European project vf-OS, turns one year old
Last week the corresponding review of the project was carried out in Brussels. An explanatory video has also been edited about what the project will be like. The Universitat Politècnica de València, through the Center for Research in Production Management and Engineering (CIGIP), is one of the partners of the European project “Virtual Factory Open Operating System” (vf-OS), funded by the Horizon 2020 program ( H2020) from the European Commission with 7.75 million euros.
The Universitat Politècnica de València, through the Center for Research in Production Management and Engineering (CIGIP), is one of the partners of the European project “Virtual Factory Open Operating System” (vf-OS), funded by the Horizon 2020 program ( H2020) from the European Commission with 7.75 million euros.
The objective of the project is to create a new operating system for SMEs, which will contribute to improving their competitiveness; vf-OS will make it easier for software developers to build apps faster and cheaper for European small and medium-sized businesses.
The technical coordinator of the project is Raúl Poler, director of CIGIP and also a professor at the Alcoy campus of the UPV. As highlighted, vf-OS joins the different initiatives in H2020 that aim for Europe to assume the leadership of digital platforms for industry 4.0, creating a new operating system on which to develop the business applications of the future, with special attention to needs of European SMEs.
Open operating system
vf-OS will be an open operating system. It will consist of a system core, an application programming interface and an advanced data storage and communications system. It will be hosted on a platform, so that companies can install it for free and subsequently download apps created by software developers.
“An application development kit will be provided to software developers for programming apps that will work on vf-OS, using a business application store on the virtual platform. The goal is for the platform to end up hosting thousands of apps, at a very competitive price and easy installation. Like the Android or IOS marketplaces, some of the applications will be offered for free, others will offer Premium functionalities and others will be a one-time payment or by subscription, but always as modular as possible and with a common objective: to facilitate SMEs access to software tools that contribute to being more efficient and improving their competitiveness,” adds Poler.
14 partners from 7 countries (Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany, Netherlands and Lithuania) participate in the vf-OS project, of which 9 partners are SMEs. Coordinated by the British company, Information Catalyst, the project will run from October 2016 to September 2019.
