Archive for category: Europe EN

Promoting data sharing between economic players is one of Europe’s major objectives via its digital governance strategy. To accomplish this, there are two specific challenges to be met. Firstly, a community must be created around data issues, bringing together various stakeholders from multiple sectors. Secondly, the technological choices implemented by these stakeholders must be harmonised.

‘If we want more efficient algorithms, with qualified uncertainty and reduced bias, we need not only more data, but more diverse data’, explains Sylvain Le Corff. This statistics researcher at Télécom SudParis thus raises the whole challenge around data sharing. This need applies not only to researchers. Industrial players must also strengthen their data with that from their ecosystem. For instance, an energy producer will benefit greatly from industrial data sharing with suppliers or consumer groups, and vice versa. A car manufacturer will become all the more efficient with more data sources from their sub-contractors.

The problem is that this sharing of data is far from being a trivial operation. The reason lies in the numerous technical solutions that exist to produce, store and use data. The long-standing and over-riding idea for economic players was to try to exploit their data themselves, and each organisation therefore made personal choices in terms of architecture, format or data-related protocols. An algorithm developed to exploit data sets in a specific format cannot use data packaged in another format. This then calls for a major harmonisation phase.

‘This technical aspect is often under-estimated in data sharing considerations’, Sylvain Le Corff comments. ‘Yet we are aware that there is a real difficulty with the pre-treatment operation to harmonise data.’ The researcher quotes the example of automatic language analysis, a key issue for artificial intelligence, which relies on the automatic processing of texts from multiple sources: raw texts, texts generated by audio or video documents, or texts derived from other texts, etc. This is the notion of multi-modality. ‘The plurality of sources is well-managed in the field, but the manner in which we oversee this multi-modality can vary within the same sector.’ Two laboratories or two companies will therefore not harmonise their data in the same way. In order to work together, there is an absolute need to go through this fastidious pre-treatment, which can hamper collaboration.

A European data standard

Olivier Boissier, a researcher in artificial intelligence and inter-operability at Mines Saint-Étienne, adds another factor to this issue: ‘The people who help to produce or process data are not necessarily data or AI specialists. In general, they are people with high expertise in the field of application, but don’t always know how to open or pool data sets.’ Given such technical limitations, a promising approach consists in standardising practices. This task is being taken on by the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), whose role is to promote data sharing on a global scale, and more particularly in Europe.

Contrary to what one might assume, the idea of a data standard does not mean imposing a single norm on data format, architecture or protocol. Each sector has already worked on ontologies to help facilitate dialogue between data sets. ‘Our intention is not to provide yet another ontology’, explains Antoine Garnier, project head at IDSA. ‘What we are offering is more of a meta-model which enables a description of data sets based on those sector ontologies, and with an agnostic approach in terms of the sectors it targets.’

This standard could be seen as a list of conditions on which to base data use. To summarise the conditions in IDSA’s architectural model, ‘the three cornerstones are the inter-operability, certification and governance of data’, says Antoine Garnier. Thanks to this approach, the resulting standard serves as a guarantee of quality between players. It enables users to determine rapidly whether an organisation fulfils these conditions and is thus trustworthy. This system also raises the question of security, which is one of the primary concerns of organisations who agree to open their data.

Europe, the great lake region of data?

While developing a standard is a step forward in technical terms, it remains to be put into actual use. For this, its design must incorporate the technical, legal, economic and political concerns of European data stakeholders – producers and users alike. Hence the importance of creating a community consisting of as many organisations as possible. In Europe, since 2020, this community has had a name, Gaia-X, an association of players, including together IMT and IDSA in particular, to structure efforts around the federation of data, software and infrastructure clouds. Via Gaia-X, public and private organisations aim to roll out standardisation actions, using the IDSA standard among others, but may also implement research, training or awareness activities.

‘This is such a vast issue that if we want to find a solution, we must approach it through a community of experts in security, inter-operability, governance and data analysis’ Olivier Boissier points out, emphasising the importance of dialogue between specialists around this topic. Alongside their involvement in Gaia-X, IMT and IDSA are organising a winter school from 2 to 4 December to raise awareness among young researchers of data-sharing issues (see insert below). With the support of the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future, it will provide the keys to understanding technical and human issues, through concrete cases. ‘Within the research community, we are used to taking part in conferences to keep up to date on the state of play of our field, but it is difficult to have a deeper understanding of the problems faced by other fields’, Sylvain Le Corff admits. ‘This type of Franco-German event is essential to structuring the European community and forming a global understanding of an issue, by taking a step back from our own area of expertise.’ 

