Fri, 20 September, 2024
TWI Hellas is proud to have joined a project consortium of 10 beneficiaries, from six countries including Germany, Austria, Spain, Turkey, Belgium and Greece. Led by Fraunhofer IPA, the consortium brings together the collaborative expertise of leading industry players and knowledge centres, with the aim of catalysing the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), data, and robotics technologies in European industries.
The digitalisation and automation of industrial production processes in this way are expected to significantly enhance competitiveness, environmental sustainability and working conditions. However, despite the potential benefits, large-scale adoption of these technologies has been slow across EU industry, with only 15% of manufacturing companies utilising AI and data-driven innovations to optimise production.
In response to this, SoliDAIR will advance and integrate cutting-edge AI, data and robotics technologies into adaptable functional themes, or technology building blocks, that serve common industry needs. Themes include visual AI for automated visual inspection tasks, data and AI for predictive quality control and process optimisation, and robotics and AI for automating labour-intensive tasks in production lines. The project’s overarching objective is to accelerate the wider adoption of AI, data and robotics technologies in EU industries, serving to enhance competitiveness, increase the environmental sustainability of production processes, and strengthen the EU's strategic autonomy and first-mover advantages.
By uniting large enterprises such as Brose, BOSCH, CIE Automotive, and SIEMENS, along with SMEs like i2M, AUTFORCE and UG SYSTEMS, and cutting-edge research partner Virtual Vehicle, the SoliDAIR consortium represents a diverse and well-balanced mix of expertise and knowledge, which is poised to drive technological innovation and propel EU industries forward in the global market.
SoliDAIR will have four use cases, each of which has been proposed by Brose, CIE Automotive, BOSCH and AUTFORCE respectively, and present actual automation challenges in quality inspection and control processes. By addressing these, the four partners can enhance: industrial process efficiency, such as reducing time, cost and resources; sustainability by lowering emissions; working conditions to replace monotonous manual tasks and retrain staff to operate AI and robotic systems; and competitiveness by reducing defect rates and improving overall equipment effectiveness.
Explaining TWI Hellas's contribution to SoliDAIR, Thanasis Mastrogeorgiou, Senior Robotics Software Engineer on the project, states “Our research and development (R&D) will focus on creating, adapting and deploying machine vision algorithms, with the dual objective of initially enabling rapid inspection of machined components and subsequently eliminate subjectivity in the inspection process, thereby enhancing consistency and minimising the potential for human error.”
For a closer look at the project, visit the SoliDAIR website and check out the presentation video at the ADRA-e Launch Event 2024.