MaaSAI - Agile Manufacturing as a Service through AI Autonomous Agents

Duration: 2024-2027

Programme: HORIZON

Topic: HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-03 – Manufacturing as a Service: Technologies for customised, flexible, and decentralised production on demand (Made in Europe Partnership) (RIA)

Project Link: Click here


The MaaSAI project will create the MaaSAI System, a comprehensive digital system to automate and facilitate interactions between suppliers of manufacturing systems (Providers) and manufacturing companies (Consumers) in a Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) ecosystem, in an agile, efficient and transparent manner. The MaaSAI System aims to revolutionise manufacturing and remanufacturing processes by facilitating access to flexible and decentralised capacities, through the MaaS business model, that extends the principles of the service-oriented economy to the manufacturing industry. The MaaSAI System aims to contribute to the reduction of the heavy investments that manufacturers have traditionally had to make to set up and maintain their operations. With an emphasis on production flexibility, agility and responsiveness, the MaaSAI System enables on-demand sustainable manufacturing, optimising resource utilisation, facilitating the transition towards circular facilities, and promoting better integration of the value chain. The MaaSAI project leverages on Explainable Artificial Intelligence (xAI) in autonomous agents to negotiate the use of manufacturing capacities between providers and consumers in a dynamic MaaS ecosystem. The incorporation of secure, and real-time data exchange between participating companies ensures fast response times and improves collaboration. The MaaSAI System represents a paradigm shift that enables manufacturers to access and utilise on-demand production capabilities, further increasing efficiency and lowering barriers to entry for SMEs. The MaaSAI project will deploy 3 main key exploitable results: 1) MaaSAI Cloud MaaS Marketplace; 2) MaaSAI Provider Suite; 3) MaaSAI. The MaaSAI System will be demonstrated in 5 Pilots of European companies from different sectors: metal machining, gears and mechanical power transmission, biomaterials, food processing, and electronics manufacturing.

Objectives

  • To facilitate a marketplace of cloud services for providers and consumers of manufacturing resources that allows them to easily connect and collaborate in a MaaS business model
  • To develop advanced digital technologies to facilitate the servitisation of manufacturing assets, optimise their utilisation enabling production on demand and increasing production flexibility and responsiveness
  • To improve the integration of the manufacturing value chain with cutting-edge technologies for fast and secure data exchange
  • To implement and adhere to industry standards in digital technologies, ensuring seamless interoperability, heightened cybersecurity, and optimised performance across diverse technological landscapes
  • To validate MaaSAI System in 5 Use Cases, representing different value chains
  • To effectively disseminate and exploit the MaaSAI Solutions, fostering widespread awareness, knowledge transfer, and practical application of the achieved outcomes among stakeholders

Impact

  • Technological: Accelerating the adoption of Manufacturing as a Service business model at manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps, for achieving flexibility and agility in their value networks through the incorporation of advanced digital tools as autonomous agents, xAI, generative AI, digital twins, data analytics and blockchain
  • Economic: Increasing the capability to swiftly adapt production to varying external conditions, improving the responsiveness of the industrial systems and value chains, being capable of self-adaptation in response to external threats, improving both the competitiveness of industry and the circularity and sustainability of the production processes while reducing the required investments for manufacturers
  • Societal: Providing human workers new levels of work efficiency, flexibility and safety, and learning and upgrading of skills, assisted by human-centric AI technologies, making their jobs more attractive

Role of FAST-Lab

  • Coordination of the Workpackage on Digital Twins, Analytics, Monitoring and Control
  • Development of the MaaS Workspace Configurator
  • Development of the MaaS Dynamic Catalogue
  • Support the development of the Digital Twins Designer
  • Support the development of other software tools such as Controls Panel, Data Analytics, Remote Monitoring & Control, Supply Chain Simulator, MaaS Provider Planner and the MaaS Consumer Planner
  • Provision of technical support for the Finnish Pilot

Consortium


Coordinator:

  • ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS (GREECE)

Participant Organizations:

  • UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE VALENCIA (Spain)
  • UNINOVA-INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE NOVAS TECNOLOGIAS-ASSOCIACAO (Portugal)
  • IKERLAN S. COOP (Spain)
  • TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO (Finland)
  • UNIVERSITÀ POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE (Italy)
  • EXOS SOLUTIONS SL (Spain)
  • DRAXIS RESEARCH VENTURES ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIRIA (Greece)
  • CLESGO GMBH (Germany)
  • IDEA-INFORMATICS, DOMOTICS, ENVIRONMENT, AUTOMATION – SOCIETA COOPERATIVA (Italy)
  • SINGULARLOGIC ANONYMI ETAIREIA PLIROFORIAKON SYSTIMATON KAI EFARMOGONPLIROFORIKIS (Greece)
  • LABORATOIRE VIRTUEL EUROPEEN DANS LE DOMAINE DE L’INTEROPERABILITE DESENTREPRISES (Belgium)
  • FUNDINGBOX ACCELERATOR SP ZOO (Poland)
  • DIN DEUTSCHES INSTITUT FUER NORMUNG E.V. (Germany)
  • PRAVO I INTERNET FOUNDATION (Bulgaria)
  • FACTOR INGENIERIA Y DECOLETAJE S.L. (Spain)
  • TASOWHEEL OY (Finland)
  • BIO4DREAMS S.P.A. (Italy)
  • BARBA STATHIS SA (Greece)
  • ENGENHARIA MECATRONICA LDA. (Portugal)


This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101177368. Neither the European Commission(EC) or any person acting on behalf of the commission is responsible for how the following information used. The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EC.