Manufacturer: Industrial Automation
Product Series: R-Series
Designation: Astromech Droid
Affiliation: Galactic Republic
Gender programming: Masculine programming
Photo receptor: Red/Blue
Owner: Anakin Skywalker
What sounds like a litany by the blog author after seeing the latest Star Wars movie is actually an excerpt from the characteristics of one of the most famous protagonists of the sequel trilogy. Though the iiRDS has nothing in common with R2-D2 apart from a similar-sounding name, it does have something in common with the characteristics quoted above.
And now to the topic at hand: the iiRDS (Intelligent Information Research and Delivery Standard) describes a tekom standard for classification and for the exchange of information that is currently in development.
This is where the iiRDS comes in: it provides the author with a set of metadata that make it possible to classify an informational unit. A simple example of classification would be to mark the information as “maintenance”, a piece of metadata standardised by the iiRDS.
In summary, a characteristic for the iiRDS could (currently – the standard is after all still open and in development) look as follows:
- Manufacturer-independent
- Independent of the tool used to record information
- Exchangeability guaranteed
- Vocabulary for the description of technical information
- Open standard: user-specific additions possible
- Metadata are formalised in the RDFS (Resource Description Framework Schema)
Only the definition of the query language for the “request” is still missing from the current version of the iiRDS. It will be exciting to see what happens next.
And why is all this happening? Partly because, when R2-D2 is in an Industry-4.0 environment, there is no need for him to waste time searching for spare parts once his sensors have reported that his right knee joint will soon need to be replaced during maintenance.
And so this blog ends as it began: “May the information be with you.”
... to be continued
By the way, at kothes we are already applying the current version of the iiRDS in a few initial projects in order to determine its usefulness.