Ways to automate specialised acoustic panel manufacturing were limited. Until now. Industry partners VEN and MAL teamed up to develop and invest in STAR, which will digitise, sensorise and robotise the taping and stitching process required in bespoke acoustic panel manufacture. And part identification will be enabled via a combination of RFID and a vision system. This will facilitate identification of the taping/stitching path the robot can follow to optimise production speed and quality. STAR success will be measured against the increased agility of production and the standardisation of robotics it facilitates within the industry.

Keeping a production line both flexible and profitable is a real challenge. Which is why Renier Natuursteen, an SME manufacturing company that produces natural stone products for the building industry teamed up with Optidrive, a technology company and robot integrator. Their experiment focuses on optimising a production environment that already includes advanced robot cells and CNC machines, as well as non-digital equipment such as pallets. They will transform what is essentially a job shop into a smart, agile factory. And this will allow instant changes in production so that each stone product can be different, and easily accommodated into the production flow.

Keeping a production line both flexible and profitable is a real challenge. Which is why Renier Natuursteen, an SME manufacturing company that produces natural stone products for the building industry teamed up with Optidrive, a technology company and robot integrator. Their experiment focuses on optimising a production environment that already includes advanced robot cells and CNC machines, as well as non-digital equipment such as pallets. They will transform what is essentially a job shop into a smart, agile factory. And this will allow instant changes in production so that each stone product can be different, and easily accommodated into the production flow.

Smaller manufacturers typically struggle to compete with big players when it comes to factory automation. Technical solution provider Flex Hex intends to level the playing field with a plug & play, automated welding solution, FlexCell. The solution consists of a cell that integrates several hexapods, a robot arm, and software to program the holding tool – all of which combine to help smaller companies work harder.

European market share of the global shipbuilding market is small. Because low wages and government subsidies in Asia distort the competitive landscape. However, the introduction of RoboWeldAR could boost Europe’s market share by providing an automated welding solution for flexible, highly customised production lines. RoboWeldAR is an innovative, self-navigating robotic welding solution that will revolutionise ship building and repairs. In this experiment four reusable Smart Factory Services will be added on top of the FIWARE platform.

How do you take the first steps toward developing a standardised modular automation solution? The SmartMachine Base (SMB) set out to achieve just this and to validate it in a manufacturing use case: the assembly of customised wireless in-ear audio headsets. This is the shared goal of technology provider and engineering company Demcon Industrial Systems Enschede B.V. (DISE) and manufacturing SME, Dopple Technologies B.V.

Plastic manufacturing does not always flow smoothly. In fact, production processes often get clogged and can come to a sudden and expensive halt if a problem is not identified in time. This challenge inspired SME plastic injection manufacturer, XIMA, and technology provider, BOSONIT, to collaborate on the AGILPLAS application experiment.

The Agile and Adaptable Cobotic System(A2CS) consortium conceived an experiment that combines computer vision technology, robotics and AI to address manufacturing challenges. Their idea is to create flexible, reconfigurable, reusable systems, specifically for electronic product assembly and other manufacturing tasks of a high–mix low-volume nature. It is anticipated that the outcomes of their experiment will be usable across multiple industries segments.

Quality control of processed and packaged foods can be an expensive, wasteful process that involves removing product from the production line and destroying it during testing. Any sub-standard product not detected in this costly process then goes to market, potentially damaging the brand before being returned and destroyed at the expense of the supplier. Firefit will use its funding to develop a real-time production monitoring application that performs automatic quality assurance of the ham curing and packaging process. To achieve this, it will integrate sensors alongside multispectral imaging to identify any problems in the quality of ham or its containers.

The development of a standard interface for an automated manufacturing transport system was the brainchild of Dalmasys Lda. (Dalma) and Durit Metalurgia Portuguesa do Tungsténio Lda. (Durit). They put together the FEAT consortium to come up with an automation solution capable of optimising intralogistics tasks in a resilient, scalable way.