EU Horizon Europe Funded Projects

BRIDGES 5.0 bridges risks to an inclusive digital and green future by enhancing workforce skills for Industry 5.0. To achieve this ambition, four objectives are central:

 (1) Quantitatively map how jobs are transforming and what new green and digital jobs are emerging in Industry 4.0; and qualitatively understand Industry 5.0 requirements (human- and socio-centric, sustainable and resilience) for these jobs and company practices; 

(2) Map Industry 5.0 skills and skill gaps at the EU-level and five EU-institutional contexts for emerging green and digital jobs; and enable monitoring of skill gaps using skills taxonomies/standards;

(3) Set up learning trajectories and training pathways, using the enriched Teaching and Learning Factories concepts, and experiment with these interventions to reduce skill gaps for four target groups, i.e., managers, employees, jobseekers and students;

 (4) Engage a range of industry and related stakeholders at regional, national and EU levels and co-produce a web platform called Industry 5.0 Platform. 

The platform facilitates social innovation in the learning field and provides these stakeholders and target groups with recommendations and instruments for new learning and training systems.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation play a big role in many different sectors, offering countless benefits and improved optimisation processes. This has inspired many companies to search for novel ways to integrate them. However, despite all the advantages they offer, AI-based technologies are not easy to implement as they require experience and special know-how from operators. The EU-funded Fluently project aims to change this by developing a novel intelligent interface unit. The smart interface will allow machines to interpret speech content and tone more accurately and convert gestures into instructions, while also focusing on improved worker well-being. The project’s solution also includes the Robo-Gym, providing the first environment in Europe where human–robot interactive training can take place.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

AI applications could greatly contribute to European integration into the circular manufacturing economy ecosystem. They have the potential to make the process industry’s procedures and products more agile and resilient. The EU-funded s-X-AIPI project aims to study, build, trial and demonstrate in the asphalt, steel, aluminium and pharmaceutical sectors a novel suite of tailored, reliable AI technologies. Thanks to the open-source toolset, the process industries will be able to make operations more agile while improving performance across several indicators. The AI-based sustainability tools will enable them to better design, develop, engineer, operate and monitor plants, products and value chains.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

Zero-SWARM is a mission to achieve climate neutral and digitised production via a multidisciplinary, human centric, objective oriented innovative approach resulting in technical solutions for open swarm framework, non-public 5G network, active information continuum and digital twin. At the core, it establishes a unique forum where separately maturing technologies of 5G and cloud-edge continuum, data technologies and analysis (including data spaces and GAIA-X) and operational technology (automation and agility) break their siloes to co-design and co-create through 10 trials. 

It will showcase key achievements such as smart assembly, sustainable powertrains, improved resilience with remote operation, 5G powered PLCs for real time distributed control systems, safe and autonomous transport of goods in factory, 5G enabled process aware AGVs, plug & connect 5G for industry, mobile intelligent agents for zero plastic waste, smart maintenance and optimization, remote quality control for zero defect resilient manufacturing.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

The reduction of manufacturing waste is a key challenge. In this context, zero-defect paradigm has become a must. The EU-funded FLASH-COMP project will develop a human-oriented solution to enable the early identification of defective composite parts in manufacturing. The goal is to improve the process of composite manufacturing, reaching zero-defects and reducing the generation of waste. Specifically, the project will carry out 2 industrial use cases to encourage the exploitation of results. To facilitate dissemination and the widest possible impact of project results, FLASH-COMP will organise a skills development training programme. Finally, the project will deal with the development of a standardisation roadmap.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

The transition towards a Circular Economy is estimated to represent a $4.5 trillion global growth opportunity by 2030. Digital Twins availability is largely recognized as an accelerator and an enabler of Circular Economy in business and in production, but significant challenges are still standing in relation to its development within the present technological framework, the needed skill sets, and the implementation costs. AUTO-TWIN addresses the technological shortcoming and economic liability of the current system-engineering model by:

1) introducing a breakthrough method for automated process-aware discovery towards autonomous Digital Twins generation, to support trustworthy business processes in circular economies;

2) adopting an (International Data Space) IDS-based common data space, to promote and facilitate the secure and seamless exchange of manufacturing/product/business data within value-networks in a circular-economy ecosystem;

3) integrating novel hardware technologies into the digital thread, to create smart Green Gateways, empowering companies to perform data and digital twin enabled green decisions, and to unleash their full potential for actual zero-waste Circular Economy and reduced dependency from raw materials.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

Advances in digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed numerous sectors and industries. The upside is an abundance of benefits such as improved efficiency, speed and safety. The downside is that successful AI-powered workplaces require experience and knowledge of robotic programming. Moreover, there are parts of the production process that require the input of human workers. In this context, the EU-funded AI-PRISM project will develop a human-centred AI-based solutions ecosystem for manufacturing scenarios. This ecosystem will improve human–robot cooperation, efficiency and working conditions. What’s more, it will require much less expertise. Lastly, the project will enhance workplace efficiency through flexible production processes incorporating robotics, AI, and social sciences and humanities.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

HARTU will provide the necessary tools to implement three basic stages of parts handling, i.e. grasping, assembly and releasing. These tools aim to address the key challenges for creating handling applications by means of innovative technical approaches:

(1) self-supervised grasp and release planning policies identification and control;

2) to learn and control contact-rich assembly skills from human demonstrations;

(3) to develop an AI-based multi-modal perception for visual-serving and continuous monitoring in handling operations, supported by virtual and continuous learning; and

(4) to develop versatile and dexterous soft grippers with electro-active fingertips.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

Digitalisation and automation have become increasingly important in our everyday lives and industrial sectors worldwide. Due to their benefits, organisations around the world are expressing demand for their novel implementations. The construction sector is crucial to modern society, from urban and rural construction and renovation to repairs, maintenance and disaster relief. However, it has not yet seen many innovations utilising digitalisation and automation. The EU-funded RobetArme project aims to reverse this trend by introducing its human–robot collaborative construction system to automate emerging shotcrete construction technology. This project will pave the way for novel technologies and improve worker safety, workplace efficiency and associated costs.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies

The European construction industry faces three major challenges: improve its productivity, increase the safety and wellbeing of its workforce and make a shift towards a green, resource efficient industry. To address these challenges adequately, HumanTech proposes a human-centered approach, involving breakthrough technologies such as wearables for worker safety and support, and intelligent robotic technology that can harmoniously co-exist with human workers while also contributing to the green transition of the industry.

Our aim is to achieve major advances beyond the current state-of-the-art in all these technologies, that can have a disruptive effect in the way construction is conducted by a new generation of highly skilled, male and female construction workers and engineers, working in a safe and rewarding digitally enabled environment.

Programme:
HORIZON.2.4.1 - Manufacturing Technologies