Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AI REGIO (Regions and DIHs alliance for AI-driven digital transformation of European Manufacturing SMEs)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-04-01 do 2023-09-30
AI REGIO vision is that, by 2030, Europe will lead the worldwide competition for an ethical and sustainable adoption of AI in Manufacturing, by integrating regional Digital Innovation Hubs and pan-EU open Digital Manufacturing Platforms via a cross-border network of SME-driven Industrial Experiments and Didactic Experimental Facilities. GDPR and Data Sovereignty will drive the European AI strategy for personal and non-personal Data Sharing Spaces. Therefore. the AI REGIO project aims at supporting AI-driven Digital Transformation of European Manufacturing SMEs, by up-scaling and coordinating different regional smart specialization strategies, by integrating DMPs and DIHs at a service of cross-border large scale experimentations and by enriching I4MS previous results in the domain of Industry 4.0 with innovative AI applications and open platforms.
In particular, the AI REGIO project aims at filling 3 major gaps currently preventing AI-driven DIHs from implementing fully effective digital transformation pathways for their Manufacturing SMEs: at policy level the Regional vs. EU gap; at technological level the Digital Manufacturing vs. Innovation Collaboration Platform gap; at business level the Innovative AI (Industry 5.0) vs Industry 4.0 gap. To successfully overcome these gaps the AI REGIO innovation action aims to consolidate the collaboration in the pan-European network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) by enhancing the offering of regional DIHs to manufacturing SMEs.
In particular, the AI REGIO project aims at filling 3 major gaps currently preventing AI-driven DIHs from implementing fully effective digital transformation pathways for their Manufacturing SMEs: at policy level the Regional vs. EU gap; at technological level the Digital Manufacturing vs. Innovation Collaboration Platform gap; at business level the Innovative AI (Industry 5.0) vs Industry 4.0 gap. To successfully overcome these gaps the AI REGIO innovation action aims to consolidate the collaboration in the pan-European network of Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) by enhancing the offering of regional DIHs to manufacturing SMEs.
To reach its objectives, among its main achievements at M18, AI REGIO has developed a Reference Architecture for AI for manufacturing system, made by complementary platforms, namely Data4AI, AI4Manufacturing Toolkit, Data Space for Manufacturing, the DIHIWARE and the Industry 5.0:
- DATA4AI data quality for AI applications, to ensure that the users data will be available for AI applications in the right quality, quantity and at the right time by using specific data workflows and data labeling on the basis of semantic context.
- AI4Manufacturing Toolkit, an orchestrator of AI pipelines made by reusable AI resources composed in a workflow.
- Data Space for Manufacturing, a data sovereignty solution based on International Data Space open source approach.
- The DIHIWARE platform, integrated and customized for the AI domain, to enable DIH innovation and collaboration
- The Industry 5.0 platform, a set of integrated tools to go beyond the Industry 4.0 approach, focused mainly on technological improvements in production systems, to achieve the relevant potential benefits enabled by effective bi-directional human-machine interaction.
AI REGIO has also developed/enacted the following methodologies, to support the SME-led experiments and to cross-fertilize the European SME landscape:
- The 6P assessment methodology, for assessing the impact of the experiments on the respective organizations; conducted with an online assessment tool - developed by POLIMI - to support manufacturing companies to assess their current and expected level of Digitization, and to define Digital Transformation pathways.
- The Trial Handbook methodology, together with the AI REGIO requirement engineering methodology, to support the technological organizational changes.
- The METHODology for DIH (METHODIH), to evaluate and assess the DIHs value proposition, customer orientation and market sustainability.
- The TEchnology-REgulatory Sandbox (TERESA) concept, to address the regulatory and ethical issues derived by adoption of Human-AI interaction in production systems
- the Didactic Factories (DF) concept has been developed and a first wave of several DFs has been identified. Community building activities already take place in the form of workshops and regular meetings, in order also to allow experimentation of the TERESA concept.
- Finally, AI REGIO has progressed toward the objective to design and develop a structured methodology able to assess the current level of AI-digital maturity of companies (AS-IS), quantify the desired level of AI-digital maturity (TO-BE), and to design a specific action plan to allow the transition needed to fill the gaps in terms of job and skills competences.
AI REGIO has implemented 17 Experiments out of 13 European regions and has supported 21 Open Call Experiments out of 20 regions in the Europe area. In total, AI REGIO has implemented and supported 65 testing activities all round Europe, including Didactic Factories’ and TERESAs’ ones. 18 AI REGIO organizations have launched innovations new to the market and 22 have launched innovations new to the company. Among the 18 which launched innovations new to the market 12 are product or services, the remaining are methods.
- DATA4AI data quality for AI applications, to ensure that the users data will be available for AI applications in the right quality, quantity and at the right time by using specific data workflows and data labeling on the basis of semantic context.
- AI4Manufacturing Toolkit, an orchestrator of AI pipelines made by reusable AI resources composed in a workflow.
- Data Space for Manufacturing, a data sovereignty solution based on International Data Space open source approach.
- The DIHIWARE platform, integrated and customized for the AI domain, to enable DIH innovation and collaboration
- The Industry 5.0 platform, a set of integrated tools to go beyond the Industry 4.0 approach, focused mainly on technological improvements in production systems, to achieve the relevant potential benefits enabled by effective bi-directional human-machine interaction.
AI REGIO has also developed/enacted the following methodologies, to support the SME-led experiments and to cross-fertilize the European SME landscape:
- The 6P assessment methodology, for assessing the impact of the experiments on the respective organizations; conducted with an online assessment tool - developed by POLIMI - to support manufacturing companies to assess their current and expected level of Digitization, and to define Digital Transformation pathways.
