I-MECH

Project name
737453 I-MECH
Period
Jun 2017 - May 2020
Call
ECSEL-JU 2016
Total Partners
31
Member Partners
16
Website
www.i-mech.eu/
EU Funding
5,03 M Euro

Smart mechatronic systems, a specific class of cyber-physical systems (CPS), face increasing constraints on size, speed, precision, adaptability diagnostic capability and connectivity. At the same time, they need to accommodate ever more demanding smart cognitive features. Addressing these constraints is essential for building smart and reliable production System-of-Systems (SoS). These new SoS demand highly capable, flexible, stable and reliable motion control infrastructures which cannot be delivered by outdated commercial automation products. I-MECH will provide augmented intelligence for wide-range of cyber-physical systems having actively controlled moving elements. This implies new demands also on bottom layers of the employed motion control system, which cannot be handled by available commercial products. This motivates the main mission of this project - bringing a novel intelligence into Instrumentation and Control Layers, essentially by bridging the gap between latest research results and industrial practice in model based engineering fields. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts will be used to achieve a high degree of configurability scalability and interoperability of the individual components, while maintaining the reliability, safety, certifiability and time-to-market benefits of off the shelf solutions. The project vision is to provide enhanced motion control intelligence for a wide range of CPS involving actively controlled moving elements. In consequence, such CPS will: - be able to measure the performance of its individual instrumented parts (drives, sensors, actuators); - optimize and adapt control actions according to condition and machine dynamics changes; - be able to actively detect and reject residual vibrations when pushing machine performance to the physical limit; - learn during repeating tasks and optimize its performance automatically; - accommodate new sensors and actuators with different performance profiles; - integrate multiple motion and control activities on multi-many core platforms. The high added value of I-MECH reference platform will be directly verified in high-speed/big Computer Numerical Control (CNC machining, additive manufacturing, semiconductors, high-speed packaging and healthcare robotics. The platform will also be applicable in many other generic motion control fields. The project outputs will impact on the entire value chain of the production automation market and, through envisioned I-MECH center, create sustainable proposition for future smart industry.