Smart industry

Particle accelerators are a key asset of the European Research Area. Their use spans from the large installations devoted to fundamental science to a wealth of facilities providing X-ray or neutron beams to a wide range of scientific disciplines. Beyond scientific laboratories, their use in medicine and industry is rapidly growing. Notwithstanding their high level of maturity, particle accelerators are now facing critical challenges related to the size and performance of the facilities envisaged for the next step of particle physics research, to the increasing demands to accelerators for applied science, and to the specific needs of societal applications. In this crucial moment for accelerator evolution, I.FAST aims at enhancing innovation in and from accelerator-based Research Infrastructures (RI) by developing innovative breakthrough technologies common to multiple accelerator platforms, and by defining strategic roadmaps for future developments. I.FAST will focus the technological R&D on long-term sustainability of accelerator-based research, with the goal of developing more performant and affordable technologies, and of reducing power consumption and impact of accelerator facilities, thus paving the way to a sustainable next-generation of accelerators. By involving industry as a co-innovation partner via the 17 industrial companies in the Consortium, 12 of which SME’s, I.FASTwill generate and maintain an innovation ecosystem around the accelerator-based RIs that will sustain the long-term evolution of accelerator technologies in Europe. To achieve its goals, I.FAST will explore new alternative accelerator concepts and promote advanced prototyping of key technologies. These include, among others, techniques to increase brightness and reduce dimensions of synchrotron light sources, advanced superconducting technologies to produce higher fields with lower consumption, and strategies and technologies to improve energy efficiency.

Smart Industry Centre (SmartIC) was created at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and Estonian University of Life Sciences (Institute of Technology) in 2017 to improve collaboration in research and development and use of distributed infrastructure in the field of Industry 4.0 - robotics, mechatronics, additive manufacturing, product quality control and related fields of IT (especially artificial intelligence). In 2018, Institute of Technology of University of Tartu joined in collaboration (mainly in the field of robotics). In 2017-2020 several new labs were opened (FMS and Robotics Lab, Industrial Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab, Additive Manufacturing Lab/ ProtoLab, Computer Tomography Lab for quality control, etc). Several new ERF and H2020 funded projects were initiated and launched in 2017-2020.

The European Commission is promoting various initiatives within the scope of digital strategy. It aims at several focused areas such as increasing training in digital skills, modernising education across the EU, and harnessing digital technologies for learning. From the educational perspective, teaching engineering-related topics, such as robotics and automation, often requires access to a lab environment where many resources can be used, demonstrated, and tested. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic has forced more than 1.5 billion students to stay home and access teaching and education through the internet and other digital resources. Although the transition to online can be done without many issues for teaching theoretical classes, the current e-learning tools, such as Zoom and Teams, are not sufficient to replace practical classes and direct experience in real labs. Some online platforms provide engineering tools, for example, Autodesk TinkerCAD for 3D and circuit design, but they do not represent an immersive physical engineering lab, and the contents on many subjects are missing, e.g. robot control and automation. VirLaDEE aims at giving access to physical engineering labs through their digital twins that will be available in an innovative online platform. These virtual lab facilities will provide a playground that is complementary to the existing learning methods delivering quality and inclusive engineering education through state-of-the-art virtual technologies.