IP1: Impulsprojekt 1: Quality control of foodproduction with Cyber-Physical Systems and Big Data

The quality control and assurance are essential aspects in food production. In addition to technical-economical goals such as exploitation and utilization of resources, compliance with legal requirements including those of consumer protection plays an important role. Faulty quality can lead to many market consequences such as higher production costs and complaints.

The aim of this “Impulse Project” is to continuously generate a model of a product and production processes from e.g. sensor data or resources information, the so-called “virtual image”. On the basis of this model, real-time information on properties and product quality can be derived without time-consuming testing or expensive equipment (e.g. sensors). This continuous carrying of a virtual image of a physical object represents the core idea of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and thus also of Industrie 4.0, which is consistently applied in the food industry.

With the achievement of this goal, this project sets far-reaching “Impulses” by initiating a disruptive change in the quality assurance in the food industry from only random sampling and retrospective quality philosophy towards a continuous (prospective) monitoring.

The overall objective is to generate a competitive advantage for food manufacturers, for the respective machine and production system manufacturers as well as for the automation industry. The economic benefits manifest themselves in an improved space-time (system capacity) and resource exploitation. This is accomplished by predictions in process and resource fluctuations, premature detection of faulty batches and security risks as well as a real-time release of completed products.