Edge Cloud 4 Production: IT-based factory automation enters series production

Audi has been testing the local server solution Edge Cloud 4 Production (EC4P), a new method of IT-based factory automation, at Böllinger Höfe since July 2022. Starting in July 2023, this paradigm shift in Audi’s shop floor IT will be used for the first time in series production. At Böllinger Höfe, a local server cluster will control the worker support systems for two production cycles of the Audi e-tron GT quattro, RS e-tron GT, and Audi R8 models. In the future, the software-controlled, flexible, and scalable server solution will replace the decentralized control system that relies on high-maintenance industrial PCs. EC4P allows Audi to redeploy the computing power the production line requires to local data processing centers. In addition to this first application in series production, Audi is simultaneously adapting EC4P for other use cases in the Audi Production Lab (P-Lab).

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