Mari4_YARD is a European funded project focused on the development of user-centric solutions for a flexible and modular manufacturing in small and medium-sized (SME) shipyards, that need to remain competitive and overcome the current costs drawback in their own market segments. The project has started in December 2020 and will last until 2024.
European shipbuilding leading edge relies in the complexity, quality, high level of customization, delivery time and lifecycle services of the vessels manufactured. But the process of technology globalization has advanced the technological capability of competitors that, sometimes, also benefits from lower labor costs.
In order to avoid a worsening of the already started competitive drawback, the SME-shipyards need to enhance their productivity and manufacturing capabilities (cost, lead-time, quality), taking advantage of the latest developments within digital production: advanced robots and cobots, machine vision, internet of things, flexible production systems, 3D printing, supply chain integration across multiple sites, skills development and deployment strategies.
Mari4_YARD will foster the improvement of the manufacturing processes involved in shipbuilding through the next main technical objectives:
- To develop intuitive human-robot collaborative solutions, allowing symbiotically integration of operators’ skills and dexterity into flexible and reconfigurable solutions in shared workspaces.
- To develop handheld and portable AR/MR tools for assisting shipyard workers.
- To develop AI-assisted exoskeletons for reducing fatigue and physical stress.
- To implement a portfolio of worker-centric tools assisting in the execution of labour intensive tasks by preserving industry-specific workers’ knowledge and skills.
- To demonstrate Mari4_YARD approach at real-scale targeting both shipbuilding and retrofitting in SME-shipyards, fostering results exploitation, and enabling EU wide manufacturing adoption.
Mari4_YARD is a project funded under the EC’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement nº101006798. The project consortium members are Asociación de investigación metalúrgica del noroeste (AIMEN) (project coordinator), Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Canonical Robots S.L. (CANONICAL), Ghenova Ingenieria S.L. (GHENOVA), Gizelis Robotics (GIZELIS), Iuvo srl (IUVO), Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems and Automation – University of Patras (LMS), Transition Technologies PSC spolkaz ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia (TTPSC), Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência (INESC TEC), Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), BALance Technology Consulting GmbH, Center of Maritime Technologies gGmbH (CMT), Stichting Netherlands maritime technology foundation (NMTF), Deep Blue srl (DBL), European Federation for Welding, Joining and Cutting (EWF), Foundation WEGEMT – A European Association of Universities in Marine Technology and Related Sciences (WEGEMT), Nodosa S.L. (NODOSA), Shipbuilding industry Split, joint stock company (BIS).
