Issue #5 - published by the ebbits project - March, 2015

Farewell from the ebbits project

The ebbits project officially ended on 28th February 2015. The result is a widely deployable platform that allows enterprises to develop and deploy a new range of business applications by integrating the Internet of People, Things and Services into their systems.

- By using the ebbits platform, developers can create value-added IoT apps with less effort since the platform integrates information from heterogeneous real-world sensors and devices and contains event management, context aware features and semantic enrichment of data, explains Dr. Markus Eisenhauer, Project Coordinator from Fraunhofer FIT.

A particularly valuable aspect of ebbits is the aspect of traceability and life-cycle management.

- ebbits has developed and tested the platform and its functionalities in two domain applications: One for food traceability in a Danish setting and one for automotive manufacturing with the Italian automation company Comau. The tests have added a new and important level of quality and sustainability to business processes in the Internet of Things, Markus Eisenhauer continues.

In the food traceability scenario, the ebbits platform has demonstrated traceability at every step of the food chain with focus on beef, continuously collecting data about the product from farm to fork. The main aim has been to increase consumer confidence in food products and make the concept of traceabilty more transparent but also to give the farmer, the slaughterhouse and shop some new value added tools for data management and consumer interaction.

In automotive manufacturing, ebbits has enabled the optimisation of processes in the production of cars for the purpose of reducing energy consumption. To demonstrate life-cycle management, the energy footprint of a car across the full production chain has been traced, from the single element to the final product.

In the last part of the project, ebbits has further developed the business applications to support a many-to-many relationship, accommodating both the one-to-many relation existing in food traceability, where one cow ends up as many pieces, and the many-to-one relation in car manufacturing, where many parts are assembled into one car.

- The result is an innovative platform which supports complex interactions and processes by managing a wide range of objects, actors and systems through their digital representations, Markus Eisenhauer concludes.

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Architectural innovations and project outcomes

The development of the ebbits platform has been driven by the identification and integration of several innovations which have helped developers meet the requirements for user applications.

This has resulted in a range of architectural innovations and products aimed at developers and end users, covering three main innovation areas in ebbits: Efficient creation of innovative product services; Food product traceability through the entire life-cycle and Creation of a new performance indicator in car manufacturing.

Find out more about the innovations and products in the newly released brochure, available here: Brochure

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Did you meet ebbits?

During the project’s four and a half-year run, partners have published 34 papers, attended more than 70 events, and organised several hackathons and demonstrations.

Demonstrations were targeted software developers from the food and manufacturing industries, showcasing ebbits technologies but also discussing the business transition needed from the traditional manufacturing and selling of products to an IoT-based selling of functions and services.

Some demonstrations also focused on consumer end users showing the functionalities of the food traceability applications which offer traceability of food products through the entire life-cycle. A visit was made to the Danish super market SuperBest to get initial feedback on the traceability applications that ebbits offers.

- In general, consumers were interested in getting more information about meat products and animal welfare, particularly in relation to origin, medication, feeding and transport time. Consumers also saw the advantage in receiving a direct message if purchased meat was being withdrawn due to health risks, explains Senior Consultant, Trine Sørensen from In-JeT.

By scanning the meat, the ebbits food app provides information about the history of the meat from farm to shop. The user can find out where the cow was raised, how long the animal has been on grass and how long the transportation time to the slaughterhouse was etc.. The processing and quality of the meat at the butcher's is made known and additional services are provided such as knowing which cut is most popular as well as type of cut and preparation. Once purchased, consumers can rate the meat and receive notifications in the case of the meat being recalled.

- The results from the end user validation activities illustrate that consumers are conscious of food safety and health issues related to meat products and the animal’s life. The notion of meat being completely traceable from farm to fork is likely to become a more conscious factor influencing consumers’ food purchasing behaviour, Trine Sørensen says.

A butcher’s app for cutting and packaging bulk meat into smaller packages was also demonstrated. By using a scanner (QR and Bar codes), the app links the identity of the bulk with the cut allowing input of meat type end weight.

- The immediate response was that the authentication of information increase consumer confidence and subsequent sales. It becomes easier for the butcher to know more about the customers and their preferences due to a structured feedback and ordering which can help him plan and target the marketing of his products, Trine Sørensen explains.

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Hackathons are great

One of the experiences gained in ebbits is that organising hackathons is a good way of testing the developed software.

The ebbits project participated in three hackathon events – Campus Party 2013 in London, organised by O2/Telefonica, the Green Hackfest 2014 in Utrecht, organised by TheHackfest and UtrechtInc, and a Fraunhofer FIT hackathon in Sankt Augustin in February 2015.

- Hackathons are great. You get immediate and high-value feedback on the developed technology which is one of the major reasons for creating a hackathon challenge. You see how people not involved in your project use the technology provided, and you can use their feedback to improve the results of your project, says Senior Project Manager, Alexander Schneider from Fraunhofer FIT.

Campus Party Europe

At the Campus Party Europe 2013 hackathon, six projects participated in the ebbits hackathon challenge which was to create innovative solutions for the food traceability domain.

The winning team provided two apps with a different focus.

One app supported the end user in quickly finding the meat that matches his preferences best. The user can select his preference (e.g., high fat/low fat, organic/conventional, pork/beef) and by scanning the barcode, the app quickly gives a green light or red light if the piece of meat matches the preferences.

- The innovative aspect was that the app also provided the producers with the selected preferences so they can match the beef production with the consumer behaviour, Alexander Schneider says.

The other app provided an algorithm for calculating a quality score for the scanned piece of meat depending of the number of events detected. Therefore the quality rating would be reduced if a large number of transport events or loading/unloading were detected because changes in temperature influence the meat quality.

- The time the meat is on offer on the supermarket shelves would degrade the quality. One can envision that an innovative algorithm for these quality changes could be implemented to inform the customer about the quality level, Alexander Schneider says.

Green Hackfest

The theme for the Green Hackfest was applied sustainability. The ebbits challenge was to create a mobile app (or clickable prototype) in the domain of a green factory where products are assembled on a production line. The winning team from Belgium provided a prototype on “Benchmarking of factories” and “Predictive Maintenance”. The prototype featured innovative benchmarking integration across factories and between lines in same factory. It also provided visual support for real-time monitoring in combination with an energy consumption benchmark.

Hackathon at Fraunhofer FIT

At the ebbits hackathon at Fraunhofer FIT, students were given the task to provide support for developers of IoT applications.

- The winning team provided a solution where a domain model can be mapped with a business process model in a very easy to use and user friendly way. It provides a good overview of which sensors were mapped to which business process steps and checks whether all sensors are already connected, Alexander Schneider explains.

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