Description of the RI

The infrastructure network consists of three research centres, two of which are operated by SZTAKI and one by BME. Locally, two are in Budapest and one in Győr. The focus and competence of the three centres complement each other synergistically.

The SZTAKI’s Industry 4.0 Centre of Excellence in Győr targets problems where the high-level basic research helps solving practical industry needs. Cyber-physical systems are computing structures that are intensively connected to the surrounding physical world and physical processes, and at the same time serve and utilize the data access and data processing services available on the Internet. The centre focuses primarily on robotic tasks. In 2022 it will be extended with sensor and robot technologies which on the one hand are essential to conduct research in human-robot collaboration and teamwork on the other hand, it opens the system to non-traditional robotic applications. The first example of this is the robot-supported experimental hydroponic plant fertilization system. The IoT capabilities of the pilot system are also developing to support the tracking and tracing of the objects of the production system (e.g., using advanced 5G technologies).

The mission of the BME Industry 4.0 Technology Centre is to have as many modern and efficient companies using a wide range of Industry 4.0 technologies. To achieve this, it provides demonstration, education primarily to SME-s. The Centre operates more than twenty advanced solutions, on which the industrial application possibilities of several technology can be learned.

The SmartFactory is a compact, high-level but functional research and demonstration facility of SZTAKI which compresses a production site to the size of a single room and presents key physical and virtual processes of industrial manufacturing in a tangible, explorable way.

In 2022 the SmartFactory will have a cyber-physical production and logistics pilot system with genuine decentralized intelligence and control. Hence, a fleet of small autonomous mobile robots will be added to the system, as well as the new version of the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) of SZTAKI which fully supports the orchestration of autonomous units. In parallel, all the developments are updated in the Digital Twin of the system.

Activities and Services

The Industry 4.0 Centre of Excellence provides essential infrastructure RDI services for collaborative and autonomous robotic applications, focusing primarily on logistics and assembly tasks. At the demonstrations of the Technology Centre, customers can learn about the possibilities of Industry4, SMEs can even test the solutions with their own data, but the equipment is also suitable for performing their own RDI tasks with the involvement of university lecturers and students.

SmartFactory, as an experimental cyber-physical manufacturing system, was created to model, demonstrate, and run industrial problems where Industry 4.0-related concepts can be tested with controlled implementation of real-world limitations and disruptions.

Provision of a complex service planned primarily in the first two centres for the digitization development projects of Hungarian SMEs. As part of this, training, experimentation and testing opportunities will be provided to companies. Highlighted professional areas include industrial data collection, data processing and visualization, production scheduling and logistics, using state-of-the-art technologies such as MI, AR, VR.

The internal coherence of the infrastructure network is a priority activity in 2022.