The European Commission has made no secret of its ambition to create a space for the free circulation of data within Europe. In other words, a common environment in which personal and confidential data would be secured, but also in which organisations would have easy access to a significant amount of industrial data. To achieve this idyllic scenario of cooperation between data players, the collective participation of organisations is an absolute prerequisite. For academics, the communitarian approach is a core practice and does not represent a major challenge. For businesses, however, there remains a certain number of stakeholders to win over. The majority of major industries have understood the benefits of data sharing, ‘but some companies still see data as a monetizable war treasure that they must avoid sharing’, says Antoine Garnier. ‘We must take an informative approach and shatter preconceived ideas.’

Read on I’MTech: Data sharing: an important issue for the agricultural sector

What about non-European players? When we speak about data sharing, we systematically refer to the cloud, a market cornered by three American players, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, behind which we find other American stakeholders (IBM and Oracle) and a handful of Chinese interests such as Alibaba and Tencent. How do we convince these ‘hyper-scalers’ (the title refers to their ability to scale up to meet growing demand, regardless of the sector) to adopt a standard which is not their own, when they are the owners of the technology upon which the majority of data use is based? ‘Paradoxically, we are perhaps not such bad news for them’ Antoine Garnier assures us. ‘Along with this standard, we are also offering a form of certification. For players suffering from a negative image, this allows them to demonstrate compliance with the rules.’

This standardisation strategy also impacts European digital sovereignty and the transmission of its values. In the same way as Europe succeeded in imposing a personal data protection standard in the 2010s with the formalisation of the GDPR, it is currently working to define a standard around industrial data sharing. Its approach to this task is identical, i.e. to make standardisation a guarantee of security and responsible management. ‘A standard is often perceived as a constraint, but it is above all a form of freedom’ concludes Olivier Boissier. ‘By adopting a standard, we free ourselves of the technical and legal constraints specific to each given use.’

[box type=”info” align=”” class=”” width=””]From 2 to 4 December: a winter school on data sharing

Around the core theme of Data Analytics & AI, IMT and TU Dortmund are organising a winter school on data sharing for industrial systems, from 2 to 4 December 2020, in collaboration with IDSA, the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future and with the support of the Franco-German University. Geared towards doctoral students and young researchers, its aim is to open perspectives and establish a state of play on the question of data exchange between European stakeholders. Through the participation of various European experts, this winter school will examine the technical, economic and ethical aspects of data sharing by bringing together the field expertise of researchers and industrial players.

Information and registration

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The Industry Without Borders project launched by the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future in 2017 seeks to challenge the idea that digital technology dissolves borders. Madeleine Besson and Judith Igelboeck, from Institut Mines-Télécom Business School and the Technical University of Munich respectively, explain why it is not so easy in practice.

Industry is going digital and this has brought about a wave of changes. The emphasis on open innovation pushes for the dissolution of borders within a company and in relationships between various organizations. “It’s not so easy,” says Madeleine Besson, a researcher in management at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School. “We’ve seen that it’s becoming more fluid, but digitalization can also create new borders or reinforce those that already exist.”

The aim of the Industry Without Borders  project launched in 2017 was to identify factors that can lead to the creation of borders in companies and look at how these aspects are evolving. The project is led by the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future, which brings together teams from IMT and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). “We looked at the way borders can be built, rebuilt, and at times, strengthened or effectively broken down,”  says Judith Igelsboeck, an organizational studies researcher at TUM. Research teams on both sides of the Rhine worked with companies, through field studies and qualitative interviews, in order to determine the changes that have been brought about by digital technology.

“We considered the idea of open innovation in particular,” says Madeleine Besson. Today, companies  consult consumers much more often in the processes of creation and innovation, but it often remains  under the company’s control. Conversely, Judith Igelsboeck reports that “a study in an IT consulting firm in Germany showed that customers went so far as to request the firm’s skills database so that they could choose the profiles of the IT specialists for their project directly themselves. The opening here is therefore clear.”

