FACTOR is leading the transformation of the manufacturing industry through its participation in the MaaSAI project, driving a new Manufacturing as a Service (MaaS) ecosystem. This model integrates autonomous agents based on Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0 technologies and a MaaS Cloud Marketplace (CMM), with the aim of increasing flexibility, optimizing production and reducing costs in the metal parts machining sector.

Industry challenges

The metal machining sector faces significant challenges: high maintenance and machine optimization costs; difficulties in scaling production; limited access to predictive maintenance and process control technologies; and the need to adapt quickly to changing demands, all while maintaining the required quality standards.
MaaSAI responds to these challenges through real-time monitoring of machine performance, AI-assisted decision making and agile collaboration between manufacturers.
Specifically, FACTOR is leading Pilot 1, implementing a new methodology for Metal Parts Manufacturing as a Service. This pilot includes:

• Implementation of autonomous monitoring cells, with IoT sensors to track machine availability, performance and quality control.
• Advanced analytics using AI to assess Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and suggest automatic improvements.
• Creation of a secure, data-driven MaaS network, enabling efficient collaboration between Mother Factories and Daughter Factories (factories and suppliers).
• Optimization of intelligent planning and scheduling through AI-driven MaaS Consumer Agents and Suppliers.

Results and momentum towards the industry of the future

FACTOR expects to achieve significant operational cost reduction, increased production scalability, real-time performance monitoring, intelligent decision making and more efficient industry-wide integration. With the MaaSAI project, FACTOR is driving a paradigm shift in industry, combining AI, IoT and cloud technologies to build a more sustainable, connected and agile manufacturing ecosystem.

PROJECT COMPLETED

FACTOR, in collaboration with the Instituto Tecnológico de Informática (ITI), leads MANTRA (Mixed-Reality Augmented Networks for Teleoperated Robotics Applications), a pioneering initiative that seeks to revolutionize industrial robotics through advanced telepresence and remote control solutions. It combines cutting-edge technologies such as Mixed Reality (MR), 5G connectivity and Wi-Fi interoperability, in order to create safer and more efficient environments in industrial operations where human presence poses a risk.

The initiative is part of the European SPIRIT project, which through an open call selected pilot proposals capable of validating emerging technologies in real industrial environments.

Immersive telepresence for safer control

MANTRA introduces Mixed Reality interfaces with multimodal feedback (haptic, visual and auditory), enabling operators to control robots remotely and intuitively, reducing risk exposure and improving safety.

Connectivity between 5G and Wi-Fi networks, combined with data processing at the edge of the network (edge computing), ensures a seamless, real-time experience tailored to highly demanding industrial environments.

Real impact on industry

In addition to facilitating the execution of complex tasks without direct intervention, MANTRA improves production continuity, operational accuracy and overall process efficiency. It also opens up new opportunities in technical training and remote assistance, allowing operators to be trained in realistic virtual environments.

MANTRA is being developed and validated in real environments, from ITI's laboratories to FACTOR's production facilities, undergoing rigorous testing to assess its applicability in the industrial sector.

PROJECT COMPLETED

AR and VR can create more immersive experiences for people at work in order to make their job safer, by providing new ways to be aware of possible hazards and receive more effective, engaging and entertaining training on safety procedures. With VR/AR headsets, workers will be able, for example, to better understand difficult-to-grasp concepts or topics such as protocols and procedures for safety and security. It offers a great opportunity for industry to be able to make use of a variety of different options relying on extended reality experiences to provide each worker with an immersive access to relevant information, and to encourage the adoption of safer behaviours. Safety in working areas is a major concern nowadays. Awareness, engagement and collaboration among workers, in possibly hazardous environments, is fundamental to prevent the occurrence of incidents. Extended reality offers unprecedented opportunities to make work areas safer. Workers will be advised and become aware of possible dangerous events while they work. Real-time interaction among workers, training through realistic simulations, and real-time updated information on the status of the work environment can significantly increase the level of safety awareness and lead to a safer industry.

In this way, Factor takes advantage of the possibilities of extended reality in its high-precision CNC machining tasks to offer, in the most responsible jobs, immersive access to relevant information, encouraging the adoption of safer behaviors and creating a healthier and more productive work environment.

PROJECT COMPLETED

This demonstrator will intelligently highlight and organize the available resources of the I5.0 ecosystem to perform the necessary analysis, structuring and standardization of the detected data, as well as to derive an optimal coordination plan and optimization of the manufacturing line.

The technologies developed by TALON will lead industrial manufacturing to qualify the health of processes and ensure product quality, avoiding defects and optimizing processes. Data collected by sensors will be aggregated in an organized and useful way to be analyzed by algorithms, which will learn the correlation between variables, identify the most critical path of the production line and how to intervene to avoid future failures and defects.
A feedback loop will be implemented between the algorithm and the machine variables, allowing the corrective actions determined by the algorithms to avoid future errors. Therefore, process optimization, prevention of material waste and improved energy efficiency will be key benefits of this demonstrator.

Factor, thanks to TALON, will be able to optimize its data capture network during the CNC machining process of high-precision parts. The quantity and quality of the data, as well as its processing and reliability of the results is guaranteed by the system proposed by the project.