. Following this she worked on industrial research projects in ICT with BICC in process control integration for manufacturing and was Technical Coordinator of the EU funded FLEXICON project managing 5 partners across Europe. In this project control and wireless monitoring systems were developed with Rolls-Royce Marine for future fast ships.

She later joined the Strategic Research Centre of Rolls-Royce Aerospace working within the Information Engineering Team as a Staff Technologist investigating and implementing new Intelligent Techniques based on AI for Engine Health Monitoring. During this time she worked on the DTi funded projects such as BROADEN and HECToR and was the Programme Manager for Engine Health Monitoring of Unmanned Air Vehicles on the ASTRAEA DTI project, as well as the Programme Manager of a Safety and Reliability project. Following this she became a Systems Engineer at Aero Engine Controls Ltd. a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Goodrich Aerospace. Daniela has a wealth of experience in condition monitoring and digital signal processing and is a consultant to the European Union in the areas of ICT and Smart Grid.

THHINK Gender Equality

THHINK are committed to gender equality, both internally within organisational structure, and also in the activities it undertakes. The Company is also dedicated to provide an appropriate work-life balance to all employees.

Gender Equality Plan (PDF)

MASTT2040 Standards Map

As part of the MASTT2040 project THHINK has developed an overview of standards and regulations that are important for different stages of manufacturing considering Manufacturing as a Service. Below is clickable version of the standards map. Just click on the picture to access the clickable map and explore further. If you have comments or suggested additions to the standards map please contact us here.

Introduction

Manufacturing of a product requires many different activities from designing a product to ordering components and raw materials, to scheduling manufacturing processes, organising and monitoring various machining and production activities through to the delivery of parts via logistics companies. This is growing ever more complex through the use of new technologies such as AI for optimising various processes and the drive towards sustainability in terms of raw material usage, energy consumption reduction and in the adoption of new circular models for recycling products. The clickable map above has been developed to provide an overview of the various activities involved in today's manufacturing chains and to highlight key relevant standards being used, as well as upcoming standards and regulation which will influence the future of manufacturing.

NEWS

European Clean Energy Transition Conference 2025 - Brussels

As part of the MASTT2040 project Haydn Thompson attended the inaugural European Clean Energy Transition Conference which aimed to unite industry leaders, policymakers, academics, and innovators to explore strategies for positioning Europe at the forefront of the global clean energy transition. Energy policy is seen as being central to Europe’s challenges, affecting competitiveness, jobs, growth, security, and climate action. The conference addressed all aspects of clean energy, focusing on a variety of renewables which are vital for achieving energy goals and providing flexibility for sectors where electrification alone is not feasible. With a strong reliance on conventional fuels that generate greenhouse gases and the changing geopolitical situation it is important that under the Green Deal energy production and consumption is transformed to strengthen Europe’s global competitiveness.

EDIH Summit 2024 Brussels

As part of the MASTT2040 project Haydn Thompson attended the EDIH Network Summit. This brought together key stakeholders from the European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIH) network, including representatives from various thematic working groups, national authorities, and expert groups. During the event he participated in a workshop on Data in Manufacturing and also met with many colleagues across Europe.

IoT Tech Expo 2024 Amsterdam

As part of the MASTT2040 project Haydn Thompson and Nick Askew attended attended IoT Tech Expo in Amsterdam. IoT Tech Expo is the leading event for IoT, Digital Twins & Enterprise Transformation, IoT Security IoT Connectivity & Connected Devices, Smart Infrastructures & Automation, Data & Analytics and Edge Platforms. Many discussions were held with exhibitors across a range of topics with respect to new AI and Data Governance Regulations as well as the Cyber Resilience Act.

Smart Manufacturing and Engineering Week 2024

As part of the MASTT2040 project Haydn Thompson has been interviewing companies about their experiences of Manufacturing as a Service to identify enablers and barriers to implementation. He attended Smart Manufacturing and Engineering Week 2024 which combines the Smart Factory Expo, Design Engineering Expo, MAINTEC, AIR-TECH, Drives and Controls and Fluid Power and Systems events. The aim of the Smart Factory Expo was to discuss the future of manufacturing and digital manufacturing so was particulalry relevant to the MASTT2040 project. There were a number of co-located live events which attracted over 12,500 manufacturers, engineers, industry leaders and technology solution providers, making it, the largest UK advanced manufacturing event of the year. There were over 450 exhibitors at the event and 19 companies and manufacturing research organisations were interviewed highlighting an awareness of new legislation (the Data Governance Act, AI Act and Cyber Resilience Act) and the identification of some interesting challenges.

MACH2024 2024

Currently, the MASTT2040 project partners are interviewing companies about their experiences of Manufacturing as a Service to identify enablers and barriers to implementation. As part of this Haydn Thompson attended the MACH2024 Event. MACH2020 is the major biannual manufacturing event in the UK. Over 500 companies attend and there are around 16,000 visitors. Around 30 companies were interviewed with a range of Manufacturing as a Service models, including Equipment as a Service, Marketplaces and Additive Manufacturing as well as finance companies, connectivity specialists and manufacturing research organisations. This has led to some interesting challenges being identified.

EFECS 2019

Haydn Thompson attended a number of meetings at the European Forum for Electronic Components and Systems (EFECS) which was held on the 19-21 November 2019 in Helsinki, Finland. EFECS is the international forum with a focus on “Our Digital Future” along the Electronic Components and Systems value chain in Europe. The event was organised by AENEAS, ARTEMIS-IA, EPoSS, ECSEL Joint Undertaking and the European Commission, in association with EUREKA, who have joined forces to bring all stakeholders together. EFECS brings together key stakeholders to learn more about the latest developments, co-operation and funding possibilities in the ECS Community.

Digitising European Industry Stakeholder Forum 2019

Haydn Thompson attended the Digitising European Industry Stakeholder Forum which took place in Madrid from the 13th to the 15th of November 2019. The Stakeholder Forum is a public event organised on a yearly basis by the European Commission and one Member State within the context of the Digitising European Industry initiative (DEI). In coordination with the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism this year's event focused on “Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Hubs - beyond 2020". The event provided an opportunity for different actors involved in the digital value chain to share experiences, exchange best practices and discuss the future of EU digital industrial policy. Among them were representatives from Member States and regions, national initiatives for digitalisation, industry, SMEs, academia, Digital Innovation Hubs and research and technology centres.

ICT Proposers’ Day

Haydn Thompson was invited by the European Commission to speak on AI in Manufacturing at the ICT Proposers’ Day which was held in Helsinki, Finland. The event focused on the upcoming calls of the Horizon 2020 work programme in the field of Information & Communication Technologies, Future and Emerging Technologies (FET), and Societal Challenges. The event offered an exceptional opportunity to build quality partnerships with academics, researchers, industrial stakeholders, SMEs and government actors from all over Europe.

7th DIH Working Group

The seventh meeting of the Working Group on Digital Innovation Hubs held in Brussels on the 1st July 2019. Haydn Thompson was invited to give a “provocative” presentation on the needs of SMEs and how the DIH programme needs to change to meet these. The event was dedicated to discussing elements of the implementation of Digital Europe (DEP) with regard to Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs), seeking feedback from stakeholders on these and exploring the challenges and possible solutions for building a strong pan-European DIH network, in particular by connecting them to regional and national policies.

European Industry Partnerships Collaborative Event

Haydn Thompson was invited to speak at the European Industry Partnerships Collaborative Event which was held on the 17 April 2019 at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel in Amsterdam. The aim of the event was to develop and enlarge the European IoT ecosystem through collaboration and coordination among various European Partnerships. This requires the development of strong links between communities of IoT users and providers, to discuss, align and plan research and innovation agendas for development and deployment of IoT technologies and applications across various industrial sectors as part of the next Framework Programme for research and Innovation.

The event brought together representatives of a large number of key initiatives across Europe as well as the European Commission.

ARTEMIS Technology Conference 2019

Haydn Thompson attended the 2nd ARTEMIS Technology Conference on the 16th April 2019 in Amsterdam. The ARTEMIS Industry Association represents leading European Companies and Haydn Thompson was very honoured to give the Keynote at the 1st ARTEMIS Technology Conference. Above Haydn is seen with Martin Torngren from KTH who gave the Keynote at this year’s event. THHINK is proud to now be a partner in the KTH led TECoSA programme. This year’s event addressed the challenges that will need to be solved in coming years to unlock the full potential of digital transformation in areas such as embedded intelligent systems and smart cars.

ICT 2018 Vienna

ICT 2018 took place in Vienna on 4-6 December 2018. THHINK was represented on 2 stands at the event. This research and innovation event attracted 4800 visitors and focused on the European Union’s priorities in the digital transformation of society and industry. It presented an opportunity for the people involved in this transformation to share their experience and vision of Europe in the digital age. The conference programme featured influential speakers and debates around the EU’s digital policy.

Final Consultation Event – CPS Innovations for the Future

The Platforms4CPS Final Consultation Event was held at THALES TRT, Palaiseau, near Paris on 12th September 2018. This major event presented the work that had been performed in the Platforms4CPS project and also the recommendations that have been put forward for research, innovation, societal and legal issues and business that will shape the development of CPS in the years to come. Invited speakers from the CPS community and from the associated CPS cluster also gave presentations on key topics of relevance such as AI and IoT. Examples of CPS technology integration were also presented.

Stakeholder Forum 2018

The European Commission asked Haydn Thompson to be the Rapporteur for the Stakeholder Forum held on 27th-28th March 2018 in Paris, France. This event supported by the European Commission with the patronage of Emmanuel Macron brought together high-level representatives from National and European initiatives as well as business leaders from around Europe with the aim of understanding best practice and approaches to Digitising European Industry.

The event highlighted the benefits of improved collaboration and engagement with stakeholders across the digital value chain. Participants shared experience and considered how progress towards digitisation could be accelerated. There was a focus on take-up and diffusion of digital innovations to businesses and industry leaders discussed ideas and best practices on how to make companies, notably SMEs, aware of the importance and potential of digital technology. This considered the organisational, technological and financial factors that are needed to support SMEs and large companies in their digital transformation projects, as well as aspects related to the integration of the value chain and its effects on competitiveness.

Haydn Thompson was invited to sum up the event in the closing session and produced a report on the event.

HiPEAC

Haydn Thompson presented on Market Opportunities for CPS in Transportation at a workshop on CPS Success Stories Workshop" organized in Manchester during the HiPEAC 2018 event. The HiPEAC conference is the premier European forum for experts in computer architecture, programming models, compilers and operating systems for embedded and general-purpose systems.

EFECS

Haydn Thompson of THHINK attended the European Forum for Electronic Components and Systems (EFECS) in Brussels in December 2017. This is an international forum with a focus on 'Our Digital Future' along the Electronic Components and Systems value chain in Europe. The organisers of this event, AENEAS, ARTEMIS-IA, EPoSS, ECSEL Joint Undertaking and the European Commission joined forces to bring all stakeholders together. The event featured strategic sessions around the ECS-SRA (Strategic Research Agenda for Electronic Components and Systems) which THHINK contributed to.

There was also a large exhibition of R&I results and new project ideas. THHINK was represented at both the Smart4Europe and Platforms4CPS stands. Also during the event THHINK collected input via a questionnaire on new technologies for the Smart4Europe Technology Radar. The event was particularly useful in bringing together participants from a number of different project clusters allowing many interesting interactions and discussions on new technologies.

Also during the event Haydn Thompson had a meeting with the European Investment Bank as part of work on mapping funding sources across Europe.

Digital Innovation Forum - DIF Event

THHINK attended the DIF Event held at RAI Amsterdam on 10th and 11th May. This international event is the industry-driven Digital innovation conference in Europe, showing R&I results and emerging challenges towards a vision of the future for and built by industry.

The event was co-organised by the ARTEMIS Industry Association and the EUREKA Cluster ITEA. During the event Haydn Thompson and Nick Askew participated in the PLATFORMS4CPS Market Landscape Workshop identifying future market segments for new technologies.

Cyber-physical Systems of Systems - The Next Challenge

The CPSoS project organised the workshop "Cyber-physical Systems of Systems - The Next Challenge" at Hannover Messe on 2016 on April 26th. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the way forward for the engineering and management of large-scale cyber-physical systems of systems and also to present the results of the CPSoS project summarised in the recently published document "Proposal of a European Research and Innovation Agenda on Cyber-physical Systems of Systems - 2016-2025".

