The project has as its primary objective the creation of an ICT platform for the integrated, dynamic and autonomous management of production operations with a high level of automation aimed at optimizing resources (people, materials, production systems).

The DISLO-MAN platform will consist of multiple horizontal hardware and software modules applicable to undifferentiated production areas, and vertical modules applied to four demonstration chains with a high impact on the territory and with different volumes, sizes and complexity: car manufacturing, machine tools manufacturing, precision mechanics, pharmaceuticals and agri-food.

The DISLO-MAN platform is strongly based on Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies in their various shades; in particular it will consist of:

• wearable sensors: wearable terminals (object of development and prototyping) and the like;
• systems for the indoor localization of operators and automated material handling systems
  (AGV, trolleys etc.);
• modules for wireless communication towards gateways for real-time data collection from human operators, machine tools, conveyor belts, goods in storage and in movement, etc .;
• software systems for data validation (data cleaning), alarm management, processing and storage of flows on cloud-based systems;
• software systems for machine learning / Big Data capable of analyzing complex production scenarios and providing suggestions and alternatives aimed at optimizing human and material resources;
• dashboard and control center software to be integrated with legacy systems of production and handling of goods;
• systems for automatic or assisted identification of operators and their functions (via biometric parameters such as iris, fingerprint, heartbeat, etc. or wireless tags);
• mobile applications for terminal operators, tablets, smartphones, wearable devices.

The main features of the DISLO-MAN platform are the following:

• integration (of production systems) with sensor networks for continuous detection of production parameters installed on machine tools and aimed at optimizing material flows and minimizing downtime;
• integration with wearables worn by operators on board the line and movement recognition systems for the optimization of ergonomics and the reduction of the most tiring and / or resource-wasting material recovery activities;
• integration with suitably sensorized plant automatic handling systems (AGV or chain belts) where present (vertical car manufacturing);
• creation of support systems for the control and efficiency of the energy efficiency of the production environment (pharmaceutical vertical);
• creation of protection and safety support systems alongside highly automated production lines;
• creation of a reference architecture and its implementation in a cloud-based software platform of the data acquisition, aggregation and homogenization system and dynamic storage of data flows;
• creation of a data analytics system based on a combination of statistical methods, Big Data Analytics techniques, Machine Learning and rule-based semantic reasoning based on the most effective methodologies for real-time analysis and the creation of predictive models;
• creation of a dashboard for data visualization and a simulator for what-if analysis with the aim of evaluating alternative scenarios and defining best practice models for plant organization;
  implementation of the platform in a commercial and on-premises cloud environment;
• development of a software application for the digitization of operational best practices and their representation in augmented / virtual reality (smart gloves, caves, training systems and performance evaluation of human activities);
• experimentation at four pilot sites that demonstrate the effectiveness of the solution in different production chains using the same platform and business verticals.

In terms of added value, the DISLO-MAN platform will be characterized by:

modularity: the platform will consist of plug-in modules applicable to shopfloor contexts of different nature and able to interact with sensors of various types according to needs. This aspect will be made possible by standardizing the data collected and the related access interfaces;
interoperability: the platform will ensure integration with existing information systems (SI) (MES, ERP, etc) through specific “integration” modules, where these are present; the idea is not to replace but to integrate, which is essential in cases where companies have already made significant investments