Improving industrial flexibility with Tampere University led research
Professor Eric Coatanea at Tampere University says this R&D effort is essential because it resolves key limitations in current welding and additive manufacturing by advancing process modeling and optimisation, improving the adaptability of robotic systems to real-world variations, and increasing the use of advanced sensors for real-time quality control.
“By bridging the gaps through international collaboration, we aim to significantly enhance manufacturing efficiency and reliability,” he says.
According to Coatanea the ROBOT BOX project has two main goals: to develop a portable, offline method for optimizing weld sequences and parameters, as well as to create open-source control hardware that is based on robot operating system (ROS2) and compatible with various robots and sensors.
Professor Coatanea leads the Manufacturing systems research group (MASYRE) which is responsible for project alignment with industry gaps and drives development of an adaptive modular design (MDO) system and control hardware based on ROS2.
The team also integrates data collection tools and builds advanced algorithms for real-time monitoring, anomaly detection, and adaptive control in welding and additive manufacturing.
“We will test our research in modelling, simulation, MDO, machine learning, and sensor integration, and develop tools that can be used in other projects,” Coatanea explains.
Several diverse partners are involved in the project to achieve maximum benefits and impactful results. The European project partners are TU Braunschweig and IPU in Germany and University of Tarbes (UTTOP) and OPTALM in France. In both countries there are also industrial companies involved. Cooperation is also being planned in with the University West in Sweden.
In Finland the industrial collaborators are Wärtsilä, DNY Finland oy (Helsinki Shipyard), Turula Engineering, Cavitar, Addcomposites, Ponsse and Kemppi.
The ROBOT BOX project has been approved by the Smart Eureka organization.