Discussions were stimulated by presentations from leading representatives of the European industry that develop and deploy components of cyber-physical systems of systems, who presented their views on the state of the art and future of the cyber-physical systems of systems. Haydn Thompson gave a presentation on "Cyber-physical Systems of Systems Challenges in Manufacturing". The workshop attracted around 40 participants from around the world (Europe, Japan, New Zealand and the USA).

Hannover Messe

THHINK were delighted to attend the Hannover Messe which was opened by President Obama. The event showcased leading companies and technologies from around the world. Many new and exciting technologies were on show in the Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), IoT and manufacturing domains, e.g. Industrie 4.0. There were many fruitful discussions with companies operating in a range of sectors. A theme of the show was joint EU-US cooperation and this is an area that THHINK supported via the PICASSO project.

Haydn Thompson also attended the conference "Digitising European Industry: Reaping the full benefits of the Digital Single Market" which was organised by the European Commission. This was the first time the package of initiatives to Digitise European Industry adopted on 19th April by the European Commission was presented. This was jointly presented by three Commissioners: Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner Digital Economy & Society, Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and Carlos Moedas, Commissioner Research, Science and Innovation.

The objective of the conference was to present the package and discuss with ministers and industrial leaders the challenges of digital transformation of industry in Europe and the added value that the envisaged action can bring in this process. The focus was on partnerships, innovation hubs and standardisation to boost Europe's digital innovation capacities. Penny Pritzker, US Secretary of Commerce: Digital transformation of industry presented the US perspective on transatlantic collaboration issues in the context of the digital transformation. Several panels of industrial leaders discussed the challenges of digital transformation of industry in Europe and how this EU initiative can help speed up this process.

Workshop on Smart Cities at The Beacon Council

Haydn Thompson spoke at a Workshop held at The Beacon Council on Smart Cities attended by 30 participants: European Consuls General, Minister Counselors, Miami, Miami-Dade Government representatives, representatives from the City Hall, the Minister for Foreign Trade of the Netherlands and the Consul General of the Netherlands. The aim of the event was to engage with officials and explain the importance and potential impact of new smart technologies.

e-MERGE Americas

Haydn Thompson was an invited guest at the e-MERGE Americas Expo and eGOV events held in Miami. The event combines summit panels, keynotes, startup competitions, and an exhibition of the latest smart technologies. Keynotes included Colin Powell, Ray Kurzweil and Pitbull.

The event brings together start-ups and investors. The eGOV event also brings together government officials, urban planners, and others from North America, Latin America and Europe with a shared goal to transform their urban communities into smart cities through the power of innovative technology. The Government Innovation Summit provides an ideal platform for public-private partnerships.

"Accelerating Smart Cities": environment, safety, transport, utilities & buildings at Gray Robinson Attorneys at Law

Haydn Thompson spoke on the topic of Intelligent Traffic Management and Autonomous Cars at the Jean Monnet Project organised event for the Miami-Dade Community on Accelerating Smart Cities. The workshop discussed a number of topics including the environment, safety, transportation, utilities, and buildings. The latest environmental techniques that can produce sustainable and cost-effective urban policies were discussed, as well as the application of the latest technology in order to provide the safest and most efficient for the security of city residents. Furthermore, the mobility of people, taking into consideration low-carbon technologies and the development of freight transport and logistics was discussed.

The attendees included CEOs from high tech companies, European Consuls General and Deputy Consuls General (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Monaco, Tobago & Trinidad...), Miami Dade County Economic Development and International Trade, Executive Directors of European Chambers of Commerce (France, Germany, Italy) Miami City Hall Representatives, and the Science & Innovation counsellor, Head of Office Embassy of Sweden.

Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Clustering and Communication Event

The Clustering and Communication Event was organised by the Road2CPS and ARTEMIS Industry Association. The event brought together 120 experts from the fields of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) and presented 19 projects that had been funded under the first call of Horizon2020, ARTEMIS and ECSEL. Each project presented their aims and key outcomes. This raised awareness of activities going on within the various projects and also provided an overview of the coverage of the research activities across the domain.

The timing of the meeting was also very pertinent with the launch of the new ARTEMIS-IA Strategic Research Agenda and also the Digitising European Industry initiative with many synergies being apparent. Haydn Thompson of THHINK was the Rapporteur for the event and chaired a Synergy Session. The meeting highlighted a number of areas where there were opportunities for collaboration and also promoted fruitful discussions between projects both in the meeting and post meeting.

CPS Week Vienna - CPSoS: Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems

Haydn Thompson of THHINK presented at the CPSoS dissemination event held at CPS Week in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. The Support Action 'CPSoS - Towards a European Roadmap on Research and Innovation in Engineering and Management of Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems' has been funded by the EU to establish the state-of-the-art and future research challenges in the area of Cyber Physical Systems of Systems. Cyber-physical systems of systems (CPSoS) are large complex physical systems that interact with and are controlled by a considerable number of distributed and networked computing elements and human users. Examples are rail systems, electric grids, smart buildings, and large production facilities.

These systems are of crucial importance for the well-being of the citizens, mobility and the prosperity of Europe. Via means of three industry/academia Working Groups and consultations and interviews with over 100 practitioner experts in the field from large companies, mid-caps, SMEs and academics, the project produced a comprehensive view of the state-of-the-art in transport and logistics, electric grids, smart buildings, industrial production systems and in supporting tools and techniques.

Haydn Thompson Chaired the Working Group on Transport and Logistics covering the automotive, aerospace, rail, maritime and logistics sectors. The program for the event consisted of presentations from both industry and academia that underpinned the importance of the key research topics identified in CPSoS.

Distributed, reliable and efficient management of cyber physical systems of systems

Engineering support for the design-operation continuum of CPSoS

Cognitive cyber physical systems of systems

At the Forefront of Technologies

THHINK is proud of its cutting edge heritage and continues to innovate and research into the latest technologies. It is only through this continuous effort that new world-beating products and solutions can be developed. THHINK thus invests considerable time and resources into assessing and demonstrating new technologies. THHINK strives to be at the forefront of AI, IIoT and Edge computing performing in-house research and also championing joint activities via universities, company collaborations, national and European funded activities.

AI

The term Artificial Intelligence or AI was originally coined as a term in 1956. The original focus on AI was in Expert Systems, however, we are now on the 3rd wave of AI and this is having a great impact in many areas. AI has thus become an important topic and there is an international race with different regions investing heavily: North America is investing $15bn-23bn, Europe is investing $3bn-4bn and Asia is investing $8bn-12bn.

[Source PwC, “Sizing the prize, what’s the real value of AI for your business and how can you capitalise?, 2017”]

A PwC paper has identified the potential value from exploitation of AI as being $15.8 trillion. This is supported by studies by McKinsey, Microsoft and Accenture. A study from Gartner also identifies that AI implementations grew 37% during 2018 and 270% in the last 5 years. Exploitation of robotics is expected to bring half the impact of AI through use of cognitive mechatronics, social human robot interaction, model-based design and configuration. Adoption of AI will radically change organisations introducing new business models and working methods.

THHINK engineers have been working on AI for over 20 years and there is a wealth of experience gained from many applications addressing core challenges such as availability of data, trustworthy AI and interaction with humans considering safety and privacy. There are new emerging applications in predictive maintenance, cost reduction, automated testing, image processing, improved quality of products, personalisation of products, emotion detection and supply chain management. The company continues to innovate in the area performing in-house development of AI technologies and also by supporting research in Universities such as Cranfield University looking at the application of AI for UAVs and in image processing for Shark Detection and Plastic Pollution monitoring.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

THHINK is active in driving the future of the Industrial Internet of Things. IIoT is a term that describes interconnected sensors, instruments, and other devices that are networked together with computers in industrial applications. This allows data collection, exchange, and analysis, potentially facilitating improvements in productivity and efficiency as well as other economic benefits. IIoT is a development of decentralised control systems that allows for a higher degree of automation by using cloud computing to refine and optimize process control, typically in manufacturing and energy management. It is closely related to the field of Cyber Physical Systems which are more closely connected to physical machines.

IIoT is enabled by technologies such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, edge computing, mobile technologies, machine-to-machine, 3D printing, advanced robotics, big data, Internet of Things, RFID technology, cognitive computing and Artificial Intelligence.

Edge Computing

THHINK is very much at the forefront of Edge computing. Edge computing is a distributed computing model in which computing takes place near the physical location where data is being collected and analysed, rather than on a centralised server or in the cloud. Although THHINK can provide connectivity to the THHINK Cloud there are also sometimes advantages to processing data locally and here the company has produced a range of solutions. Sensors collect data and local processing + storage can be used to provide rapid response times which are particularly needed for autonomous systems, to reduce the amount of data transmitted (e.g. to provide alerts if vibration limits are exceeded rather than raw vibration data) or to provide privacy and security by keeping sensitive data on-site at the “edge”.

It is estimated by IDC that by 2025, 175 zettabytes (or 175 trillion gigabytes) of data will be generated around the globe. Edge devices will create more than 90 zettabytes of that data. [IDC Data Age 2025 report The Digitization of the World: From Edge to Core]

Edge computing is thus becoming more important as it creates new and improved ways for industrial and enterprise-level businesses to maximise operational efficiency, improve performance and safety, automate core business processes, and ensure “always on” availability. Key features of edge-based systems are that they provide low response times, relieve network capacity and enhance privacy. Due to these technical advantages, edge computing systems have a tremendous application potential with a projected global market in the order of tens of billions of dollars by 2022.

TECoSA - Center for Trustworthy Edge Computing Systems and Applications

THHINK are very pleased to be a core founder partner of TECoSA www.tecosa.center.kth.se which is a new joint Industry and Swedish Government funded Vinnova research centre which started on March 26, 2020. The centre brings together KTH and 13 industrial partners including THHINK. The aim is to provide methods, tools and theory for building safe, secure and predictable systems relying on edge computing.

The centre will address connected smart devices and sensors, edge-based systems with fast response times avoiding the latency and bandwidth issues related to centralized cloud-based solutions, and contribute to enhanced privacy with the aim of making edge-based cyber-physical systems (CPS) safe, secure and predictable.

There are three different application types enabled by edge computing:

(1) Interactive human-in-the-loop applications;
(2) Data driven real-time analytics; and
(3) Automated and collaborative Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

Tech Brief: Cyber Resilience Act

THHINK MASTT2040

Download the Tech Brief Here

Cyber Resilience Act (PDF)

The European Cyber Resilience Act is a legal framework that describes the cybersecurity requirements for hardware and software products with digital elements that are put on the market in the European Union. The Act has been introduced due to an increase in successful cyberattacks on hardware and software products. In 2021 it was estimated that the global annual cost of cybercrime was around €5.5 trillion. With the uptake of the act manufacturers are obliged to take security seriously throughout a product’s life cycle.

Society and the economy are ever more reliant on digital solutions and so there is a need to protect against hacking of connected products and associated services. Experience shows that a cybersecurity incident in one product can affect an entire organisation or a whole supply chain. This can lead to severe disruption of economic and social activities and can even threaten the life of citizens. A problem is that vendors (hardware manufacturers, software developers, distributors and importers) often do not seriously consider cybersecurity, wanting to be first to market with a low-cost product. Adding cybersecurity requires qualified security engineers which has an impact on both product cost and in some cases performance, e.g. battery life. The response by companies to new vulnerabilities through a products’ lifecycle is also often inadequate making it difficult for consumers to assess the security of the products and services they are using.

Current digital products are covered by several pieces of legislation, including EU legislation on specific products covering safety-related aspects and general legislation on product liability. However, this current legislation only covers some aspects related to cybersecurity of tangible digital products and associated embedded software. The General Product Safety Directive and the Machinery Directive do not prescribe specific cybersecurity requirements. In particular, the whole life cycle of a product or ancillary services and the need for regular software updates is not covered. The current legislation does not cover hardware that does not fall under the Radio Equipment Directive or the Medical Devices Regulation. As a result, the majority of hardware and software products are currently not covered by any cybersecurity legislation. In particular, the cybersecurity of non-embedded software is not covered by current legislation, which is a concern as it has become a main vector for cybersecurity attacks, causing significant societal and economic costs. Digital hardware and software products are a main avenue for successful cyberattacks and in a connected environment, a cybersecurity attack in one product can affect an entire organisation or a whole supply chain, often propagating across the borders of the internal market within a matter of minutes.

