Engineering for Smart Manufacturing (E4SM)

The aim of the funded project is to research innovative methods for the development and operation of machine learning-based assistance systems for intelligent manufacturing in industrial application scenarios. In the context of Industry 4.0, the requirements and special features of manufacturing and assembly processes in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are to be taken into account in particular. In coordination with the partners, the Thuringian Centre for Mechanical Engineering and the SME 4.0 Competence Centre Ilmenau, the technologies and methods developed in this project are to be researched, tested and demonstrated for two specific application scenarios. These are "Fixture-free laser beam welding" and "Assembly processes with many variants". A special feature of the project is the clear focus on integrated and holistic engineering methods for the use of learning-based assistance systems in manufacturing. Thus, developed partial solutions in the important core areas of collaborative assistance robotics, management and analysis of heterogeneous data sets from industrial manufacturing process chains as well as IT security and IT safety are to be integrated with the help of a holistic (software) development process. In addition, the involvement of companies is intended to make the use of machine learning and assistance systems more plannable and controllable for SMEs. This is intended to lower entry barriers for the use of these technologies.