Big Data Streaming Analytics in a networked, adaptive production
WZL and Dell Technologies strengthen pre-competitive cooperation
Since the summer of 2018, the Division of Digital Transformation at the Chair of Manufacturing Technol-ogy at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at RWTH Aachen University and Dell Technologies have been working together within a pre-competitive program, the Early Adopter Program EAP2. In a virtualized environment, the basic suitability of a new data streaming reference ar-chitecture developed by Dell Technologies for industrial big data applications was tested across borders between several Dell Technologies sites in Seattle, Neuss and Frankfurt and with the WZL staff in Aa-chen. For this purpose, real industrial data sets of an industrial large-scale production plant Feintool XFT 2500 speed were used for safety-critical metal components of the WZL's incubator fineblanking. With a theoretical data rate of several gigabits per second, a multitude of data types as well as data volumes of several terabytes per day, the incubator fineblanking is an ideal challenger for batch and streaming ar-chitectures for structured and unstructured data analysis.
The further cooperation between WZL and Dell Technologies now plans to implement the virtual prelimi-nary work as a real application in the machine hall at Rotter Bruch. There, the existing Edge Computing Cluster from Dell Technologies will be extended by a flight rack with a computing power of 240 processor cores, 1.5 TB RAM and 6 Tesla P100 GPU graphics cards. In addition to a Dell EMC Isilon NAS storage, the flight rack also contains the developed reference architecture for Big Data Streaming Analytics based on a HCI solution. The aim of the collaboration is to process the data streams coming from the mass production plant in approximate real time using the extended edge computing cluster and to explore val-uable insights for improved process control.
Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.Ing. Daniel Trauth, Chief Engineer and Head of the Division for Digital Transformation at WZL, is pleased about the cooperation: "Everyone wins through such projects. Dell Technologies re-ceives important feedback to improve its pre-competitive development based on a unique field study and we can significantly extend the process limits of the investigated manufacturing process based on un-known patterns. Both will ultimately benefit the future user in daily practice".
WZL and Dell Technologies also work together on other strategic issues. IoT experts from Dell Technol-ogies were inspired to participate in an important lecture for the Aachen Machine Tool Colloquium AWK in May 2020 based on these results.
Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL)
The Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University has stood worldwide for more than 100 years for future-oriented research and successful innovations in the field of production technology.
Under the leadership of four professors Thomas Bergs, Christian Brecher, Robert Schmitt und Günther Schuh, the WZL is conducting research in six areas - production technology, machine tools, production systems, transmission technology, production metrology and quality management - on the future-oriented design of production in high-wage countries. Together with industry partners from various sectors, the WZL develops solutions for a wide variety of production scenarios in both publicly funded and bilateral projects. These activities are being consolidated on the RWTH Aachen Campus in the Cluster Production Engineering.
About Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a unique family of companies that helps organizations and individuals shape their future digitally and transform workplaces and private spheres. The company offers customers the indus-try's broadest and most innovative portfolio of technologies and services, from the endpoint and edge of the network to computing solutions and cloud computing. The Dell Technologies family includes Dell, Dell EMC, Pivotal, RSA, Secureworks, Virtustream and VMware.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Contact WZL:
Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Wirt.Ing. Daniel Trauth
Tel: +49 241 80 27999
d.trauth@wzl.rwth-aachen.de
Contact Dell Technologies:
Christian Viermann
Tel: +49 151 2045 7127
christian.viermann@dell.com