Examples of this are:

The Pegasus spyware, which exploited vulnerabilities in mobile phones
The WannaCry ransomware, which exploited a Windows vulnerability that affected computers across 150 countries
The Kaseya VSA supply chain attack, which used network administration software to attack over 1000 companies

It was clear that although existing European legislation addressed certain aspects linked to cybersecurity from different angles, including measures to improve the security of the digital supply chain there was a need to set out mandatory requirements for the security of products with digital elements. At the European level, various programmatic and political documents, such as the EU’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade, the Council Conclusions of 2 December 2020 and of 23 May 2022 or the Resolution of the European Parliament of 10 June 2021, called for specific Union cybersecurity requirements for digital or connected products. This led to the creation of the Cyber Resilience Act.

The Cyber Resilience Act supersedes various acts and initiatives taken at Union and national levels which partially address identified cybersecurity related problems and risks. The aim is to provide increased legal certainty for both manufacturers and product users and avoid the unnecessary burden on companies to comply with a number of requirements in different countries for similar products. Products manufactured in one country are often used by organisations and consumers across the entire internal market. There are two major problems for users and the society:

A low level of cybersecurity, reflected by widespread vulnerabilities and the insufficient and inconsistent provision of security updates to address them, and
An insufficient understanding and access to information by users, preventing them from choosing products with adequate cybersecurity properties or using them in a secure manner.

This is further complicated by the fact that products with digital elements integrated in or connected to a larger electronic information system can serve as an attack site for malicious actors. As a result, even less critical hardware and software can be used to compromise a device or network, enabling malicious actors to gain privileged access to a system. The Cyber Resilience Act sets out two main objectives aimed to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market:

Create conditions for the development of secure products with digital elements by ensuring that hardware and software products are placed on the market with fewer vulnerabilities and ensure that manufacturers take security seriously throughout a product’s life cycle; and
Create conditions allowing users to take cybersecurity into account when selecting and using products with digital elements.

Four specific objectives are set out:

Ensure that manufacturers improve the security of products with digital elements since the design and development phase and throughout the whole life cycle
Ensure a coherent cybersecurity framework, facilitating compliance for hardware and software producers
Enhance the transparency of security properties of products with digital elements, and
Enable businesses and consumers to use products with digital elements securely.

Status

Political agreement between the European Parliament and Council on the Cyber Resilience Act was reached on 1st December 2023 and on 12 March 2024 the European Parliament approved the Cyber Resilience Act with 517 votes in favour, 12 against and 78 abstentions. See "European Parliament legislative resolution of 12 March 2024 on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on horizontal cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 (COM(2022)0454 – C9-0308/2022 – 2022/0272(COD))". (Download Here) In the next step it must be formally adopted by the Council.

Upon entry into force, manufacturers, importers and distributors of hardware and software products will have 36 months to adapt to the new requirements. A more limited 21-month grace period will be put in place for reporting obligations of incidents and vulnerabilities. The Council’s common position is that there is a need for:

Rules to rebalance responsibility for compliance towards manufacturers, who must ensure conformity with security requirements of products with digital elements that are made available on the EU market, including obligations like cybersecurity risk assessment, declaration of conformity, and cooperation with competent authorities.
Essential requirements for the vulnerability handling processes for manufacturers to ensure the cybersecurity of digital products, and obligations for economic operators, such as importers or distributors, in relation to these processes.
Measures to improve transparency on security of hardware and software products for consumers and business users, and a market surveillance framework to enforce these rules.

Examples of products with digital elements that come under the CRA

End Devices - Laptops, smartphones, sensors and cameras, smart robots, smart cards, smart meters, mobile devices, smart speakers, routers, switches, industrial control systems.
Software - Firmware, operating systems, mobile apps, desktop applications, video games.
Components (hardware and software) - Computer processing units, video cards, software libraries.

Thus, both products that can be connected physically via hardware interfaces and products that are connected logically, such as via network sockets, pipes, files, application programming interfaces or any other types of software interface are covered by the act. As cybersecurity threats can propagate through various products with digital elements before reaching a certain target, for example by chaining together multiple vulnerability exploits, manufacturers should also ensure the cybersecurity of those products that are only indirectly connected to other devices or networks.

The CRA will thus have an impact on the entire software industry and addresses a broad range of products. There will be a big learning curve as companies transition to become compliant with the new legislation. A key aspect will be in proving conformity which requires assessment. In the majority of cases this can be done via self-assessment, however, Class I products will require adoption of a standard (which is currently being developed by CEN/CENELEC and ETSI) or via third party assessment and Class II products will require third party assessment.

Tech Brief: AI Act

THHINK MASTT2040

Download the Tech Brief Here

AI Act (PDF)

The new EU AI Act introduces a risk-based classification scheme for AI applications considering the level of risk posed by the AI application to individuals or society as a whole. The classification ranges from minimal risk to applications which are banned entirely. The term AI covers a wide variety of data analysis techniques which are already being exploited by companies and includes things like deep learning and machine learning.

The OECD definition of an Artificial Intelligence system’ (AI system) is “a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, generate outputs such as predictions, recommendations, or decisions that influence physical or virtual environments”.

The Act applies to organisations within Europe but also to organisations outside of Europe. There are, however, a number of exemptions with respect to the use of AI for national security, military and defence. There are also exemptions in the use of AI for research.

Different types of AI are defined according to risk:

Prohibited AI - In some cases the risk of harm from using AI, such as in social scoring systems or manipulative systems is considered unacceptable and thus its use is banned.
High-Risk AI - A number of high-risk applications are identified which could adversely affect citizens’ lives, e.g. evaluating creditworthiness, educational opportunities, and critical infrastructure applications. In these cases strict assessment regimes will need to be followed.
Limited Risk AI - Applications with a limited risk, e.g. image processing, recommender systems and chatbots, will need to follow best practices with respect to data quality and fairness.
Minimal Risk AI - “minimal risk applications” are also defined to cover things like applications of AI such as spam filtering and video games. In these cases there is no need for regulation.

The most requirements are placed on providers and users of High-Risk AI. The Act also provides requirements for transparency and disclosure for generative AI.

Prohibited AI

The use of AI is prohibited in a number of areas:

Social credit scoring systems
Emotion recognition systems at work and in education
AI used to exploit peoples’ vulnerabilities, e.g. age, disability
Behavioural manipulation and circumvention of free will
Untargeted scraping of facial images for facial recognition
Biometric categorisation systems using sensitive characteristics
Specific predictive policing applications
Law enforcement use of real-time biometric identification in public apart from limited, pre-authorised situations

High Risk AI

Medical devices
Vehicles
Recruitment, HR and worker management
Education and vocational training
Influencing elections and voters
Access to services (e.g. insurance, banking, credit, benefits, etc.)
Critical infrastructure management (e.g. water, gas, electricity, etc.)
Emotion recognition systems
Biometric identification
Law enforcement, border control, mitigation and asylum
Administration of justice
Specific products and/or safety components of specific products.

Compliance Requirements for High-Risk AI

Key to the act will be that companies must demonstrate that the design, implementation and post-market entry phases are compliant with a range of activities. These include:

Risk Management System
Data and Data Governance
Technical Documentation
Record Keeping
Transparency and provision of information to user
Human Oversight
Accuracy, Robustness and Cybersecurity
Quality Management System
Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment

High Risk AI Systems will have to undergo a Conformity Assessment (Article 19) producing the appropriate documentation to demonstrate adherence to the AI Act before going to market in the EU.

Fundamental rights impact assessment and conformity assessment
Registration in public EU database for high-risk AI systems
Implementation risk management and quality management system
Data governance (e.g. bias mitigation, representative training data etc.)
Transparency (e.g. instructions for Use, technical documentation, etc.
Human oversight (e.g. explainability, auditable logs, human-in-the-loop, etc.)
Accuracy, robustness and cyber security (e.g. testing and monitoring)

Companies will need to comply with the Act but will be given a compliance grace period of between 6-24 months. General Purpose AI The Act also provide specific requirements for General Purpose AI (GPAI) and Foundational Models:

Transparency for all GPAI (e.g. technical documentation, training data summaries, copyright and IP safeguards, etc.)
Additional requirements of high-impact models with systemic risk: model evaluations, risk assessments, adversarial testing, incident reporting, etc.
Generative AI individuals must be informed when interacting with AI (e.g. chatbots), AI content must be labelled and detectable (e.g. deepfakes).

Limited risk systems will also need to follow these requirements, but with less compliance scrutiny than High-Risk AI applications considering conformity assessments and product safety reviews.

Penalties and Enforcement

The fines for violations of the AI Act have been set as a percentage of the offending company’s global annual turnover in the previous financial year or a predetermined amount, whichever is higher. It should be noted, however, that the provisional agreement provides for more proportionate caps on administrative fines for SMEs and start-ups in case of infringements.

Up to 7% of global annual turnover or €35m for prohibited AI violations
Up to 3% of global annual turnover or €15m for most other violations
Up to 1.5% of global annual turnover or €7.5m for supplying incorrect information
Caps on fines for SMEs and startups

Compliance will be enforced by a European “AI Office” and “AI Board” established centrally at the EU level. Market surveillance authorities will be set up in EU countries to enforce the AI Act. Any individual will be able to make complaints about non-compliance.

Tech Brief: Data Governance Act

THHINK BV MASTT2040

Download the Tech Brief Here

Data Governance Act (PDF)

The Data Governance Act (Data Governance Act) aims to provide a framework to enhance trust in voluntary data sharing for the benefit of businesses and citizens. This will make it easier to share data in a trusted and secure way. The goal is to enable data sharing to create new products and services, make production more efficient, and provide tools to address societal challenges such as healthcare.

Already the Open Data Directive (Open Data Directive) regulates the re-use of publicly/available information held by the public sector. However, the public sector also holds vast amounts of protected data (e.g. personal data and commercially confidential data) that cannot be re-used as open data but could be re-used under specific EU or national legislation. A wealth of knowledge can be extracted from this data and the aim of the Data Governance Act is thus to provide rules and safeguards to facilitate such re-use whenever it is possible under other legislation.

There are, however, a number of obstacles to data sharing, a key one being a lack of trust. The act regulates the re-use of publicly/held, protected data, by boosting data sharing through the regulation of novel data intermediaries and by encouraging the sharing of data for altruistic purposes. The act covers both personal and non-personal data. Within this personal data is covered under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Data Governance Act provides similar safeguards for access requests from third countries in the context of non-personal data. These safeguards apply to public sector data, data intermediation services and data altruism constellations. A re-user from a third country will need to ensure the same level of protection as the EU level of protection as well as accept the respective EU jurisdiction. Model contract clauses will be available for public sector bodies and re-users for scenarios where public sector data is transferred to third countries. The Commission may also adopt additional adequacy decisions for the transfer of public protected data for re-use if an access request for non-personal data comes from a third country.

Under the act Member States will need to be technically equipped to ensure that the privacy and confidentiality of data is fully respected in re-use situations. This can be provided by a range of tools, such as anonymisation, pseudonymisation or accessing data in secure processing environments (e.g. data rooms) supervised by the public sector, and contractual means such as confidentiality agreements between the public sector body and the re-user.

The DGA limits the use of exclusive data re-use agreements to single companies to maximise the reuse of data for public interest. It also limits the charging of fees to data to “reasonable fees” which are aimed to cover the costs incurred in sharing. Public sector bodies will be encouraged to incentivise the re-use of data (with reduced fees or free access) for scientific research and other non-commercial purposes as well as to provide the data to SMEs and start-ups. To make the process quicker a public sector body will need to make a decision on sharing the data within 2 months. If a public sector body is unable to grant access to certain data for re-use, it should assist the potential re-user in seeking the individual’s or data holder’s consent to re-use their data. Confidential information (e.g. trade secrets) can be disclosed for re-use only with permission.

Competent bodies will be chosen by Member States to support public sector bodies to grant access to data by providing a secure processing environment and by advising on how to best structure and store data for easy access. Potential re-users also need to know what data is available and so Member States will also set up a single information point. The Commission has created a European Register for Protected Data (ERPD) to provide a searchable register of the information compiled by national single information:(European Register for Protected Data (ERPD))

Data Intermediation Services

The fear of many companies is that they will lose competitive advantage by sharing data, and even worse there is a risk of misuse if the data. The DGA defines a set of rules for providers of data intermediation services (data intermediaries and data marketplaces) to ensure that they will function as trustworthy organisers of data sharing or pooling within the common European data spaces. A model based on the neutrality and transparency of data intermediaries is used to engender trust. Key to the act is that individuals and companies maintain control of their data. In practice, data intermediaries will act as neutral third parties that connect individuals and companies with data users.

