AGILEHAND

AGILEHAND is a Research and Innovation Action project under Horizon Europe framework which aims at developing advanced technologies for grading, handling and packaging autonomously soft and deformable products, as a strategic instrument to improve flexibility, agility and reconfigurability of production and logistic systems of the European manufacturing companies.

Conveyor systems allow equipment or materials to be transported quickly and efficiently from one place to another. Today, robots are essential in this sector. Europe’s share of the industry is 23%, but Europe must continue to compete with China, Japan and Korea. Improved efficiency and new solutions would be an advantage. However, the transport of deformable objects, such as plastic items and foodstuffs, cannot yet be handled by robots.

The EU-funded AGILEHAND project team will develop new technologies that will enable robots to intelligently handle and package soft and deformable objects using agile and reconfigurable lines, while intelligent solutions will monitor, control and synchronise production and logistics to improve efficiency.

Duración: 01/01/2023 – 31/12/2025

Project website: https://agilehand.eu/

The main objectives of the AGILEHAND project are:

  • To create a human-centred AI-based solutions ecosystem targeted to manufacturing scenarios.
  • To improve Human-Robot Collaborations by making machines aware of what human workers do, enabling them to reason, react and interact to expected and unexpected situations.
  • To support a change of paradigm where AI, robotics and Social Sciences and Humanities are integrated.
  • To overcome the complexity of programming, providing an affordable and simple solution to SMEs.

Automated production management

CPS is also of particular interest for production strategy and supply chain engineering. The control of production systems through CPS operating with robust optimisation algorithms in real time allows the recalculation of production schedules in the event of unexpected events (machine stoppages, lack of materials, urgent orders, etc.). This enables direct reprogramming of automatic and semi-automatic machines, speeding up production and minimising downtime.

Additionally, this automated production management can be combined with the generation of automatic changes in the task masters of the operators, as these are still very present in many small companies with low levels of digitisation. In this way, a rebalancing of workloads can be achieved, maximising the efficiency of production systems.

 
AgileHand: First prototypes of grippers
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AgileHand: Revolutionizing Soft Product Handling
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AgileHand: First prototypes of grippers
AgileHand: Revolutionizing Soft Product Handling
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