- The Trial Handbook methodology, together with the AI REGIO requirement engineering methodology, to support the technological organizational changes.
- The METHODology for DIH (METHODIH), to evaluate and assess the DIHs value proposition, customer orientation and market sustainability.
- The TEchnology-REgulatory Sandbox (TERESA) concept, to address the regulatory and ethical issues derived by adoption of Human-AI interaction in production systems
- the Didactic Factories (DF) concept has been developed and a first wave of several DFs has been identified. Community building activities already take place in the form of workshops and regular meetings, in order also to allow experimentation of the TERESA concept.
- Finally, AI REGIO has progressed toward the objective to design and develop a structured methodology able to assess the current level of AI-digital maturity of companies (AS-IS), quantify the desired level of AI-digital maturity (TO-BE), and to design a specific action plan to allow the transition needed to fill the gaps in terms of job and skills competences.
AI REGIO has implemented 17 Experiments out of 13 European regions and has supported 21 Open Call Experiments out of 20 regions in the Europe area. In total, AI REGIO has implemented and supported 65 testing activities all round Europe, including Didactic Factories’ and TERESAs’ ones. 18 AI REGIO organizations have launched innovations new to the market and 22 have launched innovations new to the company. Among the 18 which launched innovations new to the market 12 are product or services, the remaining are methods.
AI REGIO will have a transformative impact on Europe landscape, at regional and EU level, as well as in a wider socio-economic context, on Smart Manufacturing Industries, by covering the 4 dimensions of future workplaces; according to the Digital Workplace Group (DWG) report “Digital Workplace 2030: Preparing now for the digital worlds of work to come”:
- Digital workplace transformation
AI REGIO has developed and deployed collaborative platforms to enable European manufacturing industry (especially SMEs) to embrace the new generation workforce, that will demand advanced human machine interactions.
- Workforce capability evolution
AI REGIO has started a process to foster an AI based digital workplace that is both immersive and pervasive, providing
augmented workers and managers with on-demand capabilities tailored to their needs.
- Task and job content organisation evolution
AI REGIO will be fundamental in linking platform development with digital re- and -upskilling of European workforce through close collaboration with EIT Digital Didactic factories, European AI DIH network services and best collaborative intelligence practices emerging from the AI4EU lighthouse project and Human-AI European flagship initiative.
- Workplace collaborative intelligence & platforms
At the heart of the extended reach and expanding capabilities of future workplace is its growing intelligence. AI capabilities will drive a number of key trends in the workplace, including: (1) smart enterprises with data-driven decision-making; (2) a fluid workforce that reshapes itself as needs change (3); pervasive measurement and insight on all aspects of work and the workplace (4) hyper-personalized digital work environments; (5) data-driven behaviour change. But more importantly, AI REGIO will enable collaborative intelligence: humans able to assist AI and AI to help humans.
In terms of the regional impact and STEEP Sustainability and Innovation AI REGIO expect to have a three-fold impact:
- Amplification of AI REGIO impact in the regions and DIHs initially involved, to materialise their commitment to complement the AI REGIO activities with application of regional funds to amplify the effect of this initiative in the regions.
- Expansion of the AI REGIO impact towards other regions and DIHs. AI REGIO has started to and will share best practices and lessons learned in dedicated events, including training, webinars and awards.
- Multiplication of the AI REGIO impact towards less developed regions by also providing “seed funds” to those regions, started in the form of the two launched Open Calls, that allowed the SME winners to learn from best practices and lessons learned in dedicated AI REGIO regional development bootcamps.
- Digital workplace transformation
AI REGIO has developed and deployed collaborative platforms to enable European manufacturing industry (especially SMEs) to embrace the new generation workforce, that will demand advanced human machine interactions.
- Workforce capability evolution
AI REGIO has started a process to foster an AI based digital workplace that is both immersive and pervasive, providing
augmented workers and managers with on-demand capabilities tailored to their needs.
- Task and job content organisation evolution
AI REGIO will be fundamental in linking platform development with digital re- and -upskilling of European workforce through close collaboration with EIT Digital Didactic factories, European AI DIH network services and best collaborative intelligence practices emerging from the AI4EU lighthouse project and Human-AI European flagship initiative.
- Workplace collaborative intelligence & platforms
At the heart of the extended reach and expanding capabilities of future workplace is its growing intelligence. AI capabilities will drive a number of key trends in the workplace, including: (1) smart enterprises with data-driven decision-making; (2) a fluid workforce that reshapes itself as needs change (3); pervasive measurement and insight on all aspects of work and the workplace (4) hyper-personalized digital work environments; (5) data-driven behaviour change. But more importantly, AI REGIO will enable collaborative intelligence: humans able to assist AI and AI to help humans.
In terms of the regional impact and STEEP Sustainability and Innovation AI REGIO expect to have a three-fold impact:
- Amplification of AI REGIO impact in the regions and DIHs initially involved, to materialise their commitment to complement the AI REGIO activities with application of regional funds to amplify the effect of this initiative in the regions.
- Expansion of the AI REGIO impact towards other regions and DIHs. AI REGIO has started to and will share best practices and lessons learned in dedicated events, including training, webinars and awards.
- Multiplication of the AI REGIO impact towards less developed regions by also providing “seed funds” to those regions, started in the form of the two launched Open Calls, that allowed the SME winners to learn from best practices and lessons learned in dedicated AI REGIO regional development bootcamps.