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Smart Grading, Handling and Packaging Solutions for Soft and Deformable Products in Agile and Reconfigurable Lines

Project description

Smart grading and sorting solutions

Conveyor systems enable the quick and efficient transportation of equipment and/or materials from one location to another. Today, robots are essential in this field. The European sector's share reaches 23 %, yet Europe must still compete with China, Japan and Korea. Improved efficiency and new solutions would be an advantage. However, the transportation of deformable objects such as plastic items and food still cannot be handled by robots. The EU-funded AGILEHAND project will develop new technologies that will allow robots to smartly handle and package soft and deformable objects in agile and reconfigurable lines, while intelligence solutions will monitor, control and synchronise production and logistics for improved efficiency. AGILEHAND’s solutions will be demonstrated in four industrial pilots.

Objective

The Conveyor System market and, in particular, robot segment for the automated material handling are experiencing double-digit growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR). EU manufacturers in this sector plays an important role, covering 23% of the market but this technological edge is being challenged due to the astonishing growth of China, Japan and Korea. In real world, many objects to be handled, including food, clothes, bottles, or plastic items, are soft or deformable and robots are not yet efficient and effective in handling these objects.
In this context, AGILEHAND aims at developing advanced technologies for grading, handling and packaging autonomously soft and deformable products, as a strategic instrument to improve flexibility, agility and reconfigurability of production and logistic systems of the European manufacturing companies.
AGILEHAND will deploy 3 integrated Suites: 1) SMART SENSING SUITE, self-calibrating sensing solutions to grade the quality (both interior and exterior) of delicate objects and to produce a mesh of integrated and overlapping sensors that will improve production-line traceability, agility and reconfigurability; 2) SELF-ADAPTIVE HANDLING, SORTING AND PACKAGING SUITE, robotic manipulation systems that reacts to product quality and that can Pick-Up and Re-Orientated Different Soft and Deformable Products without causing product damage considering collaborative (human-in-the-middle) approaches; 3) AGILE, FLEXIBLE AND RAPID RECONFIGURABLE SUITE, a set of AI based solutions that will allow for monitoring, adaptive control and synchronisation of production and logistics flows in a factory, even when faced with a variability of products, production mix or fresh market, guaranteeing high performance in customer response time, and an efficient use of resources.
The AGILEHAND Solutions will be demonstrated in 4 industrial pilots that differ in characteristics of the surface, deformability, and consistency of the products to be handle.

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2022-TWIN-TRANSITION-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITA POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 600 375,00
Address
PIAZZA ROMA 22
60121 Ancona
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Marche Ancona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 600 375,00

Participants (19)

Partners (2)

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