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 has 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 Chairs 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


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.


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.


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.



Hannover Messe

THHINK were delighted to attend the Hannover Messe this year 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 is supporting 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.



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).



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 is to set the scene for the PICASSO project and as input to the Expert Groups for discussions. Another aim of the document is 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.



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. PICASSO is part of the European Union Horizon 2020 programme.

The PICASSO project on "ICT Policy, Research and Innovation for a Smart Society: towards new avenues in EU-US ICT collaboration", will bring together EU and US prominent specialists with the aim of reinforcing EU-US ICT collaboration in pre-competitive research in key enabling technologies related to societal challenges of common interest - 5G Networks, Big Data, Internet of Things and Cyber Physical Systems - and to support the EU-US ICT policy dialogue.

THHINK leads Work Package 1 establishing EU-US Industrial drivers, societal needs and the ICT collaboration landscape. THHINK is also acting as an expert on the PICASSO IoT/CPS Working Group.

This first meeting was a great success: the fruitful discussions proved that all members of the team are highly motivated to support the EU-US ICT collaboration over the next 30 months, by bringing together EU and US prominent specialists with the aim of reinforcing EU-US ICT collaboration in pre-competitive research in key enabling technologies related to societal challenges of common interest and to support the EU-US ICT policy dialogue.


PICASSO Project: EU-US ICT Collaboration

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 required.

The PICASSO project aims to reinforce 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.

THHINK leads Work Package 1 establishing EU-US Industrial drivers, societal needs and the ICT collaboration landscape. The company is producing a panorama of EU-US ICT policies and regulations, programs, priorities, networks, projects and access opportunities. THHINK is also analysing industrial drivers, societal needs, cross-domain relationships/application areas/opportunities for EU-US collaboration in non-competitive and pre-competitive areas. THHINK acts as an Expert on the PICASSO IoT/CPS Working Group.


THHINK at TechnoFrontier 2015

THHINK Japan recently exhibited innovative Energy Harvesting technologies at TechnoFrontier 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. THHINK are proud to be founding members of an Alliance including The University of Tokyo, OMRON Corp., AGC, Techno Design Co. Ltd., and Konishiyasu Co. Ltd. promoting the use of productionised energy harvesting technologies. Yutaka Hattori and Yasu Hatano from THHINK Japan attended the event.

At the event, 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 was launching 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 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.






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

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.

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

Project Coordinator:
Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum

Partners:
THHINK Wireless Technologies
Institute for Manufacturing ECS, University of Cambridge
Fraunhofer IPA
Critical Manufacturing
Atos

To find out more, you can download and read the full Road4FAME book here:
Road4FAME Handbook: Strategic Research & Innovation Roadmap and Business Opportunities for ICT in Manufacturing





New THHINK White Paper: "Innovation Pipeline for Europe"

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





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 has 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.

The Road4FAME project is 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).

Road4FAME is aimed at developing a Strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap for Future Architectures and Services for Manufacturing in Europe. It is co-financed under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission.

Read the full news article and download the Road4FAME report here:
Road4FAME Project identifies 4 Priority Research Areas for Manufacturing ...









THHINK Wireless Sensors and Energy Harvesting

Demonstrations of THHINK wireless sensors being powered by THHINK microgenerator technologies. These examples showcase a few of many more applications that harvest energy from commonly available energy sources in our surrounding environment:

THHINK Self-Powered Wireless Sensors

Coffee Mug Power
As an example, a wireless sensor designed by THHINK can be powered exclusively by waste heat from a regular coffee mug. Each blink of its LED indicates transmission of a wireless message by the ultra-low power sensor (2.4GHz). Perfectly complements Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies.

Wireless Sensors powered by Motor Vibration

Wireless Sensors powered at Railway Track by passing Trains

Energy Harvesting from Human Motion to power Body Networks and Devices



THHINK at the 2ndUK-Japan Workshop on Energy Harvesting

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 will be at the 3rd UK-Japan Energy Harvesting Workshop which will be held as part of the PowerMEMS Conference in London in December 2013.


THHINK at Techno Frontier







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 - the University of Tokyo, OMRON Corp., AGC, THHINK Wireless Technologies Japan, Techno Design Co. Ltd., and Konishiyasu Co. Ltd. - are 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.

Our thanks go to all the partners who put in huge efforts to make the launch of the Electret Energy Harvester Alliance such a great success.

Demonstrations of Vibration Microgenerators in Action:

 




 

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