A FIWARE-based IoT platform for enabling digital twins in a greenfield smart factory: an application study on a repurposed manufacturing line

The recent advent of novel concepts and technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Augmented Reality, Cloud Computing, and Artificial intelligence is transforming industry and society as a whole. Today, the large amount of data generated requires the design and development of new schemes for extracting valuable information. At the same time, The COVID-19 epidemic is posing unprecedented challenges for businesses, governments and companies around the world. This article refers to a company in Southern Italy that has decided to repurpose its production line to manufacture surgical masks. The situation is completely new for the firm, which does not have historical data. Therefore, the aim is to propose a FIWARE-based IoT architecture for supporting real-time data acquisition and enabling the creation of a digital twin. Preliminary results show that the proposed solution effectively helps the company in starting the new business. Furthermore, the use of digital twin-based realtime dashboards enables continuous and agile improvement in the management of warehouse, production and maintenance activities.