COGILE, a project that brings us closer to the smart factory with human-machine collaboration, comes to an end

Vicomtech is part of the group of experts in engineering and technology that have joined their efforts and knowledge to carry out this research and development project of Enabling Technologies for the efficient cooperation between the worker and the intelligent systems of the Factory of the Future. 

The aim of the project: people and machines working in a collaborative way.

The aim of this development is focused on taking steps towards collaborative environments in which people and machines are able to work side by side in industrial plants, adapting to their physical capacities, sensory-motor needs and cognitive abilities so that they can carry out their work using everything that technology provides to the maximum.

Through technological axes such as simulation with virtual reality and augmented reality, monitoring of the operator's confidence in the system, adaptive interfaces and conversational agents, we have sought to adapt intelligent industrial systems to the operator, putting the person at the center of automation.

Vicomtech's role focused on training scenarios with Virtual Reality in machining tasks.

Vicomtech's participation has been focused on the use case proposed for training scenarios with Virtual Reality in machining tasks. Specifically, in an immersive way, the manual control of machining is simulated with the movements of the tool and the interaction with the digital twin of a conventional lathe. In addition, a virtual voice assistant has been included, which provides answers (obtained by processing the knowledge of machining experts) when the person has any doubts regarding the operation.

Technologies used in the project 

For the conceptualisation of the digital twin, Vicomtech has applied 3D model processing techniques to obtain from the CAD of the conventional lathe an interactive model that can be integrated into a graphics engine (in this case Unity). It has also implemented behavioural rules so that the digital twin of the lathe responds in the same way as the real lathe. 

Technological centres collaborating in the project

The COGILE project, carried out thanks to the Elkartek programme, has a team of experts made up of the VICOMTECH, TECNALIA, TEKNIKER, ELHUYAR Fundazioa and MONDRAGÓN ESKOLA POLITEKNIKOA (MU-EPS) technology centres, which have been able to compare their advances and applications with a contrast committee.

COGILE establishes the technological bases for the future and marks a technological principle with a long way to go in its adaptation to the possible needs of companies in the industrial sector in order to work more efficiently and effectively. In addition, the project represents a breakthrough within the industry, especially in the training of people and their work in the plant, allowing the technology to be adapted to the needs of the same, rather than the opposite.