WP 1 - Project Management This workpackage has been established to monitor, track and trace the project progress with regard to time, resources and quality. A project management handbook (PMH) was set up, based on the Capability Maturity Model® Integration CMMI® (for further information please see: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/ ). It is envisaged to serve as a "cookbook" for all project participants facing project related questions and challenges. The PMH is based on the experience in project management of several partners. It is structured according to seven Key Process Areas (KPA), identified to be necessary for a successful conduct: Requirement Management, Project Work Plan and Tracking, Configuration Management, Project Oversight Control, Consortium Management, Quality Assurance and Dissemination and Exploitation. A KPA as understood in MYCAREVENT is a cluster of related tasks and activities in an area that, when performed collectively, satisfies a set of goals considered to be important for making significant improvement in that area. Due to the project structure, the timely completion of all work in the workpackages is crucial. Therefore, effective project management procedures, especially a efficient workflow for preparing deliverables and the efficient escalation procedure for handling deliverable delays, are success factors for MYCAREVENT. Amendments and resolutions as well as open issues regarding project management are tracked.

Project Management Tools

 

WP 2 – Use Cases and Business Development The aim of strengthening the competitiveness of Europe in the limelight of the information society, as laid out in the EC's Lisbon Objectives, can only be achieved, if strong business cases support the technological development and innovative solutions that are elaborated in research projects. The MYCAREVENT initiative has therefore established a workpackage that is dedicated to the business aspects associated with the research and development performed. Its goal is to provide guidance in early phases and to set out a framework to facilitate the take up of research results and their transformation into profitable business. Consequently, all major consortium members play an important role in this activity.   Use cases and market analysis The first task performed by the WP was the definition of possible use cases based on a market analysis. The consolidated user survey results analysed more than 2,600 user responses from twelve sources in three countries, covering all relevant MYCAREVENT user groups. It gives an overview on attitudes of the private and professional users towards remote services, which are predominantly positive. From the drivers´ perspective main advantages are seen in an improvement of speed and in the possibility to remotely diagnose and repair electronic failures. Professional users, such as independent and OEM workshops and independent and authorized roadside assistance are expecting time shortages for diagnostic tasks, an easier procurement of spare parts, an easier finding of required information and cost reductions.   The evaluation of the 2600 questionnaires, face to face interviews and walkthroughs supported by numerous companies inside and outside the MYCAREVENT consortium provided a solid basis for a business planning and set the guidelines for further research and development activities.

Expectations to online diagnostics from an independent workshop perspective

 

Problem Evaluation In a Problem-Potential-Matrix the users’ current problems have been discussed and subsequently matched with future potentials to analyse the possible improvement of the connection between different users and the information providers of the mobile service world. While the main problems for the Independent Roadside Organisation and independent workshops turn out to be limited access to OEM specific tools, database and diagnostic devices as well as insufficient illustration of repair manual and circuit-diagrams, the OEM Roadside an OEM Workshop chiefly suffer from the lack of direct access to special and specific information sources and vague cause-effect-relationship. The Problem-Potential-Matrix indicates a number of business opportunities, such as the construction of a web portal for diagnosis and repair information, the design of future repair manuals and interactive circuit diagrams. Based on these business opportunities and supported by 25 use cases concrete business models have been realised by modelling abstract roles of the relevant market participants and their product and service offers towards the market.   Business Modelling The results of the survey and the Problem-Potential-Matrix are also taken as the foundation for more detailed consideration in business planning. A new approach for a Business Modelling of innovative information services is presented, with specific attention on inter-organizational cooperative networks and information management within distributed entrepreneurial networks. This is the basis for the business modelling activities which have been de-composed into six different sub-models according to the House of Value Creation, such as the output model the production and service design model the market model the network and information model the revenue model the financing model The issues of pricing, risk and legal boundaries for the MYCAREVENT Mobile Service World have been considered within an advanced business framework. The analysis of the legal background shows clear limitation for the knowledge providers. The liability regulations for the vehicle manufacturers, privacy concerns and regulations represent boundaries for certain ways of service provision. The pricing for MYCAREVENT is determined by the nature of the goods sold herein. Taking into account the immateriality and the cost structure (high fixed and low variable costs) a discussion of different approaches leads to the conclusion, that a neutral pricing strategy is the best fit for the MYCAREVENT services. A preliminary price calculation is performed and supported by the definition of cash flows between the different participants and roles within the Mobile Service World.   The links between business and technology are established by the development of an overall generic workflow and the implementation of a business relation matrix as instruments to reflect the business requirements in the project demonstrators. The approach developed is extremely flexible, so that different business philosophies can be covered by the MYCAREVENT infrastructure.   For in-depth information and more detailed description of the MYCAREVENT business aspects, the public deliverables issued by the MYCAREVENT consortium are available for download. Further information can be provided via the MYCAREVENT project co-ordinator.

