Successful appearance of OPTIMUM project at Hannover Digital Days with virtual and interactive 'Marketplace of Innovations'

On 14-15 July 2020, the ITEA 3 project OPTIMUM participated in the Digital Days of the Hannover Messe. An innovative and unique virtual and interactive ‘Marketplace of Innovations’ was developed which represents the 3D-Model of the DEMAG Research Factory with the German Demonstrator for OPTIMUM. The Digital Days of the Hannover Messe was an excellent opportunity to present the different use cases of the OPTIMUM platform in action.

OPTIMUM consists of 17 partners from Germany, Romania, United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain and the Republic of Korea, and allows different types of machines from different manufacturers to communicate wirelessly and in real time via 5G with each other and with their operators. One of the new assistance functions is for example ‘Follow machine’ which enables an indoor crane to follow a floor-bound automated guided vehicle. That way, the person involved in the process can request both, the required material transported by the Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) and the crane, to move this material via another new assist function, called ‘Come to me’. To safely control innovative assistance functions in Smart Factories, Indoor Localisation and Context Awareness are core elements of OPTIMUM. In addition, for the safety of people and equipment, OPTIMUM also deals with cyber security and develops 3D engineering tools to visualise and simulate smart processes and display digital twins. All these – already existing and in future to come – research results are basic prerequisites for the implementation of real Smart Factories which will lead to highly flexible, modular and efficient processes in the future. It is expected that the results from OPTIMUM will be pacesetters for Digital Manufacturing and Digital (Intra-)Logistics.

Virtual and interactive ‘Marketplace of Innovations’

After the cancellation of the Hannover Messe in April 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic the OPTIMUM consortium immediately shifted focus to participate in the Digital Days of the Hannover Messe instead. Primarily innovative and unique was the development of OPTIMUM´s virtual and interactive ‘Marketplace of Innovations’, which represents the 3D model of the DEMAG Research Factory with the German Demonstrator for OPTIMUM. All 17 partners were represented in this ‘Marketplace of Innovations’ and via the interactive links visitors are directed to the different contributions like videos, webinars, presentations, conference papers and websites. “The Digital Days of the Hannover Messe were an excellent opportunity to present the different use cases of the OPTIMUM platform in action. It is great to see how our joint research work becomes reality. The presentations at the Hannover Messe itself gave us as scientists the ever-important opportunity to compare commercial developments with our academic goals.” say Hannes Raddatz and Fabian Hölzke, Research Assistants and PhD Students at the University of Rostock.

At the Hannover Messe Digital Days there were 75 exhibitors and approximately 10.300 guests registered. Anja Fischer, Project Manager (DEMAG, Germany) says: “We as a consortium are proud and happy having been part of these historical Hannover Messe Digital Days. Even though the fair faced technical problems which had impact on the success, we have learnt a lot and are prepared and eager to continuously present OPTIMUM on other fairs and occasions.”

New website shows the matter of heart and a source of joy

Already at the beginning of 2020 the consortium started a complete re-make of its project website to tell the story of the project both from a technological, but also from a collaboration and social point of view. The target was to transport that OPTIMUM is not only a promising project with an ambitious consortium, but that it has turned out to also be a matter of heart and a source of joy. The new website www.optimum-itea3.eu/, was released end of June 2020.

“It is extraordinary how dedicated the OPTIMUM consortium is. This builds the grounds for its continuously high achievements and Konecranes and Demag are happy to contribute to this success story. For the team and myself it was important to learn from the preparations for and the participation at the Hannover Messe Digital Days,” said Franz Schulte, Senior Vice President, Product Platforms and Development DEMAG.

More Information

Interactive virtual ‘Marketplace of Innovation’
Project website
ITEA project website