Affix Engineering, in cooperation with Brainport Industries, is going to offer a service as part of the AI-Matters project. In the Factory of the Future Experience Center on the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) in Eindhoven, SMEs will have the opportunity to test out in a low-threshold manner what robot and vision control solution Operator of the Future can do for them. Jarmila Bökkerink-Scheerova, project manager for AI-Matters at Brainport Industries: “Affix Engineering’s Operator of the Future is a possible solution to the current personnel shortage and fits well with the AI-Matters program. We hope we can support many organizations with this.”
Danny de Greef, director Affix Engineering: “The market research we conducted in 2017 showed that both large and small companies struggle to deploy robotics and vision control in a technically reliable way. Objectives are often not achieved or projects do not get off the ground at all. Affix Engineering wants to support local companies in this by providing advice, software development and assistance with commissioning.” Affix Engineering has long been working with Brainport Industries as a partner within the Fieldlab Flexible Manufacturing, now the Factory of the Future Experience Center, in the field of bin-picking. “Our focus on local projects and our goal of helping companies in the region move forward fits well with Brainport Industries. With this in mind, we are now offering a new service together as part of AI-Matters, of which Brainport Industries is one of the Dutch partners.
AI-Matters
AI-Matters aims to increase the resilience and flexibility of the European manufacturing sector through the deployment of the latest developments in AI and robotics, and intelligent, autonomous systems for flexible manufacturing. It is doing this with the establishment of a Manufacturing Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEF) network. The AI-Matters network can be found in various locations across eight countries in Europe and has 25 partners: mostly large research and innovation organizations. The Dutch node of the AI-Matters network has its home base at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC). Here they continue to build on the already existing facilities and infrastructure and offer services in the field of human-robot interaction and optimization at the plant level. The service that Brainport Industries will offer with Affix Engineering fits well with this.
Operator of the Future
One of the biggest challenges in the coming years is the shortage of personnel. With this in mind, Affix Engineering developed a robot application with 3D Vision camera and smart software in 2023, capable of loading and unloading multiple types of machines. Danny: “This Operator of the Future can easily be moved from one machine to another machine to do the boring and monotonous work of an operator. This allows a company to schedule the robot like an operator and not rely on a product being produced in large numbers for a long time to pay for itself.”
Advantages
- The robot offers a solution to the current personnel shortage.
- It becomes easier to hire staff because a robot is attractive to many people.
- As the robot performs boring and non-ergonomic work, it improves working conditions and contributes to a healthy workplace.
- Companies can also compete better in the international marketplace by automating.
- There is less need to outsource work to low-wage countries, where environmental and personnel welfare issues are not always considered.
- Producing more locally contributes to higher quality and reduces transportation and global CO2 emissions.
- The fact that the robot is flexible, deployable in multiple locations, makes it pay for itself faster.
Testing and improvement
Affix has succeeded in delivering an initial solution to the customer’s satisfaction. Now that this has demonstrated the feasibility of the Operator of the Future, Affix Engineering wants to further test and improve the technology based on use cases from different companies. At the same time, there are companies that want to experiment with this technology to see if it fits their needs. The service as part of AI-Matters brings these things together.
Getting started at the Factory of the Future Experience Center
The Operator of the Future will be set up and further developed in the coming period at the Factory of the Future Experience Center on the Brainport Industrie Campus: a perfect place to make new technology come to life, where interested parties can follow its development.
Jarmila: “We can demonstrate here that this solution and applied AI technology is applicable in the manufacturing industry and meets the needs of different customers – SMEs in the manufacturing industry. Moreover, within the Experience Center, they can try out this solution in a low-threshold manner, without having to invest immediately. This allows them to get a good idea of what it could mean within their production facility and what benefits they could potentially gain. Based on experience, we will further improve the concept. The ultimate goal is to deploy the robot application at multiple locations and develop it further here.”
