Multidisciplinary Competences in AI for Manufacturing Industry

The institute is directly linked to the University of Bremen, Faculty of Production Technology. The research unit “ICT applications for production (IKAP)” prepares, develops and realises methods and tools to support co-operative, inter-organisational enterprise networks. The research concentrates on efficient and effective collaborative design and production processes by applying innovative information and communication technologies (ICT).

The department Intelligent ICT for Co-operative Production deals with the application of ICT to develop and implement co-operative networks. Within this context, the acquisition, provision and transformation of process and product related information is considered. The expected project results are compliant with BIBA’s core long-term strategy. The ICT-based solutions will be used to improve the competences as well as enhance and distribute worked out in-house technologies and methods, especially knowledge based engineering (KBE), PLM systems and knowledge acquisition. BIBA is a founding member of the Open Group IoT work group. There, it is actively involved in the standardisation of IoT protocols and data models (O-MI, O-DF).

Main roles in the project:

BIBA coordinates the COALA project and is responsible for the lead of WP9 (Project Management). Besides, it will lead WP2 (Augmented prescriptive quality analytics for factory workers). BIBA uses its interdisciplinary expertise to support the consortium partners in all other work packages and to provide their contributions.

The Information Management Unit (IMU), which participates in the project, is a multi-disciplinary unit engaged in research and development activities in Information Technology Management. IMU is staffed with three faculty members, seven post-doctoral senior researchers and six researchers. Research in IMU addresses the whole lifecycle from data analysis to computation to decision. Since its establishment, IMU has actively participated in 45 research and development projects, of which 8 are currently active. Our work falls along three strands: Analyse, Compute, Decide. The research activities of IMU focus, among others, on: predictive & prescriptive analytics, proactive computing, recommender systems, semantic web, situation awareness, knowledge management and enterprise & business information systems. IMU is active in five application domains: factories of the future, electronic governance, digital health & well-being, digital innovation, sustainable & green economy.

Main roles in the project:

ICCS leads WP5 (Adoption and Evaluation) and WP7 (Dissemination and Exploitation). Moreover, ICCS leads T2.1 (Prescriptive analytics for process and product quality), which deals with the concept and related AI methods and algorithms for predictive quality. In this Task, ICCS will perform a state-of-the-art analysis of AI-supported predictive quality and will develop the Prescriptive Quality Analytics component of the COALA platform will perform advanced data analytics. This work will be based on ICCS’s prior work in the H2020 UPTIME project. ICCS will also lead T5.2 (Evaluation of the use case implementations), and T7.1 (Dissemination of results). The Director of IMU of ICCS, Professor Gregoris Mentzas, is the Scientific Manager of COALA, while Dr Alexandros Bousdekis, Senior Researcher of ICCS, is the Dissemination Manager. Finally, ICCS will actively promote and disseminate the results of COALA in the FoF and ICT communities through the publication of project’s research results in international journals, workshops, conferences and books. ICCS is also a registered Digital Innovation Hub (DIH).

ANITI scientific project is aimed at developing a new generation of artificial intelligence called hybrid AI, combining data-driven machine learning techniques with symbolic and formal methods for expressing properties and constraints and carrying out logical reasoning. This approach will provide better guarantees in terms of reliability, robustness and the ability to explain and interpret the results of the algorithms used, while ensuring social acceptability and economic viability. The strategic application sectors targeted by ANITI are mobility and transportation, and robotics/cobotics for the industry of the future. One of the major research topics investigated by ANITI concerns the design of cognitive assistants with advanced dialogue, interaction and monitoring skills to increase the performance of design, decision and industrial production-related activities. This topic is perfectly in line with the objectives of COALA. The team participating to COALA is part of the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) coordinated by the University of Toulouse “Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées”.

Main roles in the project:

ANITI leads Tasks 2.4 and 3.3 dedicated to the design of the “WHY engine” for explainable digital assistant responses which will include the development of components about data analytics results and processes and the integration of reasoning about the analysis results, and investigate how it can be used to support on-job training. ANITI will lead Task 7.3 focussing in particular on contributions on AI Ethics. ANITI will contribute to the dissemination and exploitation related activities through the publication of scientific papers in reputed conferences and journals as well through ANITI industrial partners network. Moreover, ANITI will also contribute to WP1 and WP6 and to project activities related to communication and management.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) it has approximately 21,000 employees, a sales presence in more than 35 countries and manufacturing sites in seven countries. Whirlpool EMEA is an operating segment of Whirlpool Corporation. Whirlpool Corp.’s EMEA Headquarters are located in Pero (MI), Italy. Additional information about the company can be found at WhirlpoolCorp.com or find us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

In Italy, besides the managerial centre, Whirlpool owns its Centre of Excellence for Research in Cassinetta, Italy (Varese district), and in Fabriano, employing researchers and technicians working on the development of innovations which are transferred to all EMEA businesses of the group. The Research Division has acquired over the years expertise in numerous areas such as manufacturing, materials, mechanical design, thermodynamics, energy transmission, energy efficiency, etc., that enable the company to undertake significant and challenging research projects. Strategic collaborations with several universities and research centres from all around EMEA support Whirlpool needs.