Cash flows in the MYCAREVENT mobile service world

 

WP 3 – Ontology The Ontologies work package is responsible for the development of the theoretical models, data structures and terminology sets which are used to support the work carried out by the implementation work packages. The work package draws on the expertise of data modelling specialists, implementors, and content providers (including motor manufacturers and roadside assistance organisations), to build an agreed set of ‘information artefacts’ which can be used throughout MYCAREVENT.   Work Package 3 also aims to support the process of standardisation in the automotive aftermarket, so that the investment made by project partners can bring benefits to a wider group, and beyond the lifetime of MYCAREVENT. Discussions with bodies such as ISO and CEN are actively being pursued to see how existing standards could be complemented by the work of the project.   Specifically, the Ontologies work package has produced the following: A Generic and Integrated Information Reference Model (GIIRM), providing a high-level common conceptual model of the MYCAREVENT mobile service world A set of W3C XML Schemas derived from the GIIRM, used for the representation of data in messages, metadata, and interfaces Terminology for populating the GIIRM, enabling repair information, symptoms and faults to be described in a standardised way A W3C Web Ontology Language (OWL) ontology, derived from the GIIRM and the terminology, in which data sources can be registered and hence accessed by the MYCAREVENT applications.

MYCAREVENT seen from WP 3

 

WP 4 – Mobile Communications and Devices WP4 deals with the mobile Communication in MYCAREVENT. The task of WP4 is enabling a secure and reliable communication between roadsides assistant, the driver and the service portal.   Mobile communication enables the exchange of error messages and repair information. Thus, mobile communication is a main enabler to allow complex repairs at the roadside. The driver reports a failure, this message and subsequent information are transmitted using mobile communication towards a service provider. The service provider analyses the described error message with an existing information database and provides guidance and repair information and, if necessary a process to deliver additional spare parts is initiated.

Always Best Connected

 

The repair guidance information is transmitted to the roadside assistant who is now able to execute the repair (after delivery of spare parts, if any). Taking into account such repair and maintenance situations, difficulties arise. Fast movement or rural countryside environments represent a substantial challenge for the performance of mobile communication networks. Different mobile communication systems can be considered, such as cellular systems, like GSM, implying GPRS or UMTS, as well as short range communication like WLAN or DSRC. The envisaged communication solution aims at facilitating today’s communication systems and as well mobile communication concepts beyond 3G and hybrid systems. Additionally, localization in mobile communication systems and localization improvements are investigated. The MYCAREVENT consortium investigates the potential of various mobile devices and communication networks and designs the self-configuring “always best connected” network. A prototype demonstration will be developed and among other things, the “always best connected” network will be demonstrated.

Roadside Assitant

 

The Danish partner Care2Wear A/S has already after just one year project runtime introduced commercial solutions to the marked highly inspired by the investigation and analysis work done in MYCAREVENT. Especially the concept of “always best connected” across different mobile access infrastructures has motivated the company to develop such highly flexible mobile IP gateway and server solutions. These solutions are currently being installed in Danish ambulances primarily with the purpose of enabling reduction in treatment delay by pre-hospital diagnosis. The solutions provide among other services online ECG transmission from moving ambulances and directly into ECG monitoring and analysis systems at the receiving hospital. The current ambulance position is also transmitted to the hospital with the purpose of enhancing the time-of-arrival accuracy. Please visit this website for more information about the solutions: http://www.care2wear.com/omd/.

