Hub Advanced Engineering & Computing

Manufacturing, construction, and agriculture are major driving forces for the European economy and prosperity. Maintaining its competitiveness in these sectors demands highly efficient and flexible processes, and this can be achieved through digitization. Novel intelligent robotic capabilities that can be deployed side-by-side with humans and can operate and adapt to dynamic environments can accelerate this process. However, existing robotic systems cannot fit well into such settings as they are not versatile and flexible enough to automate certain tasks, cannot collaborate safely with humans in open and dynamic environments, nor are they easily and economically adaptable to process changes.

The SOPRANO project coalesces multidisciplinary research and innovation in human-robot collaboration and intelligent multi-agent systems, aspiring to design the next generation of manufacturing floors, construction sites, and agri-food production, where humans and intelligent machines will seamlessly work together. It proposes to scale collaboration from the single human-agent dyad to a peer-based synergy between multiple interconnected robotic systems featuring different physical and cognitive properties, supporting various tasks in collaboration with human workers, robotics and other agents.

SOPRANO will validate the technological offering in three novel and open-access use cases addressing both large-scale industries and small to medium enterprises, adding value to EU key sectors and instrumenting community building surrounding the open-source technologies in the EU industrial ecosystem. During the project, we will also enable external SMEs and start-ups to benefit from the project technologies via an open call, which will enable the building of demonstrators using SOPRANO technologies that will open new market opportunities for their products and services.

DEADLINE : 14 mai 2025

HUB : Advanced Engineering & Computing

A common trait of many important markets is the increasing attention of consumers to the aesthetic quality of the products. Even products like mid-segment cars are required to be defect-free in all the areas falling under the direct sight of the customer. These expectations translate into high-quality standards in the production process, which are currently met by requiring an important physical effort to the workers in unsafe environments. The MAGICIAN project will take on the challenge producing a modular automation solution in which robots are used to detect and rework production defects before the last production phases commence and the aesthetics of the product is finalised. The project will produce two robotic solutions, one for defect analysis (the SR) and one for the defects’ rework (the CR). The SR and the CR can be used separately, with the humans remaining in charge of some of the activities, or in combination, with the CR operating on the defects identified by the SR. The SR can also be used in connection with the welding robotic station in order to adapt the process parameters. The robots will use Artificial Intelligence modules to detect and discriminate the defects from multi-modal data (the SR) or to decide the best policy to use for defect rework (the CR). In both cases, the decision logic of the modules will be trained using machine learning algorithms. The training data set will be acquired with the help of workers, who will operate on semi-worked products within a controlled environment. The SR and the CR will rely on the software services of a common robotic platform. The solution will be developed adopting a human-centered approach, which will allow us to evaluate the impact of the innovation on the production processes and remove the most important asperities along this path. The effectiveness of the solution will be tested on a use-case, and its generality proven by recruiting additional contributors and use-cases through a FSTP scheme.

DEADLINE : 2 mai 2025

HUB : Advanced Engineering & Computing

The EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS) is an instrument enabled by the European Defence Fund (EDF) to strengthen defence innovation in the European Union. EUDIS offers a set of instruments for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including start-ups, and other non-traditional players in defence industrial ecosystem to ensure more opportunities to access the European Defence Fund.
It aims to lower entry barriers into the defence domain for smaller players and innovators, focusing on technological readiness and market maturity. EUDIS is here to support innovators throughout the development cycle to mature, scale-up, demonstrate their use-case, grow and successfully enter the market.

DEADLINE : 27 avril 2025

HUB : Advanced Engineering & Computing