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21. Aug. 2024
The use of artificial intelligence, decentralised collaboration between laboratories and the creation of a network for the development and validation of applications in modern automated industry in Europe. This is just an outline of what the project RICAIP - Research and Innovation Centre on Advanced Industrial Production, which is being developed at CEITEC BUT in Brno, brings. It includes an experimental laboratory called Testbed for Industry 4.0, worth around CZK 450 million, which focuses on digitisation and automation of production. Testbed, which opened in November 2022, is intended to help research and small and medium-sized companies in the field to put "smart" production technologies into practice faster.
"Simply put, Testbed is an industrial hall with a set of various robots, production machines and machining centres, where not only production can be tested, but also equipment for the development of machine control and diagnostics and advanced drives. It also offers automation facilities, i.e. industrial control systems, to ensure the operation of the production line. Industry 4.0 is inherently more about automation, digitisation and artificial intelligence than about materials, technology and engineering," explains Pavel Václavek, head of the RICAIP node at Brno University of Technology and coordinator of the Industrial Cybernetics programme at CEITEC Brno University of Technology. Nowadays, this is the thing that ensures that man and machine work together efficiently, which, as a result, increases production efficiency, reduces energy costs and ensures competitiveness.
Cooperation at the international level
RICAIP is literally an international project. It is implemented by four partners: on the Czech side are CIIRC CTU and CEITEC, while on the German side, DFKI and ZeMA from Saarbrücken are also involved. "We have cooperated with these partners before, and this cooperation was the basis for the intention to prepare a project for the Teaming for Excellence call, which is a special area focused on the transfer of excellence from old EU member states to new ones. Surprisingly, the Czech Republic is still considered a new member country. The aim of the project is to support new directions of research within a newly built centre of excellence, where there must be at least one partner from a new member country and at least one from an old one, who plays the role of a mentor to build and launch a new research area," says Václavek.
The size of the project and its international participation are also linked to its combined funding. Operating costs are covered by the European Union, while investments and equipment come from national budgets, in this case from the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. Around EUR 15 million came from the European Union and around CZK 800 million from the Czech Republic. All in all, CEITEC received about 450 million crowns to build the Testbed.
420 square metre testing site
"The project was divided into two phases. The first started in 2018 and its goal was to prepare the concept of the centre. It was a preparatory phase paid for by Brussels. The second started in September 2019, but unfortunately, it got slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restart was very slow. After the pandemic, there was a shortage of chips for a change, and as all our systems are electronics-based, it was not easy to complete the Testbed equipment. Delivery times were extended by a year, everything was a bit slow. Therefore, opening the centre in November 2022 was no small matter," notes the head of the centre.
Although the Brno testbed, which covers an area of about 420 square metres, is, in a sense, still in the testing phase, interested companies started to get in touch even before its completion. T-Mobile was the very first company to "set foot" in the Testbed, launching a state-of-the-art campus 5G SA network as part of the centre's grand opening. "We have been working with the company for a long time on several projects that fully exploit the potential of the 5G network. With the help of one of them, we want to obtain data for the design and subsequent development of a camera system suitable for remote control of vehicles and working machines, which will be able to use the transmission potential of the newly built 5G SA networks," Václavek explains.
Laser welding and walking robot
However, development is moving so fast that a lot has changed since the centre opened. This is due to the very nature of the Testbed, which is based on continuous development and expansion with new services. In the meantime, the centre has seen the introduction of laser cutting and welding, the Spot walking robot by Boston Dynamics, and the NVIDIA DGX H100 and NVIDIA DGX A100 computing cluster for training AI models or high-performance computing in general. The most significant change is the launch of the EDIH-DIGIMAT and TEF AI-MATTERS projects. "Both projects are funded by the European Digital Europe programme with a partial contribution from national resources. This allows us to offer companies with up to five hundred employees access to our Testbed and the provision of services supporting the digitalization and implementation of AI in the manufacturing industry at a subsidized price with a 100 per cent discount. This way, companies can test what digitisation or AI will actually bring them in practice, and they do not have to pay for anything," explains Václavek, pointing out the advantages of the new projects and adding that, besides several commercial projects that focus on verification, experimentation or simulation in real operating conditions, the cooperation with companies from pure manufacturing sectors such as metalworking and plastics is currently the most popular. As a result, the reference network is gradually expanding and will play a very important role in the future.
EU-supported synergy projects
The question arises as to which way the Brno Testbed will develop further. It is certain that from the moment of its establishment and in the times to come, other projects significantly supported by the European Union are important for its development. These are mainly projects funded by the CHIPS Joint Undertaking, which are funded by Horizon Europe and national resources. "We are tackling tasks related to automotive technologies, as well as tasks related to actuators in industrial production technologies, such as the diagnosis of large groups of industrial drives using AI. At this point in time, about seventy per cent of our team's research activities run within international projects funded by Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe and Digital Europe, where we collaborate with leading European companies and research institutions," adds Pavel Václavek.
Source: Novinky kraje
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