 

WP 5 – Remote Services The MYCAREVENT Portal provides access to MYCAREVENT Remote Services for the vehicle driver, the roadside or the workshop technician. An agreed and documented system architecture allows these services to be implemented, on either the user’s mobile device, on a server sitting behind the service portal or a combination of both. For example, a driver looking for information that is typically found in the owner’s handbook may only need the standard browser software that resides on their smart-phone or PDA. The technician who may seeking more specific repair information may need to connect a diagnostics module between the vehicle and a PC to extract hardware and software version data that then enables a subsequent guided web search. The services being developed within MYCAREVENT include: vehicle identification - manufacturer independent, using Make / Model as the starting point and interfacing with existing services where appropriate driver assistance services some of which will be personalised with a user profile the provision of technical advice and repair information remote diagnostics expert system access to support any of the above services when appropriate interactive circuit diagrams (IACD) including the complete provisioning process Work is underway to better understand the reasons why any of the user groups may need to request assistance from a MYCAREVENT service. This involves analysis of historical data from the roadside assistance partners and development of services focused on these most frequent occurrences.

Interactive Circuit Diagram (IACD) Screen Shot

 

WP 6 – Service Portal The Service Portal provided by this work package is a core component of MYCAREVENT. It acts as a single gateway to technical information on automotive diagnosis, repair and maintenance that is made available by automotive manufacturers and independent organisations supporting the aftermarket. The core portal covers flexible business rules and a workflow engine for the integration of a wide variety of functionalities such as multi-language search and diagnosis, information distribution, hosting and authoring of repair information as well as making centrally accessible the range of WP5 remote services.   To achieve high user acceptance the work package is making use of innovative and state-of-the-art technologies to find the “right” information supporting the users need. This comprises the analysis, design and implementation of the following prototypes: Core e-Business Infrastructure for the flexible implementation of workflow and business processes Service Data Backbone providing secure links to services as well as manufacturers and third party repositories An Ontology-based Advanced Query Service for guided navigation in different data resources and terminologies Expert System Hub combining the capabilities of distributed (specialised) expert system nodes Authoring Tool Chain for specific technical information called Interactive Circuit Diagrams (IACD)

MYCAREVENT seen from WP6

 

WP 7 – Mobile Applications Workpackage 7 has the title “Mobile Applications” and is responsible for delivering applications for use by authorised repairers, independent repairers and individual drivers in situations in a garage, at the roadside or at home. The applications developed by this Workpackage have a close relation with the outputs of the other Workpackages, and in particular they: Utilise the data structures defined in Workpackage 3. Consume the services developed in Workpackage 5. Communicate using the systems developed in Workpackage 4. Obtain information from the Service Portal developed in Workpackage 6. In order to gain the maximum benefit from the expertise offered by the diverse range of partners, 4 expert groups have been established focusing on the following areas: Middleware User Interface Security Automotive diagnostics Workpackage 7 has adopted an incremental approach to the development of applications where each increment builds on the functionality developed in the previous increment. An example of a browser based application is illustrated below.

MYCAREVENT Portal Front-End

 

WP 8 – Training MYCAREVENT is an IT-related project within the automotive service world that deals with state-of-the art technology and aims at automotive professionals and drivers. To make use of the applications and to benefit from the services developed, however, all users need to be informed and qualified accordingly. This qualification issue is being taken care of by WP 8 Training. Following user-specific requirements, a syllabus of instruction has been developed, consisting of training for technicians, content creators and system administrators. A modular approach differentiating between basic knowledge, services, system and implementation training ensures that all user groups will benefit from the training.

Training Modules

 

The basic training will be accessible in a web based format. The services and system training follows a blended learning approach, combining classroom training with e-learning. The implementation training additionally will make use of virtual classrooms. All training is based on modern didactical principles and follows appropriate standards and recommendations like ISO/IEC 19796-1:2005 for development and roll-out.   For a demo on MYCAREVENT Web Based Training click MYCAREVENT WBT

 

WP 9 – Demonstration and Dissemination Work package 9 is one of the work packages of MYCAREVENT which operates horizontally, coordinating and channelling all demonstration and dissemination activities. It follows a strategy that focuses on the customer and end-user of the products and services developed in MYCAREVENT.   Its activities ensure sustainability of the results as a scientific research project. This includes raising public awareness of the visions and activities of MYCAREVENT, with the participation of a broad public audience; demonstrating the functionality of the mobile service world in day-to-day aftermarket situations; and gathering feedback and requirements for further R&D activities, resulting in the improvement of prototypes based on test results and on market responses. The results and knowledge gained from MYCAREVENT are recorded in deliverables. Dissemination to the general public and to scientific communities takes place at conferences, workshops, trade shows and other events. All work packages report on their activities in MYCAREVENT through the MYCAREVENT Newsletter. Partners and work packages also disseminate their project contributions to European technological progress, and to scientific excellence, through magazines, journals and other printed and electronic media.