Intermediaries can charge for facilitating data sharing between the parties, however, they will not be allowed to directly use the data for financial profit either by developing their own product or by selling the data to another company. They will need to comply with strict requirements to ensure neutrality and avoid conflicts of interest via strict separation legally of the data intermediation service and other services they provide.

Data intermediaries will be required to notify the competent authority of their intention to provide such services. The competent authority will ensure that the notification procedure is non-discriminatory and does not distort competition and will confirm that the data intermediation services provider has submitted the notification containing all required information. This will result in the label ‘data intermediation services provider recognised in the Union’ being given to the company and its registration in a central register of recognised data intermediaries.

An example of this is Deutsche Telekom which provides a Data Intelligence Hub marketplace which allows companies to securely manage, provide and monetize things like production data, in order to optimise processes or value chains. Telekom takes the role of a neutral trustee and guarantees data sovereignty through decentralised data management. Currently more than 1,000 users from over 100 different companies are active on the platform.

Data Altruism

Individuals and companies are being encouraged to adopt data altruism by making their data voluntarily available with consent or permission to be used in the public interest. The aim is to use this free data to advance research and develop better products and services, in a variety of areas such as health, environment and mobility. Data altruism requires trusted data sharing tools and the Data Governance Act aims to enable these based on EU values and principles. The intention is to create pools of data which can be used for data analytics and machine learning. A common logo will be used to badge companies that are recognised as data altruism organisations and these will be listed in an EU-level public register. These will need to be not-for-profit and meet transparency and safety requirements to protect the rights and interests of citizens and companies who share their data. In addition, they must comply with a rulebook which is being developed by the Commission in cooperation with data altruism organisations and other stakeholders. These rules will lay down information requirements, technical and security requirements, communication roadmaps and recommendations on interoperability standards. A common consent form will be used to allow collection of data in a uniform format covering different sectors.

European Data Innovation Board

To promote the aims of the DGA, the Commission has also established the European Data Innovation Group (European Data Innovation Group) to facilitate the sharing of best practices with respect to data intermediation, data altruism and the use of public data, as well as on the prioritisation of cross-sectoral interoperability standards. The EDIB includes representatives from the following entities:

Member State competent authorities for data intermediation
Member State competent authorities for data altruism
the European Data Protection Board
the European Data Protection Supervisor
the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA)
the European Commission
the EU SME Envoy/representative appointed by the network of SME envoys
other representatives of relevant bodies selected by the Commission through a call for experts

The EDIB will have the power to propose guidelines for common European data spaces, for example on the adequate protection for data transfers outside of the Union.

THHINK MASTT2040

Download the Tech Brief Here

GDPR (PDF)

From 25th May 2018 all companies that collect data on citizens across the 28 EU member states had to comply with strict new rules protecting customer data with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation. The regulation dictates that by law it is not be allowed to collect data on:

Basic identity information such as name, address and ID numbers
Web data such as location, IP address, cookie data and RFID tags
Health and genetic data
Biometric data
Racial or ethnic data
Political opinions
Sexual orientation

This is good for consumers as there are clear rules with respect to their data and it is also good for companies as they only need to comply with a single standard within Europe. However, the requirements to meet and administer the standard require most companies to invest heavily. Large US companies that deal with data had to invest significant amounts to meet the new standard. According to the PwC survey, 68 percent of US-based companies expected to spend between $1 million to $10 million to meet GDPR requirements. Another 9 percent expected to spend more than $10 million leading to some complaints that it put them at a competitive disadvantage with European Companies. As European companies need to abide by the same rules it is not entirely clear where this disadvantage comes from except that the GDPR regulates the exportation of personal data outside of the EU and many US companies have data centres and support staff in the US.

The GDPR requirements forces companies to change the way they process, store, and protect customers' personal data. For example, companies are allowed to store and process personal data only when the individual consents and for "no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed." Personal data must also be portable from one company to another, and companies must erase personal data upon request enshrining the concept of the "right to be forgotten".

Any company that stores or processes personal information about EU citizens within EU states must comply with the GDPR if they have:

A presence in an EU country, even if they do not have a business presence within the EU
No presence in the EU, but it processes personal data of European residents
More than 250 employees
Fewer than 250 employees but its data-processing impacts the rights and freedoms of data subjects, is not occasional, or includes certain types of sensitive personal data

GDPR takes a wide view of what constitutes personal identification information so the same level of protection for an individual's IP address or cookie data is required as for sensitive data such as name, address and Social Security number. There is also a problem of interpretation. Companies must provide a "reasonable" level of protection for personal data, although what constitutes "reasonable" is not defined.

The GDPR defines three key company roles that are responsible for ensuring compliance: data controller, data processor and the data protection officer (DPO). The data controller defines how personal data is processed and the purposes for which it is processed. The controller is also responsible for making sure that outside contractors comply. Data processors may be the internal staff that maintain and process personal data records or any outsourcing firm that performs all or part of these activities. Notably it is the data processors who are liable for breaches or non-compliance. A DPO needs to be designated to oversee data security strategy and GDPR compliance. Companies are required to have a DPO if they process or store large amounts of EU citizen data, process or store special personal data, regularly monitor data subjects, or are a public authority.

If a company is non-compliant the GDPR allows for penalties of up to €20 million or 4 percent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. The difference between a major breach that could cause damage and a minor breach needs to be assessed. Here GDPR places a requirement on companies to perform impact assessments to mitigate the risk of breaches by identifying vulnerabilities and how to address them.

Consumers benefit from getting a lot more information about data breaches. A key requirement brought in by GDPR is that companies must report data breaches to supervisory authorities and individuals affected by a breach within 72 hours of when the breach is detected. Customers know a lot more about how safe their data is and also which companies they can trust with their data.

Smart Agriculture - Why it is important for the future

THHINK

By 2050 it will be necessary to feed a world population of 9 billion people. If current production levels are maintained, this level will result in a food shortage of 70%. Addressing this, similar to the manufacturing sector, the farming sector is currently undergoing a 4th Industrial Revolution. The first revolution in the industry was Mechanisation with the introduction of tractors, the second was the Green Revolution (which introduced the use of fertilisers), the third was Precision Agriculture (which exploited GPS systems to provide centimeter-accurate ploughing, sowing, harvesting, etc) and the current 4th Revolution is Digital Farming.

In this current revolution, whole Farm Management Systems are being introduced which exploit real-time data and wireless connectivity to provide added value services, automation capabilities and improved processes that make the food value chain more efficient. Examples of this are more efficient and easier to maintain machinery, and better information to optimise seed use and sowing based on data from the farm.

Smart agriculture is heavily exploiting advanced technologies such as Big Data, GPS, IoT and connected sensor devices to collect data from the field and analyse it so that the farmer can make accurate decisions in order to grow high quality crops. The field data is collected with the help of sensors, cameras, micro controllers, and actuators. Sensors and cameras can be used to provide information to the operator for water level, fertilizers as well as light required for growing the best quality food. The collected data is transferred via the Internet to the operator or the farmer for decision making.

According to expert predictions, the Smart Agriculture market is expected to grow from USD 5.18 Billion in 2016 to USD 11.23 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 13.27% between 2017 and 2022 (Markets and Markets). The main share of this market is expected to come for hardware for sensors, network management, agriculture asset management, supervisory control and data acquisition, logistic and supply chain management.

The whole concept of precision agriculture is based on accurate crop and soil observation, some of which are being achieved via automated NDVI image capture/processing for identifying crop and soil conditions using UAVs or drone technology. Farmers use these insights to maintain their crops and make better informed decisions that ultimately yield higher quality and greater quantity of crops. Smart water management can also be used to reduce human labour, minimize weather risks, and increase off-season production by saving water, reducing the use of chemicals and saving energy.

Another key sector being revolutionised by smart technologies is indoor farming and horticulture. Increasing automation of commercial greenhouses and growing implementation of the Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) concept in greenhouses, is allowing a higher yield from maintenance of optimum growing conditions. Cultivators have shifted from conventional lighting systems to LED grow lights. Although LED grow lights are high in cost, they are an ideal option for indoor farming owing to their long-term benefits in terms of energy efficiency.

In the smart agricultural sector, livestock monitoring is the fastest growing segment allowing monitoring of livestock performance, health and welfare using RFID, biometrics, and GPS to automatically obtain information on animals in real-time.

Farm machinery is also becoming more automated and agricultural robots are being used to automate farming processes such as soil maintenance, weeding, fruit picking, harvesting, planting, ploughing, and irrigation. Here M2M communications, an integral part of IoT, allows coordination of multiple devices, appliances, and machines connected to the internet through multiple networks.

Key Projects

IoF2020 [ www.iof2020.eu ] is supported by the European Commission with a budget of 30M Euros. The aim of IoF2020 is to build a lasting ecosystem that fosters the large-scale uptake of IoT technologies across a diverse sector considering farm-to-fork. 75 key stakeholders along the food value chain are involved in IoF2020 together with technology service providers, software companies and academic research institutions. Nineteen use-cases organised around five sectors (arable, dairy, fruits, meat and vegetables) will develop, test and demonstrate IoT technologies in operational farm environments all over Europe.

Innovation Pipeline for Europe - THHINK White Paper

THHINK

There is a need to provide support for innovation in both large industry and also SMEs which are the powerhouse of Europe. Innovation is led by industry pulling upon research that is performed both internally and also within academia. Currently, there is a "valley of death" problem between academic research at TRL 1-3 and industry which tends to develop from TRL 6 onwards. Even within industry, there is considerable "technology sensing and evaluation" going on but less activity in commercialising new ideas. An open innovation approach could well allow new ideas to be taken up and be exploited more fruitfully. In this new White Paper by THHINK, we explain the need for strategic funding and actions to traverse the valley of death by creating an 'Innovation Pipeline' and its supporting ecosystem that will take new research outcomes and turn them into new products and processes.

Important points we raise and discuss in this paper are:

Innovation Challenges

The Ecosystem for Research & Innovation

Connecting the Pipeline: Creating Ecosystems

Innovation Strategies for Europe

Recommendations for Connecting the Pipeline Across Europe

To find out more, you can download and read our full paper here:

THHINK White Paper: Creating an Innovation Pipeline for Europe

Manufacturing as a Service

MASTT2040 [ www.mastt2040.eu ] is a Coordination and Support Action, financed by the European Commission under HORIZON-CL4-2023-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-08 (GA MASTT2040 - 101138342 - GAP-101138342).

Advancement in Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) has been driven by a number of key enabling technologies and related developments such as connectivity (next generation IIoT and connectivity platforms), digitization (next generation automated and autonomous office processes and enterprise data), access to vast amounts of data (industrial data spaces), AI and Industry 4.0 (smart, hyperconnected & autonomous production systems and value networks). This is expected to result in novel service models transforming manufacturing.

Example of this are:

“Equipment-as-service” and “production-as-a-service” allowing companies to manufacture their products without investing in massive infrastructure),
“Online digitally enabled services” of companies or “manufacturing marketplaces” providing easy access to a wide range of manufacturing technologies and skilled labour for on-demand, superfast production of bespoke production,
“(Open) multi-sided IIoT platforms” enabling the provision of “digitally enabled services” to/by equipment providers, service/app providers and manufacturing companies.

These MaaS-providers and distributed approaches are having a great impact on supply chains and the manufacturing landscape.

At the same time driven by the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) standards, regulations and key actions aim to support the transition to a more sustainable production and circular economy (CE). As one of the results, Digital Product Passports will be mandatory across many industries in the EU in coming years and will have a major impact in the future on value chains and sustainability. Digital Product Passports will provide information about a product's origin, materials, production processes, and end-of-life options. DPPs will play a key role in supporting the transition to a circular economy by promoting transparency, traceability, and sustainability in product production5. DPPs also enable sharing the information required to provide for R-circle services in a CE-ecosystem (supported by Data Spaces).

The two worlds do not yet meet today, the companies active in the CE are different from those in MaaS as MaaS at the moment is focussing on speed, efficiency and scale whereas CE is focussing on sustainability and decarbonisation. The key questions are:

What does the future hold?
How can MaaS embrace the CE to advance a more sustainable and net-zero production or support the scale-up of CE solutions by distributed local production and provision of R-cycle services?
Which (novel) digital technologies, data driven approaches, standards or supporting measures are needed to enable and accelerate “green” MaaS?

