Factory competitiveness and electromobility through innovation and digital transformation plus. The general objective of the project is to give continuity to the activities carried out in Facendo 4.0 and that will allow Stellantis to compete in the automotive market through the cutting edge of the latest technologies and energy efficiency, positioning itself as a reference provider of mobility services at an international level.
The project will focus on 2 technological areas, advanced connectivity and operation in the cloud-continuum. In the case of connectivity, the novelty focuses on integrating the vehicle into the advanced 5G/6G communications infrastructure throughout its manufacturing cycle through a digital connectivity twin. In the case of the cloud-continuum, the computing loads will be extended from the cloud to the edge in an efficient and transparent manner seeking to optimize resources and energy expenditure. These actions will allow the factory to be directed towards the “factory of the future” and focused on the “autonomous and connected vehicle”, as well as, progressively, everything electrified, intelligent and respectful of the environment.
Progress made
In this first year of project implementation, Gradiant has already been able to analyse in depth how the automotive industry currently manages its applications in the cloud. In addition, a first proposal has been made to automate a large part of the deployments in Cloud and Edge. It has also been possible to note in this first year a reduction in deployment time and greater ease of management.
In terms of communication technologies, the needs of the industry in terms of connected vehicles have been detected and known. The design of a digital communications twin has been proposed, which is expected to become the communications management and debugging system for the car of the future.
In the second year of implementation, Gradiant designed systems to improve the development and operation of factory information and communication systems, as well as implementing improvements for cloud communications and digital twins. In this regard, Cloud Continuum updated and improved key technologies for cloud environment management. This includes orchestration, automation, application packaging, and continuous integration and deployment processes. In addition, new execution environments are being evaluated, and performance tests have been carried out for different languages.
As for the connected vehicle, an Edge device has been designed and built that monitors the vehicle’s 5G connections, evaluates different mobile operators and manages data sessions at the same time. In addition, security mechanisms are incorporated to store keys securely and generate digital certificates that guarantee reliable access.
