Revolutionizing manual work in Europe by using augmented reality and virtual reality technology
The European ManuVAR project has developed a new system with the potential to revolutionize productivity and working environments across Europe. It combines product lifecycle management, ergonomics and virtual and augmented reality technology.
Over a three year period, 18 partners from 8 countries across the EU collaborated to develop a modular, reconfigurable system that will support manual work across a range of industries. The ManuVAR project concluded in May 2012.
Industries such as spacecraft assembly, maintenance of power plants, operation of complex machinery, and design and manufacturing of highly customized products, rely on the knowledge and skills of manual workers. High knowledge manual work is the core business that cannot be off-shored or automated.
According to Eurostat*, in 2011, 15.7 million people were involved in high knowledge manual work in Europe, mainly as plant and machine assemblers and operators.
ManuVAR’s Project Coordinator, DrBoris Krassifrom VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, said: “ManuVAR will bring about improved utilization of the workforce, and as a consequence, better competitiveness on the global scale based on people’s knowledge. This in turn will result in better quality, shorter time to market and better value. By supporting high value manual work that cannot be off-shored and must be performed locally, Europe could protect domestic employment.”
ManuVAR combines product lifecycle management, ergonomics and virtual and augmented reality technology. The ManuVAR system improves all aspects of manual work for all actors involved in the product lifecycle, from engineers and managers, to workers and operators. It enhances communication in the product lifecycle, supports workplace and work procedures design, and facilitates training and the delivery of instructions.
During the demonstration phase of the project in February and March 2012, senior managers and engineers from European industry confirmed the potential of the system in real manufacturing scenarios. Their comments included: “…This is exactly what we need to provide efficient communication”; “…With this system you may design a good workstation first time right, which is as important as the design of a new product”; “…the application would save us a ton of man hours. We would also improve customer service via the application. Also, the quality of our work would clearly be improved”.
Further information about ManuVAR is available on the project website www.manuvar.eu
EUROSTAT* http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=lfsa_egais&lang=en
Further information:
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
Dr Boris Krassi, project coordinator
boris.krassi@vtt.fi, tel. +358 20 722 3066
For media queries contact:
Carr Communications
Judith Kieran
judith.kieran@carrcommunications.ie, tel. +353 1 772 8900
Project Overview
Manual work is a crucial and expensive component of manufacturing. Globalization causes companies to reduce manual work costs by off-shoring and global outsourcing. This poses problems such as increased lead times, lower quality products and services, and weaker management. Because of the pressure of globalization and the decline of the working age population in Europe, the situation will get worse in sectors with a large proportion of high value manual work that cannot be automated or outsourced. The aim of the ManuVAR project was to provide a timely and systematic solution to this problem.
ManuVAR was funded by the European Commission under the EU 7thFramework Programme and had a total funding of €9.7 million.
ManuVAR Partners:
- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Finland
- Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF), Germany
- Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Netherlands
- Tecnalia, Spain
- Institute of Communications and Computer Systems (ICCS), Greece
- Trinity College, University of Dublin (TCD), Ireland
- University of Malaga (UMA), Spain
- University of Nottingham (UNott), UK
- Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland
- Thales Alenia Space Italy (TAS-I), Italy
- IPA Total Productivity (IPA TP), Netherlands
- NEM Solutions, Spain
- Tecnatom, Spain
- Carr Communications, Ireland
- Hermia Business Development (HBD), Finland
- Association for Advancement of Radical Behavior Analysis (AARBA), Italy
- cards PLM Solutions, Netherlands
- Metso Minerals, Finland
PROJECT PHOTOS FOR THE USE OF MEDIA: http://www.vtt.fi/news/2012/20121023_revolutionizing_manual_work.jsp
Further information on VTT:
Olli Ernvall
Senior Vice President, Communications
358 20 722 6747
olli.ernvall@vtt.fi
www.vtt.fi
VTT - 70 years of technology for business and society
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is a leading multitechnological applied research organization in Northern Europe. VTT creates new technology and science-based innovations in co-operation with domestic and foreign partners. VTT’s turnover is EUR 290 million and itspersonnel totals 3,100.