What borders?

“For a long time, borders in the business world were formalized from an economic viewpoint,” explains the French researcher. This includes assets and goods, employees and the machines used. “But the scope is much wider than that, and most importantly, it’s very mobile.”  A number of other aspects may also come into play, such as customer relationships and their involvement in innovation processes, as in the previous example, and relationships between different companies.

As far as internal borders are concerned, for example concerning organization within a department, management models tend to be moving toward eliminating borders. “This idea is reflected in efforts to redesign the very architecture of the office – the principle of open space,” explains Judith Igelsboeck. Workspaces become more agile, flexible and free of internal separations. The aim is to create more communal spaces, so that co-workers get to know each other better in order to work together.

But ultimately, open space may not be as open as it seems. “Employees reclaim ownership of the space by creating borders to mark out their personal space,” says Madeleine Besson. They do so by making special adjustments – at times perceptible only to those who use the workspace – to mark a space as their own.

Read more on I’MTech: Can workspaces become agile?

Madeleine Besson reminds us that, “the general consensus in scientific literature and the media is that digital tools and artificial intelligence facilitate instant connections, not only between people, but between things.” Supply chains should be developed in a single, seamless automated process, that can work beyond organizational borders. But it is not so clear in practice, and digital tools even appear to add new barriers.

Between theory and practice

“Imagine a printer that uses an automated tool to help manage the paper supply,”  says the French researcher. “A connected IT system between the paper supplier and the printer could help regulate paper ordering depending on current stock and the factories’ operations. The supplier becomes a sort of stockpile the company can draw on – the system is shared and the borders are therefore weakened.”

Yet, the same example could also be used to illustrate how new borders are created. If these companies use competing systems, such as Apple and Android, they will face insurmountable barriers since these two systems are not interoperable. “Technological change can also create a new border,”  adds Madeleine Besson. “It can create sub-categories between organizations that have the desire and skills to converse with computers, and others that may feel like they are merely assistants for automatons.”

“Our team encountered such a feeling during an interview with the staff of an after-sales service company,”  says the researcher. Their workday revolves around making rounds to customers whose equipment has broken down. Traditionally, these employees organized their own rounds. But their schedule is now managed by a computer system and they receive the list of customers to visit the night before. “The employees were frustrated that they were no longer in control of their own schedule. They didn’t want their responsibilities to be taken away”  she explains.

“They would meet up in the morning before making their rounds to exchange appointments. Some didn’t want to go to into big cities, others wanted to keep the customers they’d been working with for a long time. So the digital tool puts up a barrier within the company and is a source of tension and frustration, which could potentially give rise to conflicts or disputes.”  These changes are made without adequately consulting the internal parties involved and can lead to conflict in the company’s overall operations.

Across the Rhine

This initial phase of the project with a number of field studies in France and Germany is expected to lead to new collaborations. For the researchers, it would be interesting to study the changes on either side of the Rhine and determine whether similar transformations are underway, or if a cultural aspect may lead to either the dissolution or crystallization of borders.

“Each country has its own vision and strategy for the industry of the future,”  says Judith Igelsboeck. So it is conceivable that cultural differences will be perceptible. “The intercultural aspect is a point to be considered, but for now, we haven’t been able to study it in a single company with a German and French branch.”  This may be the topic for a new French-German collaboration. The German researcher says that another possible follow-up to this project could focus on the use of artificial intelligence in business management.

Tiphaine Claveau for I’MTech

The European H2020 Subcultron project was completed in November 2019 and successfully deployed an autonomous fleet of underwater robots in the Venice lagoon. After four years of work, the research consortium  — which includes IMT Atlantique ­— has demonstrated the feasibility of synchronizing a swarm of over one hundred autonomous units in a complex environment. An achievement made possible by the use of robots equipped with a bio-inspired sixth sense known as an “electric sense.”

