A Microservice-based Middleware for the Digital Factory

In recent years a considerable effort has been spent by research and industrial communities in the digitalization of production environments with the main objective of achieving a new automation paradigm, more flexible, responsive to changes, and safe. This paper presents the architecture, and discusses the benefits, of a distributed middleware prototype supporting a new generation of smart-factory-enabled applications with special attention paid to simulation tools. Devised within the scope of MAYA EU project, the proposed platform aims at being the first solution capable of empowering shop-floor Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPSs), providing an environment for their Digital Twin along the whole plant life-cycle. The platform implements a microservice IoT-Big Data architecture supporting the distributed publication of multidisciplinary simulation models, managing in an optimized way streams of data coming from the shop-floor for real-digital synchronization, ensuring security and confidentiality of sensible data.