The real challenge for traditional manufacturing companies and their technology providers is on how to react to this disruptive trend. The MASTT2040 project’s goals are thus twofold:

Firstly, to use strategic foresight methods in an inclusive and participatory manner to build a shared understanding of which changes, opportunities or disruptions are present and emerging both inside and outside of the MaaS domain to guide decision making, strategies and actions for the EU manufacturing sector in the context of twin transition up to 2040.
Secondly, to actively engage key stakeholders within the MaaS and CE communities, manufacturing industry as well as standards developing organisations to jointly elaborate a strategic roadmap and action plan addressing short-term (5 years), medium-term (10 years) and long-term (15 years) timescales to identify and track desired developments in order to advance digitalisation, circularity, decarbonisation and sustainability of industrial production.

The specific objectives of MASTT2040 are to:

Analyse the best practices to advance circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainability of industrial production in the context of “Manufacturing as a Service” approach,
Analyse foreseeable developments and trends, including the potential advantages and disadvantages, regarding distributed Manufacturing as a Service vs. centralised manufacturing,
Perform roadmapping for EU industry to transform and anticipate these changes,
Develop recommendations for an EU manufacturing standardisation strategy focusing specifically on the role of data,
Actively engage all relevant stakeholders from Horizon Europe projects and other relevant initiatives such as the Manufacturing Data Spaces and the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs) for an effective transfer of information and technologies.

PROJECT PARTNERS

The project brings together 6 leading actors with a keen interest in furthering the area of MaaS and the move towards more sustainable production and circular economy

Sirris, (Belgium) as Project Leader and COMET SCRL, (Italy) encompassing 6000+ company members.
4CF SP ZOO (Poland) a foresight consultancy and governmental agency of I4.0 (Future Industry Platform).
Steinbeis 2I, (Germany) facilitating knowledge transfer among companies, research organisations, universities, administrations and policy-makers.
Thhink BV, (Netherlands) a high technology SME that provides consultancy in ICT technologies for the manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, marine, rail transport, energy and health sectors - including standardisation aspects.

Upcoming MASTT2040 Manufacturing as a Service Activities

As part of the MASTT2040 project, we are offering a series of free on-line and in-person high-level strategic foresight activities including online surveys, workshops, Dephi Study and physical workshops. The dates for the online sessions will be provided as they approach. If you subscribe to [ https://www.mastt2040.eu/get-involved/ ] we will send you all the detailed information.

The first event will be a webinar, “The transformative power of Manufacturing as a Service to unlock agility and efficiency” scheduled for Tuesday, 10th September 2024, from 10:00 to 11:30 CEST. In this webinar, we will delve into the MASTT2040 project, exploring best practices, use cases and emerging trends shaping the EU manufacturing industry. Our goals are to present the MASTT2040 project, goals and objectives, the comprehensive findings on the state of the art and best practices of MaaS in selected European countries, as well as to enable MaaS and Circular Economy communities’ stakeholders to get to know each other, exchange ideas and identify potential cooperation opportunities. This will be an excellent opportunity to connect with other stakeholders and explore potential synergies with relevant initiatives and organizations. To join the webinar, please register at [ https://bit.ly/MASTT2040_1stWebinar]

Before this though if you would like to contribute to defining key driving trends in Manufacturing please fill in our survey at [ https://forms.gle/KqfVuYWAEf2ACfcF7 ]

Impact of New Regulations on Manufacturing as a Service

The impact of new regulations on the manufacturing sector are of interest to MASTT2040. In particular, the AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act and Data Governance Act could have implications in a sector which is reliant on high levels of connectivity and use of data. If you want to learn more about these new regulations THHINK has summarised each of these into Tech Briefs. See the section on our website.

MASTT2040 Management Meeting Warsaw

The MASTT2040 project held a management meeting in Warsaw in June 2024 hosted at the impressive facilities at 4CF in the heart of the city. There were intense and very productive discussions but also the opportunity to enjoy and learn about the history of the beautiful city of Warsaw.

MASTT2040 Brussels Foresight Workshop !

The MASTT2040 project held a physical Scenario Workshop on the Future of European Manufacturing in Brussels on 25th November 2024 between 1pm-5pm.

The workshop discussed the future of manufacturing thinking about a 2040 timeframe and specifically Manufacturing-as-a-Service. The aim was to envisage a range of challenging but plausible scenarios for the future of manufacturing in line with EU twin transition goals. The developed scenarios will be used in future strategic planning and decision making activities. For further information download the agenda Here

Invitation to Scenario Workshop (PDF)

ADRA Workshop Brussels 2025

AI, data and robotics have created significant opportunities for Europe to drive scientific excellence, industrial competitiveness and societal impact. In preparation for the European Convergence Summit to be held in April 2025 the AI, Data, and Robotics (ADR) partnership organised a series of physical thematic workshops between 5 and 6 February, in Brussels each one lasting 1/2 day. The question addressed in these workshops is “how can AI from robotics and Big Data combined help in a crisis situation”. Haydn Thompson was invited to speak and present the results of the MASTT2040 project in the session addressing "Resilience in Manufacturing: Case of Supply Chain Issues, Critical Materials, Energy Supply, and More" and also participated in the workshop.

MASTT2040 Brussels Roadmapping Workshop 2025!

The MASTT2040 project held a Roadmapping Workshop on "Pathways towards the future of Manufacturing-as-a-Service in 2040" in Brussels on 26th February 2025 with around 40 key stakeholders respresenting, industry, research, standardisation and policy. This was the first of 2 workshops that aim to develop a number of concrete pathways for a more competitive, resilient and green European manufacturing industry by 2040. During this interactive workshop, four future visions of MaaS manufacturing were discussed covering key aspects of interest to Europe such as resilince/strategic autonomy in the supply chain, sustainable and circular approaches and the implications that future high levels of automation and use of AI will have on European workers in future factories. The workshop identified barriers and priority actions that need to be addressed which will be used to inform industry, research, standardisation and policy strategies.

The results of this workshop will be used in a second workshop to be held in April to further concretize high-priority actions and formulate recommendations towards industry & policy on how to successfully realise the most impactful future visions for MaaS in European industry.

For further information on the MaaS visions discussed:

MaaS Vision Document (PDF)

MASTT2040 Online Roadmapping Workshop April 2025 - Get Involved!

Leading on from the MASTT2040 Roadmapping Workshop in February on foresight for Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) to support the EU's twin transition by 2040, a second roadmapping workshop was held online on 28/4/2025 between 2-5pm CET. For further information on the MaaS visions discussed:

MaaS Online Roadmapping Workshop (PDF)

This Workshop followed up on the very successful first workshop and presented the validated MaaS vision and the first roadmapping outcomes. Based on these, workshop participants during two interactive sessions identified and discussed feasible actions to make the vision a reality and drafted recommendations on what needs to be done by different stakeholders to implement these actions.

Webinar on MASTT2040 Roadmap on Manufacturing-as-a-Service and Industry Action Plan

Leading on from the MASTT2040 Roadmapping Workshops performed earlier this year for Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) to support the EU's twin transition by 2040, we are delighted to invite you to join a Webinar to present the Draft MaaS Roadmap to 2040 for the future of Manufacturing-as-a-Service and the Industry Action Plan which presents draft recommendations for industry, researchers, national and European policy makers, and standardisation bodies.

The Webinar will take place online on 8/7/2025 between 11-12.30pm CET.

There will also be interactive sessions to discuss the roadmap outcomes and draft recommendations, so there will be an opportunity for you to provide feedback and comment.

Please register here in advance to secure your spot: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ofJO4ewcSH6pVdVis0Dn9w

In the workshop the Industry Action Plan will be presented. Please download a copy of the Draft Industry Action Plan here

Draft Industry Action Plan for Future MaaS (PDF)

Final MASTT2040 Manufacturing-as-a-Service Event

We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming event, "Manufacturing as a Service: Building the Future of European Industry" taking place on Thursday, 23 October 2025, from 09:00 to 16:00 CEST in Brussels, Hermeslaan 7, 1831 Machelen. This will be held right after the EFFRA Manufacturing Partnership Days 2025.

This full-day event will bring together key stakeholders from across Europe to explore the future of Manufacturing as a Service and its role in Europe's twin transition towards digitalisation and sustainability.

It will be a unique opportunity to connect with industry experts, researchers, and policymakers, and to engage in shaping the next phase of Europe's industrial transformation.

Final Event Agenda and Registration Link (PDF)

Smart4Europe2

Smart4Europe 2 [ www.smart4europe.eu ] is a Coordination and Support Action, co-financed by the European Commission, DT-ICT-01-2019 Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative (GA No.: 872111) which builds upon the previous Smart4Europe project that successfully brought together a critical mass of Innovation Actions (IAs) with a long track record of promoting the digital transformation of European Industry in the areas of Smart Systems Integration, Organic and Large Area Electronics, Internet of Things Advanced Computing and Cyber Physical Systems.

Today, innovation is to an increasing extent based on digitisation leading to new functionalities, products and services, but the speed of change is so quick that SMEs and mid-caps are struggling to keep pace. In order to address this, Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) have been set up to help companies with their digital transformation. This has been done at European, national and regional levels; however, the resulting community of DIHs is fragmented. The aim of the Smart4Europe2 is thus to bring together and link the DIHs as well as projects aligned to SAE (DEI CSAs, ECSEL, I4MS, etc.) and make DIH services more widely available to SMEs and mid-caps.

Smart4Europe2 will:

Provide services supporting the SAE network including a single Innovation Portal, Market Place, Service Centre, broad dissemination activities and coaching & training of SMEs and DIHs
Strengthen the SAE community cohesion and facilitate collaboration and knowledge transfer
Attract new stakeholders (SMEs and mid-caps) and achieve broad coverage by targeted outreach activities via own networks and multipliers (ENN, NCPs, and clusters)
Grow the SAE ecosystem by connecting with new stakeholders and multiplying the impacts by collaborating with related projects, initiatives and networks and enable brokering
Sustain the SAE network by creating a strategic roadmap based on a SAE Technology Radar, DIH business and collaboration models, strategic linkage of national and regional initiatives and via leveraging investment

The work will expand upon the successful Smart4Europe1 CSA, driven by a strong consortium of partners that have already demonstrated their commitment in shaping the SAE Initiative. Under the SAE umbrella there will be a growing number of projects, which Smart4Europe2 will bring together to collaborate and link to other initiatives, helping it to grow organically to catalyse digitisation throughout Europe.

PROJECT PARTNERS

The project brings together 7 Partners from 5 European countries:

Steinbeis 2i GmbH *Coordinator*		Germany
Hahn-Schickard Gessellschaft fur angewandte Forschung e.V.		Germany
THHINK BV		Netherlands
Budapest University of Technology and Economics		Hungary
Blumorpho SAS		France
Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives		France
Fondazione Politecnico di Milano		Italy

Smart4Europe

"Digitisation" enables enhanced or new functionalities in most products and services. A key question is "How to optimise the transformation of this potential?" SMEs from non-high technology sectors in particular need an easy access to digitisation technologies. The new project "Smart4Europe" will help by pooling different offers in a one-stop-shop, bringing together the community, helping it to grow organically and catalysing digitisation throughout Europe.

A central aim of the European Commission with respect to digitization is to "ensure that any industry in Europe, big or small, wherever situated and in any sector can fully benefit from digital innovations to upgrade its products, improve its processes and adapt its business models to the digital change". To achieve this, the initiative "SmartAnythingEverywhere" (SAE Initiative) was coined as an umbrella for a growing number of projects, focusing on different technology domains and positions in the innovation cycle to demonstrate best practice in technology transfer to European SMEs.

Catalysing Digitisation

Smart 4 Europe [ www.smart4europe.eu ] has the aim to:

reinforce the collaboration between projects supported under SAE
increase outreach and impact
provide wide coverage of stakeholders in technological, application, innovation, and geographic terms

In order to achieve this, Smart4Europe will expand the existing website of the Initiative [www.smartanythingeverywhere.eu] to create an Innovation Portal as a central contact point for digitization in Europe: providing a service centre; facilitate brokerage; coordinate communication and dissemination activities; help in sharing best practices and experiences; create a Technology Radar to identify technologies SAE can benefit from; and last but not least, establish links to regional/national initiatives to leverage investments and stimulate growth.