Curious marine species inhabited the Venice lagoon from April 2016 to November 2019. Nautical tourists and divers were able to observe strange transparent mussels measuring some forty centimeters, along with remarkable black lily pads drifting on the water’s surface. But amateur biologists would have been disappointed had they made the trip to observe them, since these strange plants and animals were actually artificial.  They were robots submerged in the waters of Venice as part of the European H2020 Subcultron project. Drawing on electronics and biomimetics, the project’s aim was to deploy an underwater swarm of over 100 robots, which were able to coordinate autonomously with one another by adapting to the environment.

To achieve this objective, the scientists taking part in the project chose Venice as the site for carrying it out. “The Venice lagoon is a sensitive, complex environment,” says Frédéric Boyer, a robotics researcher at IMT Atlantique — a member of the Subcultron research consortium. “It has shallow, very irregular depths, interspersed with all sorts of obstacles. The water is naturally turbid. The physical quantities of the environment vary greatly: salinity, temperature etc.” In short, the perfect environment for putting the robots in a difficult position and testing their capacity for adaptation and coordination.

An ecosystem of marine robots

As a first step, the researchers deployed 130 artificial mussels in the lagoon.  The mussels were actually electronic units encapsulated in a watertight tube. They were able to collect physical data about the environment but did not have the ability to move, other than sinking and resurfacing. Their autonomy was ensured by an innovative charging system developed by one of  the project partners: the Free University of Brussels. On the surface, the floating “lily pads” powered by solar energy were actually data processing bases. There was just one problem: the artificial mussels and lily pads could not communicate with one another. That’s where the notion of coordination and a third kind of robots came into play.

In the turbid waters of the Venice lagoon, artificial fish were responsible for transmitting environmental data from the bottom of the lagoon to the surface.

To send information from the bottom of the lagoon to the surface, the researchers deployed some fifty robotic fish. “They’re the size of a big sea bream and are driven by small propellers, so unlike the other robots, they can move,” explains Frédéric Boyer. This means that there is only a single path for transmitting data between the bottom of the lagoon and the surface: the mussels transmit information to the fish who swim towards the surface to deliver it to the lily pads, and then return to the mussels to start the process over again.  And all of this takes place in a variable marine environment, where the lily pads drift and the fish have to adapt.

Fish with a sixth sense

Developing this autonomous robot ecosystem was particularly difficult . “Current robots are developed with a specific goal, and are rarely intended to coordinate with other robots with different roles,” explains Frédéric Boyer. Developing the artificial fish, which played a crucial role, was therefore the biggest challenge of the project. The IMT Atlantique team contributed to these efforts by providing expertise on a bio-inspired sense: electric sense.

“It’s a sense found in certain fish that live in the waters of tropical forests,” says the researcher. “They have electrosensitive skin, which allows them to measure the distortions of electric fields produced by themselves or others in their immediate environment: another fish passing nearby causes a variation that they can feel. This means that they can stalk their prey or detect predators in muddy water or at night.” The artificial fish of the turbid Venice lagoon were equipped with this electric sense.

This capacity made it possible for the fish to engage in organizational, cooperative behaviors. Rather than each fish looking for the mussels and the lily pads on their own, they grouped together and travelled in schools. They were therefore better able to detect variations in the electric field, whether under the water or on the surface, and align themselves in the right direction. “It’s a bit like a compass that aligns itself with the Earth’s electromagnetic field,” says Frédéric Boyer.

The Subcultron project therefore marked two important advances in the field of robotics: the coordination of a fleet of autonomous agents and equipping under-water robots with a bio-inspired sense. These advances are of particular interest for monitoring ecosystems and the marine environment. One of the secondary aims of the project, for example, was tracking the phenomenon of oxygen depletion in the water of the Venice lagoon. An event that occurs at irregular intervals, in an unpredictable manner, which leads to local mortality of aquatic species. Using the data they measured, the swarm of underwater robots successfully demonstrated that it is possible to forecast this phenomenon more effectively. In other words, an artificial ecosystem for the benefit of the natural ecosystem.

Learn more about Subcultron

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The Subcultron project was officially launched in April 2015 as part of the Horizon 2020 research program . It was coordinated by the University of Graz, in Austria. It brought together IMT Atlantique in France, along with partners in Italy (the Pisa School of Advanced Studies, and the Venice Lagoon Research Consortium), Belgium (the Free University of Brussels), Croatia (the University of Zagreb), and Germany (Cybertronica).

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