2022/02/14 by Antonio Salis, Angelo Marguglio, Salis, Antonio +7
Engineering · #Digital Transformation in Industry #Distributed #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Parallel #and Cluster Computing (cs.DC)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2202.06622
openalex publication_date 2022/02/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Process Industry (PI e.g. Steel, Metals, Chemicals, Cement, Asphalt,\nCeramics) is one of the leading sectors of the world economy, characterized\nhowever by intense environmental impact, and very high energy consumption. In\nspite of a traditional low innovation pace in PI, in the recent years a strong\npush at worldwide level towards the dual objective of improving the efficiency\nof plants and the quality of products, significantly reducing the consumption\nof electricity and CO2 emissions has taken momentum. Digital Technologies\n(namely Smart Embedded Systems, IoT, Data, AI and Edge-to-Cloud Technologies)\nare enabling drivers for a Twin Digital-Green Transition, as well as\nfoundations for human centric, safe, comfortable and inclusive work places.\nCurrently, digital sensors in plants produce a large amount of data which in\nmost cases constitutes just a potential and not a real value for Process\nIndustry, often locked-in in close proprietary systems and seldomly exploited.\nDigital technologies, with process modelling-simulation via digital twins, can\nbuild a bridge between the physical and the virtual worlds, bringing innovation\nwith great efficiency and drastic reduction of waste. In accordance with the\nguidelines of Industrie 4.0, the H2020 funded CAPRI project aims to innovate\nthe process industry, with a modular and scalable Reference Architecture, based\non open source software, which can be implemented both in brownfield and\ngreenfield scenarios. The ability to distribute processing between the edge,\nwhere the data is created, and the cloud, where the greatest computational\nresources are available, facilitates the development of integrated digital\nsolutions with cognitive capabilities. The reference architecture is being\nvalidated in the asphalt, steel & pharma pilot plants, allowing the development\nof integrated planning solutions, with scheduling and control of the plants.\n