Smart4Europe started in September 2017 and has a duration of 2 years and almost 1M€ funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 761448). The project is driven by a strong consortium of partners that have already demonstrated their commitment and engaged for several years in shaping the SAE Initiative:

Hahn-Schickard	R+D service provider in microsystem technology with a focus on Smart Systems Integration (SSI) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)	Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
Steinbeis 2i GmbH	Service provider for innovation and international networking with contacts to enterprises in more than 50 countries (Enterprise Europe Network)	Karlsruhe, Germany
THHINK BV	High technology consultancy, e.g. for the European Commission and the European Parliament for topics as CPS, Internet of Things (IoT), digital manufacturing, strategy for ICT and others.	Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Budapesti Muszaki es Gazdasagtudomanyi Egyetem (BME)	Department of Electron Devices of the BME (Budapest University of Technology and Economics); worldwide renowned educational and research centre in microelectronics.	Budapest, Hungary
Blumorpho SAS	Private innovation and business accelerator reducing the technological market and financial risk of adopting innovation, especially for startups and early adopters	Paris, France
CEA-LETI / CEA-LIST	Leading European Technological Research Institutions in the fields of microelectronics, digital and SoC design, embedded software, organic electronics etc.	Grenoble, France
FORTISS GmbH	Research and transfer institute in software-intensive systems and services, closely associated with the Technische Universität München (TUM)	Munich, Germany

Additional Information and Documents:

Smart4Europe Poster (PDF)

Smart4Europe2

Smart4Europe 2 [ www.smart4europe.eu ] is a Coordination and Support Action, co-financed by the European Commission, DT-ICT-01-2019 Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative (GA No.: 872111) which builds upon the previous Smart4Europe project that successfully brought together a critical mass of Innovation Actions (IAs) with a long track record of promoting the digital transformation of European Industry in the areas of Smart Systems Integration, Organic and Large Area Electronics, Internet of Things Advanced Computing and Cyber Physical Systems.

Today, innovation is to an increasing extent based on digitisation leading to new functionalities, products and services, but the speed of change is so quick that SMEs and mid-caps are struggling to keep pace. In order to address this, Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) have been set up to help companies with their digital transformation. This has been done at European, national and regional levels; however, the resulting community of DIHs is fragmented. The aim of the Smart4Europe2 is thus to bring together and link the DIHs as well as projects aligned to SAE (DEI CSAs, ECSEL, I4MS, etc.) and make DIH services more widely available to SMEs and mid-caps.

Smart4Europe2 will:

Provide services supporting the SAE network including a single Innovation Portal, Market Place, Service Centre, broad dissemination activities and coaching & training of SMEs and DIHs
Strengthen the SAE community cohesion and facilitate collaboration and knowledge transfer
Attract new stakeholders (SMEs and mid-caps) and achieve broad coverage by targeted outreach activities via own networks and multipliers (ENN, NCPs, and clusters)
Grow the SAE ecosystem by connecting with new stakeholders and multiplying the impacts by collaborating with related projects, initiatives and networks and enable brokering
Sustain the SAE network by creating a strategic roadmap based on a SAE Technology Radar, DIH business and collaboration models, strategic linkage of national and regional initiatives and via leveraging investment

The work will expand upon the successful Smart4Europe1 CSA, driven by a strong consortium of partners that have already demonstrated their commitment in shaping the SAE Initiative. Under the SAE umbrella there will be a growing number of projects, which Smart4Europe2 will bring together to collaborate and link to other initiatives, helping it to grow organically to catalyse digitisation throughout Europe.

PROJECT PARTNERS

The project brings together 7 Partners from 5 European countries:

Steinbeis 2i GmbH *Coordinator*		Germany
Hahn-Schickard Gessellschaft fur angewandte Forschung e.V.		Germany
THHINK BV		Netherlands
Budapest University of Technology and Economics		Hungary
Blumorpho SAS		France
Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives		France
Fondazione Politecnico di Milano		Italy

Smart4Europe

"Digitisation" enables enhanced or new functionalities in most products and services. A key question is "How to optimise the transformation of this potential?" SMEs from non-high technology sectors in particular need an easy access to digitisation technologies. The new project "Smart4Europe" will help by pooling different offers in a one-stop-shop, bringing together the community, helping it to grow organically and catalysing digitisation throughout Europe.

A central aim of the European Commission with respect to digitization is to "ensure that any industry in Europe, big or small, wherever situated and in any sector can fully benefit from digital innovations to upgrade its products, improve its processes and adapt its business models to the digital change". To achieve this, the initiative "SmartAnythingEverywhere" (SAE Initiative) was coined as an umbrella for a growing number of projects, focusing on different technology domains and positions in the innovation cycle to demonstrate best practice in technology transfer to European SMEs.

Catalysing Digitisation

Smart 4 Europe [ www.smart4europe.eu ] has the aim to:

reinforce the collaboration between projects supported under SAE
increase outreach and impact
provide wide coverage of stakeholders in technological, application, innovation, and geographic terms

In order to achieve this, Smart4Europe will expand the existing website of the Initiative [www.smartanythingeverywhere.eu] to create an Innovation Portal as a central contact point for digitization in Europe: providing a service centre; facilitate brokerage; coordinate communication and dissemination activities; help in sharing best practices and experiences; create a Technology Radar to identify technologies SAE can benefit from; and last but not least, establish links to regional/national initiatives to leverage investments and stimulate growth.

Smart4Europe started in September 2017 and has a duration of 2 years and almost 1M€ funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 761448). The project is driven by a strong consortium of partners that have already demonstrated their commitment and engaged for several years in shaping the SAE Initiative:

Hahn-Schickard	R+D service provider in microsystem technology with a focus on Smart Systems Integration (SSI) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)	Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
Steinbeis 2i GmbH	Service provider for innovation and international networking with contacts to enterprises in more than 50 countries (Enterprise Europe Network)	Karlsruhe, Germany
THHINK BV	High technology consultancy, e.g. for the European Commission and the European Parliament for topics as CPS, Internet of Things (IoT), digital manufacturing, strategy for ICT and others.	Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Budapesti Muszaki es Gazdasagtudomanyi Egyetem (BME)	Department of Electron Devices of the BME (Budapest University of Technology and Economics); worldwide renowned educational and research centre in microelectronics.	Budapest, Hungary
Blumorpho SAS	Private innovation and business accelerator reducing the technological market and financial risk of adopting innovation, especially for startups and early adopters	Paris, France
CEA-LETI / CEA-LIST	Leading European Technological Research Institutions in the fields of microelectronics, digital and SoC design, embedded software, organic electronics etc.	Grenoble, France
FORTISS GmbH	Research and transfer institute in software-intensive systems and services, closely associated with the Technische Universität München (TUM)	Munich, Germany

Additional Information and Documents:

Smart4Europe Poster (PDF)

Platforms4CPS (2016-2018)

Europe is a world leader in the area of time-critical and safety-critical systems and to maintain this position there is a need to be able to design, develop and deploy highly distributed and connected digital technologies. The aim of the EU Platforms4CPS project [www.platforms4cps.eu] was to create the CPS Vision, Strategy, Technology Building Blocks and Supporting Ecosystem for Future CPS Platforms. The project was co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation under Grant Agreement No. 731599. Platforms4CPS targeted the transport, manufacturing, energy and health sectors. THHINK analysed the ecosystem and market perspective and strategically updated and validated existing CPS roadmaps across multiple domains. THHINK also led a WP with the aim of creating a constituency through cooperating with the ECSEL, ITEA, and ARTEMIS projects on the foundations of CPS engineering, and via consensus-building on societal and legal issues related to the deployment of CPS. Many of these are related to Artificial Intelligence, security and privacy.

H.A. Thompson and M. Reimann, “Platforms4CPS – Key Outcomes and Recommendations, Stuttgart, 2018

This report presents key European industrial markets and the results of bringing together a number of European Roadmaps.

THHINK also organised a Workshop on Societal and Legal Issues particularly addressing AI.

H.A. Thompson, Societal and Legal Issues Workshop Report, 2018

The Final Report on Societal and Legal Issues is here:

H.A. Thompson, Societal and Legal Issues, Final Report, 2018

PICASSO (2016-2018)

The EU PICASSO project [ www.picasso-project.eu] supported joint EU and USA ICT collaboration between Horizon 2020 and relevant ICT programmes in the USA considering smart cities, smart transport and smart energy. PICASSO received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 687874. The aim was to identify common challenges, look for opportunities to create new synergies, leverage work, add value, identify policy gaps and propose actions. The PICASSO project particularly aimed at reinforcing EU-US ICT collaboration in precompetitive research and innovation in key enabling technologies: 5G Networks, Big Data, Internet of Things and Cyber-physical systems, and to support the EU-US ICT policy dialogue by specific contributions.

ICT plays a crucial role in responding to the related economic and social challenges. These challenges are common for the EU and the US and affect citizens around the world. Global solutions are thus required.

THHINK acted as the strategic link to NIST and led Work Package 1 establishing EU-US Industrial drivers, societal needs and the ICT collaboration landscape. For this the company produced a panorama of EU-US ICT policies and regulations, programs, priorities, networks, projects and access opportunities in smart cities, smart transport and smart energy, Big Data, 5G and IoT/CPS. THHINK also interviewed industry identifying the industrial drivers, societal needs, the barriers to exploitation, the business models being considered and the necessary regulation or standardisation required for successful exploitation. This also considered cross-domain relationships/application areas/opportunities for EU-US collaboration in non-competitive and pre-competitive areas. THHINK was also an Expert on the transnational CPS/IoT Expert Group that was set up by the project.

PICASSO Project Launch

February 2016

The PICASSO project was successfully launched at a kick-off meeting which took place in Nice, France on 3rd and 4th of February 2016. This first meeting was a great success with fruitful discussions between prominent EU and US specialists.

First PICASSO Expert Group Meeting was hosted by NIST at the Department of Commerce in Washington DC

May 20, 2016

THHINK organised the First PICASSO Expert Group Meeting which was hosted by NIST at the Department of Commerce in Washington DC on May 20, 2016. In total 66 people registered for the event including Expert Group members and invited key actors, i.e. from NIST, NSF, NITRD, IMS, as well as PICASSO project partners. During the individual Expert Group morning sessions, key challenges and needs for each domain: 5G, Big Data, IoT and CPS were defined, aiming at revealing gaps and strategic opportunities for EU-US collaboration. The EU-US ICT Policy Expert Group focused on the horizontal overarching policy issue of Privacy and Data Protection, relevant for EU-US collaboration in these domains. The findings were shared and discussed with the entire audience in a joint public session.

Haydn Thompson chaired the event and gave a presentation describing what had been found in the report "Panorama of ICT landscape in EU and US: ICT, Policies, regulations, programmes and networks in the EU and US" [www.picasso-project.eu]. This report covers the key societal challenges: Smart Cities, Smart Energy and Smart Transportation, and the key enabling technologies that address these societal challenges: 5G Networks, Big Data, Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems. The aim is to give an appreciation of how the different areas come together in the societal challenges. The deliverable also highlights key activities in the rest of the world, where relevant, in order to put the work being performed within the EU and US in context.

The aim of the Panorama document was to set the scene for the PICASSO project and act as input to the Expert Groups for discussions. Another aim of the document was to identify gaps and opportunities, the key challenges in the selected domains and open problems, and the needs for supporting policy measures and strategic EU-US initiatives (both policy and research related). It was highlighted that large ICT research and innovation efforts exist in both the EU and the US in these areas and they are also priority topics in various funding programmes in the EU and the US. As a consequence networks and critical mass in these subjects is present on both sides of the Atlantic which affords the opportunity for collaboration. It was noted that there are commercial benefits for companies to sell to the EU and US and vice versa but the world-wide market is far larger and is a compelling reason for collaboration.

Road4FAME (2013-2015)

The EU Road4FAME project [www.road4fame.eu], supported by the FP7 Grant agreement No. 609167, developed a strategic research and innovation roadmap for IT architectures and services in manufacturing – focusing on architectures and services which facilitate agile and flexible manufacturing processes, ease interoperability in distributed manufacturing environments, support effective collaboration in context-aware enterprises, and provide the foundations for sustainable manufacturing. The Road4FAME project was conducted by a consortium of leading companies, manufacturing research centres and tech transfer organisations working together to examine industry needs: THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd (UK); Atos SA (Spain); Critical Manufacturing SA (Portugal); Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA (Germany); Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (Germany); and IfM Education and Consultancy Services (IfM ECS).

In addition to working on the roadmap, THHINK led work on identifying new Business Opportunities for manufacturers and service providers and performed work on Business Modelling identifying 100 business models.

Road4FAME project identifies 4 Priority Research Areas for Manufacturing

A report advising the European Commission on priorities for research to help boost manufacturing productivity and competitiveness identified real-time data acquisition and analysis as one of several areas in need of urgent attention. The Orientation Paper, released by the Road4FAME project, found that research into this and other issues could reduce costs and help small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) become more competitive and innovative.

