EMPYREAN Project (Horizon Europe)

EMPYREAN: Trustworthy, Cognitive, and AI-Driven Collaborative Associations of IoT Devices and Edge Resources for Data Processing. EMPYREAN proposes a new hyper-distributed computing paradigm, based on federations of collaborative and heterogeneous IoT devices and edge/cloud resources across different providers and networks. The federations, namely Associations, operate autonomously and interconnect seamlessly utilizing distributed, cognitive and dynamic AI-enabled decision-making, to balance computing tasks and data inside an Association as well as between Associations in a decentralized, multi-agent manner and across central computing environments, optimizing resources and providing scalability, resiliency, energy efficiency and QoS. An Association constitutes a trusted execution environment, while identity and data access management schemes assure controlled data access and confidentiality, utilizing Cluster 3 related outcomes from participating partners. EMPYREAN will also be empowered by automated tools and mechanisms for efficient data processing of ML-workloads and secure distributed edge storage. Developed technologies will provide Associations-native application development and deployment, contributing to the entire application lifecycle and interoperability. EMPYREAN will provide open and standardized APIs, while utilizing and extending open-source platforms maintained by European companies that participate in the project. EMPYREAN will demonstrate its advanced and innovative capabilities through three well-defined use cases that involve device- and data-rich applications in advanced manufacturing, smart agriculture and warehouse automation, involving AI-driven value extraction of high volume and dynamic IoT data generated at the edge of the network, from multiple sources (e.g., robots). EMPYREAN will develop its Association-based continuum through synergies with emerging IPCEI initiatives and EU bodies (e.g., GAIA-X, IDSA) where partners participate.