Interoperable software platforms for introducing artificial intelligence components in manufacturing: A...

The irruption of advanced technologies and the limited knowledge of software architectures are making it difficult for many small and medium-sized manufacturing companies to keep up with what is being called the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0, Industry of the Future). Container orchestration platforms provide layers of simplification for key requirements such as interoperability, security, and privacy, and provide mechanisms that allow companies and technology providers to focus on their specific functionalities and goals, instead of investing considerable time and effort in the underlying platform on which the solution will operate. This article focuses on these platforms and the issues when developing them, and proposes a risk- and goal-oriented hybrid meta-framework for security and privacy analysis. The meta-framework uses well-known security and privacy standards and frameworks as a reference and can be used to understand assets and requirements and, in particular, to select and configure countermeasures. For practical evaluation of the meta-framework, it was applied to a real case. This case shows how the needs of the KITT4SME project platform were analyzed to support, among others, four manufacturing pilot cases and to define the key security and privacy features that should be introduced when implementing a software platform for easy uptake by small and medium enterprises.