EU FP7 Road4FAME Handbook:"Strategic Research & Innovation Roadmap and Business Opportunities for ICT in Manufacturing"

Road4FAME Handbook: Strategic Research & Innovation Roadmap and Business Opportunities for ICT in Manufacturing

Authors:

Nicky Athanassopoulou, Haydn Thompson (Lead authors) | Meike Reimann, Christian Albrecht, Carsten Rückriegel, Sarah Mortimer, Jonathan Hughes, Clare Farrukh, Ursula Rauschecker, Daniel Stock, Ricardo Ferreira, Pedro Gama, Daniela Ramos-Hernandez, Silvia Castellvi Catala, Diego Esteban Rodriguez

The manufacturing sector is key to Europe's competitiveness and long-term economic growth. It comprises approximately 21 % of the EU's overall GDP, however, in recent years European industry has been affected by an economic down-turn. The manufacturing sector, in particular, has had to face increasing competition from lower-wage economies and other high-tech rivals. In order to sustain and also extend international competitiveness, European firms need to foster constant innovation.

This handbook presents a roadmap for research priorities, innovation strategies and business opportunities for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in manufacturing. For the manufacturing sector, ICT constitutes the major source of innovation, yet their potential is far from being fully exploited. So, in recent years and under the umbrella of the "fourth industrial revolution", the technical integration of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Services in industrial processes, has led to a significant investment in novel technologies.

In light of these developments, the Road4FAME Consortium developed a strategic research and innovation roadmap for IT architectures and services in manufacturing with a specific focus on systems, which facilitate agile and flexible manufacturing processes, ease interoperability in distributed manufacturing environments, support effective collaboration in context-aware enterprises and provide the foundations for sustainable manufacturing.

The Road4FAME Roadmap serves as a strategic guide for further investment into manufacturing IT and aligns future ICT research with needs, trends and demands of European manufacturing businesses.

Technology Radar

In related work at THHINK BV a Technology Radar has been created to help SMEs and midcaps. Below is clickable version of the radar. If you have comments or suggested technology additions to the radar please contact THHINKBV here.

Readiness is classified in terms of:

"Red: Long Term - Hold off for now" to represent technologies that are not yet proven and not worth investing in yet

"Amber: Medium Term - Assess" a technology that is promising and worth exploring with the goal of understanding how it may have an impact

"Green: Short Term - Adopt" for a technology that industry should be adopting.

Consultant to the European Commission

THHINK is a consultant to DG Connect and DG GROW evaluating and monitoring Public Private Partnerships and Large Scale Pilots, and writing a number of EC documents on Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Physical Systems, Systems of Systems, Electronics and Digital Manufacturing, covering technology roadmaps, policy and strategy for ICT. The company also provides Expert input into the EC’s AI Unit and into areas such as Wearables and Photonics. Additionally, the company reviews projects for the EC across many domains including automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, robotics and agriculture.

THHINK also acts as Rapporteur for the DEI Working Groups, key EU Events such as the DEI Stakeholder Forum and the EC’s Electronics Leaders Group defining strategy and budgets for Horizon Europe and Digital Europe. The company also provides support to the European Parliament with briefing papers/videos for MEPs on the societal and legal issues of future autonomous transportation systems and has engaged with the European Investment Bank considering new funding approaches.

In 2017 THHINK was commissioned by the EC to write a report on Standardisation with recommendations for establishing a Multi-Stakeholder Platfrom/DEI Working Group on Standardisation which was set up in 2018. In 2019 THHINK was commissioned by the EC to become the Facilitator for Harmonisation of Standardisation across Europe interacting with SDOs, other informal standards organisations, H2020 projects, government initiatives and industry (including SMEs) to create a Standardisation Stakeholder Engagement Platform. Stakeholders include DIN, IEC, Trilateral Initiative, IBM, Fraunhofer, Alstom, Plattform Industrie 4.0, Industrie 4.0 Standardisation Council, Smart Industry (Netherlands), Vanguard, VDMA, BOOST 4.0, EFFRA, ETSI, AIOTI, CREATE-IoT, ECSEL, BDVA, Productive 4.0, euRobotics, EPoSS and other H2020 projects.

In recent years THHINK has been actively engaged in writing the European Chips Act SWD, Recommendations and Roadmap for a Design Platform to support the European Chips Act and Recommendations and Roadmap for European Sovereignty in Open Source Hardware, Software, and RISC-V Technologies.

Publications for the European Commission

H.A. Thompson, “Recommendations and Roadmap for a Design Platform to support the European Chips Act", April 2023.

H.A. Thompson, “Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions: Lessons Learnt from the implementation of European Industrial Doctorates in Horizon 2020", November 2022.

H.A. Thompson, “Recommendations and Roadmap for European Sovereignty in Open Source Hardware, Software, and RISC-V Technologies", June 2022.

H.A. Thompson, “A Chips Act for Europe", Commission Staff Working Document SWD(2022) 147, May 2022.

H.A. Thompson, “Next Generation IoT and Edge Computing, Report from the Next Generation IoT and Edge Computing Strategy Forum", April 2021.

H.A. Thompson, “Fireside Chat of 9th March 2021", European Commission, CNECT-E4, Event report, March 2021. H.A. Thompson, “Validation Report on Standardisation Harmonisation”, EC Report, September 2019.

H.A. Thompson, "AI in Manufacturing", Report from the Workshop on in Manufacturing, July 2019.

H.A. Thompson, “Boosting Electronics Value Chains”, EC Electronics Leaders Working Group, June 2018.

H.A. Thompson, “DEI Stakeholder Forum 2018”, Report from the DEI Stakeholder Forum, April 2018

H.A. Thompson, "Standardisation to Support Digitisation", Report from the Workshop on Standardisation to Support Digitising European Industry", October 2017.

H.A. Thompson, "Digital Manufacturing Platforms for Connected Smart Factories", Report from the Workshop on Digital Manufacturing Platforms for Connected Smart Factories" October 2017.

H.A. Thompson "Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Concertation Event", Report from the Smart Cyber Physical Systems Concertation Event, January 2017.

Roel van den Berg and Haydn Thompson, "Digitising European Industry initiative - Working Group 2: Strengthening Leadership in Digital Technologies and in Digital Industrial Platforms across Value Chains in all Sectors of the Economy", December 2016.

H.A. Thompson, "The Smart Cyber-Physical Systems cluster of EU projects", Report from the ARTEMIS and Horizon2020 Clustering and Communication Event, May 2016.

H.A. Thompson and C. Enzing (Technopolis Group, The Netherlands), "CPS for Logistics and transport: Short and long term trends and their societal and ethical impacts", Briefing Paper for European Parliament, January 2016.

H.A. Thompson "Innovation in Digital Manufacturing", Report from the EC Workshop on Innovation in Digital Manufacturing, Brussels, Belgium. January 2015

H.A. Thompson, "Internet of Things - A Deeper Dive", Report from the EC Workshop on Internet of Things - A Deeper Dive, Brussels, Belgium, December 2014.

H.A. Thompson, "Cyber-Physical Systems: Uplifting Europe's Innovation Capacity", Report from the EC Workshop in Brussels, Belgium, October 2013

H.A. Thompson, "Systems of Systems Engineering and Control", Report from the EC Workshop on Systems and Systems Engineering and Control Brussels, Belgium, October 2013.

H.A. Thompson, "Directions in Systems of Systems Engineering", Report from the EC Workshop on Synergies among Projects and Directions in Advanced Systems Engineering", Brussels, Belgium, July 2012.

Satellite Communications

THHINK prides itself on being able to get data from anywhere to anywhere on the globe providing Smart Anything Everywhere (Anytime). In order to do this the company is active in LP-WAN and wireless cellular connectivity for urban and regional sites. To provide world-wide coverage and a “one-stop shop” for customers the company provides satellite data packages for leading networks. This includes Iridium which operates the world’s only truly global satellite communications network with a constellation of 66 crosslinked Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, Inmarsat who provide global, mobile satellite communications global voice, broadband and IoT services and Globalstar, who operate 24 LEO satellites for satellite phone and low-speed data communications

THHINK Cloud

THHINK smart sensor systems can provide fully automated wireless telemetry for data acquisition, data storage and reporting. THHINK-Cloud is a graphical Online Dashboard facility that delivers data, charts and interactive maps for convenient viewing online anytime, anywhere.

Online Dashboard easily accessible over the web

Accessible via any smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC

Reports can be e-mailed directly to your inbox

Integrated wireless cellular connectivity and LP-WAN suitable for urban and regional sites

Optional cost-effective satellite telemetry for rural locations beyond cellular coverage

THHINK can also provide data analytics to better understand data and provide insights for optimisation and planning. Here the company has a wealth of expertise in AI technologies for data analysis and mining.

The THHINK Group

THHINK was founded as a company in the UK in 2009 and has grown through the years to a group of 4 companies located around the world. THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd. in the UK has been operating for over 15 years and concentrates on applications engineering, "THHINK and Do", and prides itself on its ability to provide innovative practical solutions to challenging problems. It was clear that for some of these solutions new leading edge technologies needed to be developed. As a result of this, in 2011 THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd. (Japan) was formed as a research vehicle to develop micro-generator technology to power future M2M and IoT applications. THHINK (Japan) thus concentrated on developing future technologies, "THHINK Ahead", providing novel technologies and expertise to the group.

Over the years THHINK found that increasingly it was asked to provide consultancy services to other companies and engage in joint partnerships across Europe. Amsterdam is a centre for IoT applications in Europe and the Netherlands is a leader in the adoption of Smart Agriculture. Thus, in 2016 THHINK BV was founded in the Netherlands to provide research and development and consultancy services in the IoT sector "THHINK IT Through" and promote the company's activities in the agricultural domain.

THHINK has also continued to innovate in the autonomous vehicles sector through research programmes and strategic links with Universities, such as Cranfield University in the UK and KTH in Sweden. As a result of these interests and a wealth of identified opportunities in Australia, THHINK Autonomous Systems Pty. "THHINK for Itself", was founded in Australia in 2016 to develop and operate autonomous surface, underwater and flying vehicles.

All the companies operate as separate business entities, but collectively they work together providing expertise, research & development and consulting across the group.

THHINK Autonomous Systems Australia

THHINK Autonomous Systems www.thhink-aus.com provides integrated sensor data systems complete with real-time wireless connectivity and continuous monitoring capabilities for any fixed position equipment as well as mobile autonomous platforms and unmanned vehicles such as Boeing Wave Glider ASV, Kongsberg Seaglider AUV and various airborne UAS platforms.

With a wide range of core engineering capabilities in embedded electronic control and processing systems, wireless connectivity, energy endurance, GIS location and enterprise online services, THHINK develops new products and services from initial conception through to field deployment and remote operations. All THHINK systems are designed, tested and manufactured with one goal in mind: Reliable performance in challenging environments and mission endurance to deliver dependable monitoring over extended periods of time.

THHINK develops, deploys and operates a variety of interconnected smart sensor devices that include Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled devices, Low-Power RF (LPRF), cellular GSM 3G telemetry and satellite M2M systems to exact client specification. THHINK is an authorised provider and integrator of Iridium and Globalstar satcomms data services that can fully support operations in remote and regional areas that others find difficult to access.

This capability and experience enables THHINK to architect and deliver reliable cost-effective performance from anywhere in the world across any land, sea or air application. THHINK’s unique Multi-Carrier technologies with Lowest Cost Routing enable sensors to transition seamlessly and scavenge across various networks whilst delivering seamless situational awareness. Ultimately, our customers benefit from seamless and reliable remote sensing awareness whether operating in urban, regional or very remote environments.

THHINK’s Offshore and Underwater series of networked products enable several underwater sensor instruments to sense, communicate and report critical data in near real-time from anywhere underwater whether surface, mid-water or from down at seafloor depths of 3000m.

The THHINK Cloud ecosystem is fully automated to provide seamless and persistent presence whether monitoring the seabed, ocean, air or land environments. THHINK’s innovative monitoring technologies demonstrate next-gen IoT innovation in action today and everyday, 24-7-365, delivering situational awareness directly to desktop and mobile devices.

THHINK BV

THHINK BV www.thhink-aus.com performs high tech consultancy, research and development in ICT technologies for the aerospace, automotive, marine, rail transport, energy and health sectors. The company provides consultancy and innovative solutions to leading companies and institutions across Europe.

