Silicon Economy Logistics Ecosystem

Problem definition

Although economically independent partners work together in value creation networks, they do not trust each other. As a result, the basis for cross-company automation and autonomization of service provision, process execution and payment transactions does not exist. This challenge can be ideally addressed by combining artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. Open and federated platforms are the basis for the economic use of AI solutions and for new services, technologies and applications in logistics and supply chain management. With the proclamation of the "Silicon Economy Logistics Ecosystem" in May 2020, an ambitious goal was set at the logistics location Dortmund - the development of an open source infrastructure for the platform economy of the future.

Objective

With a funding volume of 35 million euros from the BMVI, a large-scale research project has thus been created that forms a counter-design to Silicon Valley. The participating institutions include the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML), the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISST) and the Technical University of Dortmund with the Chair of Enterprise Logistics (LFO), the Chair of Industrial Information Management (IIM) and the Chair of Materials Handling and Warehousing (FLW). The aim is to create a software and hardware environment that will steer logistics into the future with the help of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. The LFO is involved both in the project management of the Silicon Economy project and in two specific sub-projects. Technical flexibility is required within the software developments, as the cloud services must meet the necessary open source capability and the cross-project standards of high-quality source code in the agile development process.

The guiding principle "No development without application" is also intended to address an important, participatory aspect - concrete needs from industry and SMEs and thus comprehensive cooperation with companies should open up access to the business models of the future.

The three Silicon Economy communities - "Transport Information", "Computer Vision" and "Automation & IoT" - offer companies and scientific organizations a wide range of opportunities to collaborate on solutions for the future of logistics.

Approach

Development of Silicon Economy infrastructure and basic components:

Realization of an open and federated digital infrastructure through the development of IoT Broker, Blockchain Broker and Logistics Broker and the definition and implementation of basic components and standard logistics functions.

Integration and networking of existing infrastructures through the use and further development of components of existing projects and initiatives.

2. development of a Silicon Economy platform (100% open source) & Silicon Economy community

Establishment of a Silicon Economy platform and community and provision of open source components in dialog with companies in the logistics industry.

Validation and industrial piloting of development results and establishment of an entity to ensure the provision of the developed open source components (esp. operation of the Silicon Economy platform).

Creation of new services in the ecosystem, such as the development of AI algorithms for the automation and autonomization of logistics processes and supply chains.