Objective The present global competitive environment poses formidable challenges to the European manufacturing infrastructure; among others, we single out speed in responding to continuously changing market demands, time-to-market pressure, plant and equipment costs, and the need of amortizing them over longer periods.We do not believe European manufacturing can cope with the many challenges of the future without radical innovation. The speed of innovation in the Information Technology domain has been increasing over many years when compared to other domains. We believe that leveraging this innovation is essential to develop radically innovative manufacturing plants and processes. We notice an increasing gap between the advent of new ideas and products in IT and their use in manufacturing plant.Our goal is to bridge this gap: to make manufacturing plants and equipment agile and reconfigurable using multi-agent systems, open platforms, wireless technology and virtual engineering design methods.Our actions have four prongs:- Make open approaches and the multi-agent paradigm more robust and demonstrate their feasibility (agent-based mechatronics control technology with embedded intelligence;-Exploit wireless technology in networking and in novel equipment architectures;-Develop flows to support the design and operation of the manufacturing plant of the future with particular attention to the simulation of advanced multi-agent systems and automatic code generation for control;-Develop industrial strength test beds.Expected benefits include:-Increased competitiveness of European automation solution providers in face of strong competition from the Far East;-Increased robustness of the control hardware and software with reduced development times and costs;-Enhanced reusability and reconfigurability of developed control solutions and improved portability;-Optimised relationship among industrial manufacturing supply chain. Fields of science natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftwareengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systemssocial sciencessociologyindustrial relationsautomationengineering and technologymechanical engineeringmechatronicsengineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technology Programme(s) FP6-NMP - Nanotechnologies and nanosciences, knowledge-based multifunctional materials and new production processes and devices: thematic priority 3 under the 'Focusing and integrating community research' of the 'Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area' specific programme 2002-2006. Topic(s) IST-2002-2.3.2.5 - Embedded systems NMP-2004-IST-NMP-1 - Integrating Technologies for the Fast and Flexible Manufacturing Enterprise Call for proposal FP6-2004-IST-NMP-2 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme STREP - Specific Targeted Research Project Coordinator COMAU SPA Address Via rivalta 30 Grugliasco Italy See on map Links Website Opens in new window EU contribution € 0,00 Participants (9) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE Italy EU contribution € 0,00 Address Piazzale aldo moro,7 Roma See on map Links Website Opens in new window DASSAULT SYSTÈMES France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 9 quai marcel dassault Suresnes See on map Links Website Opens in new window FLEXLINK AUTOMATION OY Finland EU contribution € 0,00 Address Teollisuustie 9 Muurame See on map Links Website Opens in new window FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address Hansastrasse 27 c Muenchen See on map Links Website Opens in new window LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY United Kingdom EU contribution € 0,00 Address Ashby road Loughborough See on map Links Website Opens in new window PARADES GEIE Italy EU contribution € 0,00 Address Via griziotti 4 Milano See on map Links Website Opens in new window SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC GMBH Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address Steinheimer str. 117 Seligenstadt See on map Links Website Opens in new window SCUOLA SUPERIORE DI STUDI UNIVERSITARI E DI PERFEZIONAMENTO S. ANNA Italy EU contribution € 0,00 Address Piazza martiri della libertà, 33 Pisa See on map Links Website Opens in new window TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Finland EU contribution € 0,00 Address Korkeakoulunkatu 10 Tampere See on map Links Website Opens in new window