Professional Services & Capabilities

Technology Assessment and definition of Strategic Roadmaps

Analysis of business opportunities

Research & development

Technology analysis and project review

Professional Project and Programme Management

Architecture design

Proof of concepts

Hardware & software for advanced monitoring and control systems

THHINK BV is very active in helping SMEs and mid-caps to digitise through the Smart4Europe 1 and Smart4Europe 2 Coordination and Support Actions, which are co-financed by the European Commission, under the Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative. These projects have successfully brought together a critical mass of Innovation Actions (IAs) with a long track record of promoting the digital transformation of European Industry in the areas of Smart Systems Integration, Organic and Large Area Electronics, Internet of Things, Advanced Computing and Cyber Physical Systems. Key activities of THHINK BV have been the development and maintenance of a Technology Radar, and identification of Research, Business Angel and Private Venture funding sources across Europe.

THHINK Wireless Technologies Japan (2011-2018)

THHINK Wireless Technologies Japan was founded in 2011 with a specific research and development mission and was operational for 7 years. THHINK Japan www.thhink-jp.co.jp performed research and development into advanced micro-generator technologies for the company. This technology is seen as the key to providing widescale deployment of vibration harvesting with small, lightweight packages that can be used in a multitude of mass market applications, e.g. vehicle monitoring, health and wellbeing, etc. In 2012, the company established a Research Lab in Tokyo University to develop micro-generator powered wireless sensors.

Yutaka Hattori and Haydn Thompson, Managing Directors of THHINK Japan and THHINK UK

THHINK at Techno Frontier 2013

Just a year after formation of THHINK Japan both THHINK UK and THHINK Japan were represented at stands at TechnoFrontier in July 2013 in the Energy Harvesting Exhibition. THHINK are proud to be founding members of the Electret Energy Harvester Alliance. This Alliance of companies which includes the University of Tokyo, OMRON Corp., AGC, THHINK Wireless Technologies Japan, Techno Design Co. Ltd., and Konishiyasu Co. Ltd., is promoting the use of productionised vibration microgenerator technologies. Demonstrations of microgenerators driving wireless sensors for a range of different applications such as automotive, pump, fan, human motion and rail network bridge structural monitoring were on display. The alliance attracted great attention and the stand was buzzing throughout the three days gaining national press and TV coverage.

Demonstrations of Vibration Microgenerators in Action:

THHINK at the 2nd and 3rd UK-Japan Workshops on Energy Harvesting

THHINK is active promoting energy harvesting applications to industry. Both THHINK UK and THHINK Japan were represented at the 2nd UK-Japan Workshop on Energy Harvesting with Haydn Thompson chairing the afternoon of the event. This event covered a range of energy harvesting approaches solar, thermal, vibration, chemical and RF with a range of very interesting and diverse applications. THHINK UK and THHINK Japan also attended the 3rd UK-Japan Energy Harvesting Workshop which was held as part of the PowerMEMS Conference in London in December 2013.

THHINK at TechnoFrontier 2015

In 2015 THHINK Japan exhibited innovative Energy Harvesting technologies at TechnoFrontier 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. Yutaka Hattori and Yasu Hatano from THHINK Japan attended the event and a new wearable micro-generator was demonstrated that harvests energy from human motion which can be used for various wearable technologies and smart monitoring applications.

Rotational Electret Generator Launched at CEATEC 2015

Haydn Thompson of THHINK UK and Yutaka Hattori of THHINK Japan attended CEATEC 2015 in Tokyo, Japan where THHINK launched a new electret rotational generator with Hokuriku Electric Industry Co. This new generator is targeted at wearable technologies and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. At a very busy event (please see BBC Click's 2 part special on the event) the generator "generated" considerable interest. In addition to demonstrations of the generator in action, the concept was also shown embedded within a smart phone to harvest human motion and enhance the battery life of devices.

There was considerable interest in energy harvesting for Cyber Physical Systems and Internet of Things applications. Many meetings were held with the press and companies.

Paper on Rotational Generator Wins Best Paper Award at PowerMEMS 2015

A paper by J. Nakano, K. Komori, Y. Hattori and Y. Suzuki entitled "MEMS Rotational Electret Energy Harvester for Human Motion" won best paper at the PowerMEMS 2015 event in Boston. The award winning paper reports on the development of MEMS rotational electret energy harvester (EH) for capturing kinetic energy of human motion using an optimal design method considering the rate of overlapping-area-change and the parasitic capacitance.

CONTACT US

THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd.

Ground Floor Office Suite,
Canklow House, Bawtry Road,
Brinsworth, Rotherham
S60 5DN
United Kingdom

E-mail: info [at] thhink.com

Phone: +44 114 2215400

THHINK Autonomous Systems Pty. AUSTRALIA
Level 25, 108 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA, 6000, Australia. www.thhink-aus.com

THHINK BV. NETHERLANDS
Bargelaan 200, 2333 CW, Leiden, Netherlands. www.thhinkbv.com

THHINK Wireless Technologies Ltd. JAPAN
5-27-5 Inamuragasaki, Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. www.thhink-jp.co.jp

THHINK Sensors and Dataloggers

Expertise

Through many years of R&D experience with leading companies, THHINK has developed exceptional expertise in the field of advanced sensing, remote condition monitoring, wireless data acquisition and telemetry information systems. Our innovative solutions include self-powered energy harvesting technologies as well as optimal battery and power management systems that enable efficient and dependable operation. We are able to provide core energy harvesting systems, wireless sensor solutions as well as complete remote monitoring systems. Different applications will require different innovative solutions depending on sampling requirements, data throughout and the wireless radio environment in which the system components are required to operate. The availability of various energy sources - whether thermal (heat), vibration, solar, RF-powered or rechargeable battery - are factors considered in the design for optimal self-powered operation. A whole range of wireless solutions - from ultra-low powered networks to embedded WLAN and cellular GSM/GPRS/3G - are leveraged to reliably monitor your assets, equipment and operating environments.

THHINK prides itself on its applications expertise that allows our company to design and deliver the right solution to suit your specific monitoring problem. We can provide consultancy to solve your problem or we can provide a full turnkey working solution. Our technology solutions are built up from proven capability in various demanding applications and we have a number of in-house technologies available in terms of micro-thermal energy harvesters, micro-vibration energy generators, solar harvesters and specialist-designed high-efficiency power management circuitry. A key goal of the company is to provide "the right data to the right person at the right place and right time".

THHINK Sensors

The company provides a range of innovative sensing solutions that optimises 'SWaP' requirements for Size, Weight and Power. Sensor and sensor network solutions are available to cover a range of parameters such as:

Temperature
Pressure
Vibration
Strain
Shock
Flex
Current
Position & orientation, tilt
Environmental parameters
Water Level
Soil Moisture
GPS Location
etc.

The extensive applications experience of the company allows us to provide the right solution for your needs with high performance and low cost.

THHINK Dataloggers

THHINK can provide a range of ultra low power datalogging solutions that can be tailored to your needs. We provide rugged solutions with typically a 2mW average power consumption. This means that the units can operate for very long periods on battery technology and also can be powered by energy harvesting solutions.

We provide up to 6 channels of 12-bit logging capability in our standard units with a range of digital interfaces including CAN. Data is stored on SD or MicroSD card technologies so memory capacity can be easily expanded. Higher bit-depth and increased channel count can be made available upon request. We are happy to provide tailored versions of our units for customers.

The THHINK single channel logger can be used to record a range of data inputs from temperature to vibration and again has very low power consumption making energy harvesting operation possible.

Precision Agricultural Monitoring

Environmental monitoring is being used to great effect in agriculture to improve yield and to intelligently monitor and control the consumption of scarce resources in irrigation systems. Increased pollution is also driving the need for monitoring in cities. THHINK's solar powered environmental monitoring systems provide a cost effective and low maintenance solution that can be widely used. THHINK are working with the UNAM Mexico and NASA to provide environmental monitoring systems in a number of sites in Mexico.

These systems have been designed for agricultural and scientific monitoring of temperature, relative humidity and soil moisture. These dataloggers typically consume less than 0.5mW of power allowing them to be powered by very small solar panels.

Wireless Interfaces

A multitude of monitoring applications require gathering of additional data on the health of key components within the system. Typically, information on temperatures (indicating impending failure from frictional wear), vibration indicating failure of bearings or imbalance and pressure (indicating blockage, leakage or significant loss of coolant/oil) are monitored. In many cases the addition of sensors to monitor these parameters is difficult due to the installation costs and time to wire up the monitoring system. The use of wireless sensors thus allows very fast and low cost installation of monitoring to new systems and retrofit of monitoring to existing systems. Sophisticated networks of sensors can be installed very quickly without the need for extensive wiring.

The company can provide a range of wireless interfaces dependent upon application. For short range communications (up to 100m) THHINK can provide ultra low power RF technologies working at 2.4GHz, 900MHz and 433MHz and low power embedded Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interfaces. For longer range communication the company can provide links that allow communication over a kilometre and for integration into existing Mobile Phone networks the company provides GSM interfaces allowing you to remotely access your data wherever you are.

Other Monitoring Applications

THHINK have produced a multitude of solutions for customers. For further information look at the activities of the THHINK Group or contact us for further information on our monitoring solutions and the THHINK Cloud.

E-mail: info [at] thhink.com

COMPANY

Professional Services & Capabilities

Areas of Expertise

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Haydn Thompson BSc, PhD, CEng, FIET, MIEEE, MRAeS, MAIAA

Max Ong BEng.Hons, PhD, MIET, MIEEE, MAICD, PRINCE2

Daniela Ramos-Hernandez BEng, PhD, CEng, MIET, MIEEE

THHINK Gender Equality

MASTT2040 Standards Map

Introduction

NEWS

European Clean Energy Transition Conference 2025 - Brussels

EDIH Summit 2024 Brussels

IoT Tech Expo 2024 Amsterdam

Smart Manufacturing and Engineering Week 2024

MACH2024 2024

EFECS 2019

Digitising European Industry Stakeholder Forum 2019

ICT Proposers’ Day

7th DIH Working Group

European Industry Partnerships Collaborative Event

ARTEMIS Technology Conference 2019

ICT 2018 Vienna

Final Consultation Event – CPS Innovations for the Future

Stakeholder Forum 2018

HiPEAC

EFECS

Digital Innovation Forum - DIF Event

Cyber-physical Systems of Systems - The Next Challenge

Hannover Messe

Workshop on Smart Cities at The Beacon Council

e-MERGE Americas

"Accelerating Smart Cities": environment, safety, transport, utilities & buildings at Gray Robinson Attorneys at Law

Smart Cyber-Physical Systems Clustering and Communication Event

CPS Week Vienna - CPSoS: Cyber-Physical Systems of Systems

At the Forefront of Technologies

AI

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

Edge Computing

TECoSA - Center for Trustworthy Edge Computing Systems and Applications

Tech Brief: Cyber Resilience Act

Tech Brief: AI Act

Tech Brief: Data Governance Act

Tech Brief: General Data Protection Regulation

Smart Agriculture - Why it is important for the future

Innovation Pipeline for Europe - THHINK White Paper

Tech Brief: Bbbb

Tech Brief: Cccc

Manufacturing as a Service

Upcoming MASTT2040 Manufacturing as a Service Activities

Impact of New Regulations on Manufacturing as a Service

MASTT2040 Management Meeting Warsaw

MASTT2040 Brussels Foresight Workshop !

ADRA Workshop Brussels 2025

MASTT2040 Brussels Roadmapping Workshop 2025!

MASTT2040 Online Roadmapping Workshop April 2025 - Get Involved!

Webinar on MASTT2040 Roadmap on Manufacturing-as-a-Service and Industry Action Plan

Final MASTT2040 Manufacturing-as-a-Service Event

Smart4Europe2

Smart4Europe

Smart4Europe2

Smart4Europe

Platforms4CPS (2016-2018)

PICASSO (2016-2018)

PICASSO Project Launch

First PICASSO Expert Group Meeting was hosted by NIST at the Department of Commerce in Washington DC

Road4FAME (2013-2015)

Road4FAME project identifies 4 Priority Research Areas for Manufacturing

EU FP7 Road4FAME Handbook:"Strategic Research & Innovation Roadmap and Business Opportunities for ICT in Manufacturing"

Technology Radar

Consultant to the European Commission

Publications for the European Commission

Satellite Communications

THHINK Cloud

The THHINK Group

THHINK Autonomous Systems Australia

THHINK BV

THHINK Wireless Technologies Japan (2011-2018)

THHINK at Techno Frontier 2013

THHINK at the 2nd and 3rd UK-Japan Workshops on Energy Harvesting