Due to the increasing shortage of technically skilled personnel, production processes increasingly need to be more efficient and more intelligent. The Dutch manufacturing ecosystem needs radical transformation to stay competitive. From manual work to smart, autonomous and connected production.
Purpose
Together with Do IoT Fieldlab’s connectivity experts, we are exploring and demonstrating how 5G, Beyond 5G and future 6G technologies can transform production processes. The latest technologies enable the development of new manufacturing methods, with a combination of robotics and AI. With a focus on low volume, high variation manufacturing, we will develop demonstrators for highly accurate, autonomous robotic processes. The combination of interacting fixed and mobile robots is unique. Think of mobile robots that can navigate autonomously through a factory or warehouse, carry out inspections or move materials. Do IoT Fieldlab’s expertise on connectivity is crucial for the robustness of these flexible solutions.
Foundation for future robotics
Reliable, wireless and ultra fast data transfer offers new opportunities to adapt factories and scale processes. The development of the demonstrators is based on close collaboration with the industry on the one hand, to define the necessities. On the other hand, students from TU Delft, universities of Applied Sciences and from vocational studies will learn to develop suitable, hands on solutions. This interaction is aimed to provide the industry partners with the skilled and experienced workforce of the future. Together, we are laying the foundation for a future in which production processes will take place autonomously, flexibly, and sustainably.
Phasing
The approach consists of three phases:
- Setting up a private, standalone Beyond 5G infrastructure for wireless data processing by robots
- Purchasing a state-of-the-art, Beyond 5G compatible, industrial robot for experiments with smart subtractive processes (e.g. milling, sanding and drilling).
- Demonstrating the innovative solutions to disseminate the latest insights, both for industry and education institutes.
Funding
This project is funded by Province of Zuid-Holland.