Main roles in the project:

WHR will provide an industrial use case to demonstrate technological solutions developed by COALA in the Statistical Quality Department of one of its factories.

UBITECH enables real-time valid information processing and decision-making, the realization of intelligent business environments, and B2B and B2C transactions by providing high added-value business –oriented and –based solutions. Read More

UBITECH LTD is the youngest member of UBITECH Group that has been established in 2005, concentrated initially in the Balkan market and acquiring several EC and national grants for novel R&D initiatives. Currently, UBITECH Group has extended its operations with targeted international activities through its subsidiaries, representation offices, business partners and affiliated companies in Limassol (UBITECH LIMITED), Madrid (Business Development Office), Buenos Aires (UBITECH SRL targeting mainly Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia) and Guayaquil (Business Partner and Representation Office for Ecuador and Panama), concentrating mainly in the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and Latin America. Technology innovation constitutes the lifeblood of UBITECH.

UBITECH R&D team – that spans across all group’s companies, collaborating and exchanging experiences and technological know-how, reinforcing the group’s research capacity – is engaged in developing, integrating, deploying, piloting, demonstrating and evaluating innovative technologies, utilities, features and processes, transferring technological know-how to end-user organizations and adapting breakthrough solutions to end-user’s demands. UBITECH R&D team participates in large, multidisciplinary consortiums in complex and highly-innovative projects, including experts from universities, research institutes and industry across the enlarged Europe, which partner to provide research, technology integration and skilled project management.

The UBITECH researchers, depending on their expertise and the local exploitation potential, perform applied research in the areas of Cloud Computing, Software and Services; 5G Technologies; Digital Security, Big Data and Analytics; Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet of Things; Energy Efficiency; Factories of the Future; e/m-Health. UBITECH has a strong a focus on the integration and interoperability of information technology solutions and applies its research results to solve problems in various application-oriented projects in several domains (included but not limited to Life Sciences and e-Health, Ambient Assisted and Independent Living, e-Government and Policy Modelling, Lifelong Education and Technology-enhanced Learning, e-Culture, e-Business and Networked Enterprise, Digital Factories, Security and Environmental Management).

Main roles in the project:

UBITECH is going to lead WP4 concentrating in the architectural design, specification and integration activities towards the delivery of the COALA Platform. Moreover, UBITECH is going to work closely with the demonstrators in the implementation of the white goods use case (WP5), and support the technical partners in the contributions to EU’s AI activities, including augmented analytics, predictive analytics and explainable AI.

Holonix has a vast experience in European projects and the company invest significant effort in research activities in order to innovate its product portfolio. The company has extensive experience of industrial ICT implementation, while the link with the RTD is guaranteed by senior researchers holding a PhD Holonix mainly focuses on the Lifecycle Data and Knowledge Management, and it brought to the market the “i-LiKe” (intelligent Lifecycle data and Knowledge) suite able to collect data from smart products and production environment and aggregate them into formats that are used to create digital representations of the real world. It can also be used for advanced services supporting all the phases of the product life cycle, including production. Another commercial product is “i-Like machines” that is a platform to collect data from sensorised machines and offer services to monitor and support maintenance. Both i-Like and i-Like Machine derives from the results of research projects. In addition to IoT related solutions, Holonix developed competencies in Open Innovation, thanks to the participation to the FLEXINET (FP7, GA 608627) project and others afterwards, where it developed the first version of the Idea Manager tool and the Virtual Obeya tool. The Virtual Obeya platform had been further developed in FALCON (H2020, GA 636868) as front end of the entire project platform.

HOLONIX has been technical coordinator of PREMANUS (FP7, GA 285541), Exploitation Leader of LinkedDesign (FP7, GA 284613) and Industrial Scenarios Coordinator of FALCON and it has been involved in road-mapping activities for the Factories of the Future. Moreover, it is driven the I3-VLab, an Italian association with the main objective to facilitate the enterprise interoperability through the internet of things technologies. The company is member of The Open Group, an association that provides open, vendor-neutral IT standards and certifications in a variety of subject areas critical to the enterprise. Thanks to some of the last H2020 project (including NIMBLE GA 723810, MANUSQUARE GA 761145, FIBEREUSE GA 730323-1), Holonix had been actively involved in the technical creation of Europe-wide IT platforms, to support companies in meeting business partners and services in specific domains.

Main roles in the project:

HLX will participate into the definition of the requirements and UC cases (WP1) and into the feature definition of prescriptive analytics (WP2) that will feed T3.1 – Situation aware digital assistant in manufacturing, whose leadership is assigned to HLX. We will also contribute to the integration activities (WP4) and we will lead WP6 – Contributions to Europe’s AI community, with the role of AI Ambassador.

The research work of the ITB is dedicated to vocational training research under the guiding principle of the shaping of work, technology and education. The design aspect includes the idea of sustainability. In addition, the research work is characterised by a close connection to reforms and developments in vocational education and training. Against this background, interdisciplinary, participatory and international research and evaluation approaches are practiced which the ITB realizes together with the University, institutional and industrial partners and other institutions relevant to the design of work, technology and education. Among the focal points are: Design of work and technology, work and qualifications, teaching and learning in vocational education and training, school development and quality of teaching, work and technology as an object of pre-vocational education and training, occupations and vocational training systems and innovation and industrial culture.

