AUGMANITY - Augmented Humanity

Project Title and Acronym: AUGMANITY – Augmented Humanity

Project code: LISBOA-01-0247-FEDER-046103; POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046103

Main Goal: Reinforce research, technological development and innovation

Regions: *(Aveiro) Bosch Termotecnologia, S.A. (Bosch TT) -Promotor Lider*(Porto) Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research (Fraunhofer) * (Vila Nova de Famalicão/Braga) CENTITVC – Centro de Nanotecnologia e Materiais Técnicos, Funcionais e Inteligentes (CENTI) * (Porto) Universidade do Porto (FEUP) * (Porto) Universidade do Porto (FCUP) * (Aveiro) Altice Labs, S.A. (Altice) * (Porto) Ground Control Studios, Lda (Ground Control) * (Aveiro) Universidade de Aveiro (UAVR) * (Porto) Adequadoscópio, Lda (Adequadescópio) * (Aveiro)Associação para o Pólo das Tecnologias de Informação, Comunicação e Eletrónica TICE.PT (TICE) * (Lisboa)EPL – Soluções Industriais, Lda. (EPL) * (Guimarães/Braga)ICC – Indústrias e Comércio de Calçado, S.A. (Lavoro) * (Guimarães/Braga) Associação CCG/ZGDV – Centro Computação Gráfica (CCG) * (Aveiro) OLI – Sistemas Sanitários, S.A. (OLI) * (Águeda/Aveiro) Globaltronic, Electrónica e Telecomunicações SA (Globaltronic) * (S. João Ovar/Aveiro) Bosch Security Systems – Sistemas de Segurança, S.A. (Bosch BT) * (Aveiro) Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) * (Palhaça/Aveiro) ATENA – Automação Industrial, LDA (Atena) * (Pena Maior/Paços de Ferreira/Porto) Ikea Industry Portugal, S.A. (IKEA) * (Lisboa) Huawei Tech. Portugal – Tecnologias de Informação, Lda (Huawei) * (Maia/Porto) Sakthi Portugal, S.A (Sakthi) * (Maia/Porto) Critical Manufacturing, S.A. (Critical) * (Figueira da Foz/Coimbra) Microplásticos, S.A. (Microplásticos)*

Approved date: 23-11-2020

Start date: 01-07-2020

End date: 30-06-2023

Total eligible cost: 8.184.504,14 EUR

European Union financial support: 5.199.379,13 EUR

Project Overview

We live in an age of unprecedented challenges, uncertainty, and change, or as sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman once said, “…times are liquid, because, as water, everything changes…”.

So, the challenge is how to move forward in a liquid economy and society: On one hand there are studies showing that industry will lose workplaces by automation, on the other hand this seems to contradict a new paradigm where:

1. products will be more and more customized to the end customer, on a built to order basis which, to some extent, is the opposite of mass automated production.
2. work intensive industries, especially in low-cost countries such as Portugal, strive to keep their investment levels low improving their processes in such a way that still assures their competitiveness.

Additionally, in developed countries we are assisting to aging population, meaning younger people will be harder to hire and retain and, as a direct impact, factories will have to assure that older employees are able to keep “fit” for the future, both physically, by adapting new work support/wearables and functionally, by adapting to new technologies to keep efficient in their daily tasks.

The Augmanity Project aims to respond to these social challenges by developing technologies that address concrete problems that we already face, but which will become more pressing in the future.

The project is expected to leverage its results in multiple sectors, through a coordinated strategy between industrial partners and research centers, with the generated knowledge being exploited by means of technology creation, dissemination, transfer utilization and incorporation activities based on three pillars: science and technological development; internalization of knowledge and technology by technology-takers; and utilization of knowledge and technology by potential end users.

Objectives

The project nº 46103 AUGMANITY – Augmented Humanity was developed over three main pillars:

• Society: CO2 reduction and prepare workers skills for the introduction of new digital technologies;
• Technical-scientific: development of Industrial Internet of Things, collaborative robotics, artificial vision and data analytics using artificial intelligence;
• Ecosystems man-machine: flexibility, motor capacity, man-machine interaction.

Innovative methodologies and tools supported by research and scientific knowledge will have to be developed, in which the social sciences, management, enabling i4.0 technologies and industrial engineering will make a crucial contribution and integrate this new paradigm with the rapid evolution of the digitization and automation of industrial processes. The answer to all these challenges lies in the project approach we have developed, being a complex and interrelated ecosystem sustained by 5 core areas: Ergonomics and robotics, Big Data and Predictive Analytics for i4.0, Industrial Internet of Things and connectivity, Artificial vision – virtual & augmented reality, People – tools for better and healthier workers.

Actions to be developed

The Augmanity project involves several activities, from Technical Management, Industrial Research and Experimental Development, to dissemination of the Results Achieved.

The project intends to have key impacts essentially at two levels – Business Operations and Business Growth, with a Human Centric Approach.

At the Business Operations level, the key objectives are Productivity Improvements, by maximizing asset utilization and minimizing downtime, driving direct and indirect labor efficiency with tools for better and healthier workers in industrial environments.

At the Business Growth level, the key objectives are Incremental and New Revenues by strengthening customer integration, growing aftermarket revenue streams, expanding internationally and emerging markets, creating new products, processes and services offerings.

Six PPS (Product, Process, Service) were structured and interconnected to respond to the challenges and expectations of this project:

PPS1 Ergonomics and Robotics

PPS2 Big Data and Predictive Analytics for i4.0

PPS3 Industrial Internet of Things and connectivity

PPS4 Artificial vison & Augmented Reality

PPS5 Artificial vison & Augmented Reality

PPS6 Project Management

Expected Results

The project is a complex system of interrelated activities. Although each of the PPS seems independent, they should complement each other. There are Use Case relationships between the various activities of the PPS.

The expected result in the scope of the project is to obtain technologies and tools that seek to encourage the attraction, development and retention of human resources in an industry in an accelerated process of digitization.