Main roles in the project:

The ITB is involved in the entire project process with research into technical development from a vocational science perspective, curricular requirements at the educational level and operational implementation in education and training. Based on the research results, the ITB is successively developing a teaching-learning concept for in-company initial and continuing training. Focal points will be WP1, WP3 with process analyses, WP4 with learner-centred design, WP5 with a vocational scientific view of the application and its evaluation, WP7 through publications.

The primary services provided were related to the field of mechanical engineering, performing all stages of the product design cycle: conception, tools and subsystem design and specification, definition of production systems and cycles.

Since 2010 we have broadened our expertise portfolio, applying our expertise in new fields, such as construction and transports, and building new skills in ICT, where we develop solutions and software tools in order to support activities within Industry 4.0.

The enthusiasm and experience of the personnel is our main asset. Thanks to these qualities and to an ideal mix between various areas of expertise, Stam has achieved outstanding results, such as: a number of patents, a testing laboratory for special machinery, and the successful completion of over 200 projects. STAM has developed a strong experience in working with the funding instruments of the European Commission under FP5, FP6, FP7, H2020, Eureka and ERA-Net frameworks, being involved in more than 50 Projects over the last 15 years, in the fields of: automation, mechatronics, adaptive production equipment, high precision manufacturing technologies, new materials and energy. Among these, it is worth mentioning the CloudiFacturing project, an H2020 project funded under the I4MS initiative where Stam acts as DIH, leading the exploitation and results in maximization of industrial use cases. Moreover, STAM is an engineering firm specialized in the high-tech sector. We provide turnkey solutions in the following areas: Space & Defence, Security & Transport, Energy & Environment, and Industry & Automation.

Since the company establishment in 1997, we have been designing and developing innovative mechanisms and mechatronic devices. The primary services provided were related to the field of mechanical engineering, performing all stages of the product design cycle: conception, tools and subsystem design and specification, definition of production systems and cycles.

Since 2010 we have broadened our expertise portfolio, applying our expertise in new fields, such as construction and transports, and building new skills in ICT, where we develop solutions and software tools in order to support activities within Industry 4.0.

The enthusiasm and experience of the personnel is our main asset. Thanks to these qualities and to an ideal mix between various areas of expertise, Stam has achieved outstanding results, such as: a number of patents, a testing laboratory for special machinery, and the successful completion of over 200 projects. STAM has developed a strong experience in working with the funding instruments of the European Commission under FP5, FP6, FP7, H2020, Eureka and ERA-Net frameworks, being involved in more than 50 Projects over the last 15 years, in the fields of: automation, mechatronics, adaptive production equipment, high precision manufacturing technologies, new materials and energy. Among these, it is worth mentioning the CloudiFacturing project, an H2020 project funded under the I4MS initiative where Stam acts as DIH, leading the exploitation and results in maximization of industrial use cases. Moreover, Stam is a member of the Italian Agency for the Promotion of European Research (http://www.apre.it/en) and partner of several regional and National technology innovation hubs such as SIIT (intelligent integrated technology systems, http://www.siitscpa.it/index.php), and has long-term relationships with CONFINDUSTRIA and the chamber of commerce of Genova and is a founding member of the START 4.0 competence center for security and optimization of strategic infrastructures, one of the eight highly specialized competence centers sponsored by the Italian Ministry of economic development and focusing on Industry 4.0. START 4.0 is a Public Private Partnership led by the Italian National Research Council (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR). The association involves industrial players such as ABB S.p.A, Ansaldo Energia S.p.A, Autorità di sistema portuale del Mar Ligure occidentale, Cetena S.p.A, DGS s.p.a, The Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, IIT), Iren S.p.A., and Stam s.r.l.

The mission of the competence center is to offer services concerning:

• Digital strategy, allowing enterprises (especially SMEs) to evaluate their level of digitization as well as their technology potential through the development of a set of tools;
• Training, for the promotion and dissemination of competences related to the Industry 4.0 paradigm aiming to empower SMEs in achieving their industrial goals in the evolving European scenario;
• Participation to RD&I collaborative projects to foster the open innovation transition of enterprises and SMEs as well as technology transfer initiatives;

The Competence Center is a strategic tool to support companies in facing the challenges brought by the fourth industrial revolution, creating synergies between, regional, national and European entities.

Due to private and public projects, Stam can count on a network of over 500 organizations Europe-wide, mostly SMEs. Within private projects, Stam usually supports companies’ (mostly SMEs) research by selecting, coordinating, improving and evaluating ideas and project proposals.

Main roles in the project:

Within the project, STAM will support the definition of industrial requirements from the use cases as well as coordinate the results maximization activities through the development of specific exploitation plans, communication and training activities and continuously acting as an interface with the industry and R&D world to make the project’s developments as relevant to the industry as possible.