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Science

Empowering Tomorrow’s Engineers: The MORE project’s final event presents innovations in heavy-duty mobile machinery

The MORE project, an innovative initiative funded by the European Union, celebrated the culmination of its European Industrial Doctorate (EID) research and training program at a successful final event. The event showcased the achievements of 8 early-stage researchers (ESRs) who presented key outcomes from their individual projects addressing challenges in the construction, logistics, and forestry sectors.

MORE – Educating Europe`s Future Engineers in Next Generation Heavy Duty Mobile Machinery: Artificial Intelligence driven Robotisation, Energy Efficiency and Process Optimisation – is the first industry-academia partnership to jointly educate researchers on heavy-duty mobile machinery. It addresses the need for dramatic improvements in heavy-duty mobile machinery (HDMM) and fill the gap in related research and training. Over the past four years, the MORE ESRs have been equipped with a set of research skills including robotics, machine learning, energy systems, as well as transferable skills such as entrepreneurship and career management.

Held in Helsinki, Finland from 24 – 26 October, the MORE project’s final event marked a significant milestone in enhancing productivity and efficiency across key industries. Around 40 participants joined the event including HDMM company representatives, PhD students and members from the MORE network. The consortium, comprised of respected heavy-duty mobile equipment companies including J. Deere, Liebherr, Bosch Rexroth, HIAB, and Volvo CE, collaborated with four specialised academic groups to nurture a new generation of engineers equipped with cutting-edge knowledge and skills.

In addition to keynote lectures and a site visit to Aalto Robot Learning Lab, the event highlighted the accomplishments of the ESRs, unveiling innovative solutions resulting from digitalisation and artificial intelligence. The recordings from the MORE ESR presentations are available online.

Professor Reza Ghabcheloo, coordinator of the MORE project, Tampere University, shared his satisfaction with the ESRs’ journeys, stating, “This has been a very successful industrial doctorate program, we have achieved our goals, industry is happy of the results and would like to build a similar project, doctoral students are happy and wanted by industry after MORE.”

As Europe anticipates a future shaped by technology and human creativity, the MORE project exemplifies the synergy between academia and industry. This collaboration fosters a generation of engineers ready to leave a lasting impact on heavy-duty mobile machinery and the industries it serves. The ESRs have demonstrated that innovation has no boundaries when fueled by dedication and cooperation.

The MORE consortium at the final event in Espoo, Helsinki Finland

MORE final event – Empowering Tomorrow’s Engineers: Shaping Europe’s Next-Gen Heavy-Duty Mobile Machines with AI, Energy Efficiency, and Innovation – registration open

The MORE project, a pioneering initiative funded by the European Union, is gearing up to celebrate the culmination of its European Industrial Doctorate (EID) research and training program. The grand finale is scheduled for 24-25 October 2023, in Helsinki, Espoo, Finland, where the project’s early-stage researchers (ESRs) will unveil key results and outcomes from their individual research projects, bringing forth innovative solutions to challenges in construction, logistics, and agriculture sectors.

The MORE project, has proven to be a model example of collaborative excellence, combining academia and industry to nurture the next generation of engineers skilled in AI, energy efficiency, and innovation. Over the course of this project, nine ESRs have worked diligently on individual projects aimed at revolutionising the landscape of heavy-duty mobile machinery.

The event promises to be a platform where key ideas and innovations will be presented. Participants will have the opportunity to gain valuable insights into the accomplishments of the ESRs, as well as engage with expert keynote speakers. Two prominent figures in the field, Antti Kolu from Novatron oy and Prof. Ville Kyrki from Aalto University, will share their perspectives and expertise during the event.

The MORE project coordinator, Prof. Reza Ghabcheloo from Tampere University, will moderate discussions that bridge the gap between academia and industry. This collaboration has been instrumental in driving the project’s success.

One of the highlights of the event is the site visit to the Aalto Robot Learning Lab, where attendees can witness cutting-edge advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence firsthand. This visit is sure to provide a glimpse into the future of heavy-duty mobile machinery and how AI is shaping the industry.

The MORE project’s final event in Helsinki, Espoo, is not only a celebration of the achievements of its ESRs but also a testament to the benefits of collaboration, innovation, and education in shaping the future of European industries.

For more information about the MORE project and the upcoming event, please visit: www.more-itn.eu/final-event

David Fassbender becomes the first early stage researcher to successfully defend his PhD in the MORE project

In a groundbreaking achievement, David Fassbender has become the first early stage researcher to successfully defend his PhD in the MORE project. We held a short interview with David to find out more on his project, his time as an early stage researcher and plans for the future. We would like to congratulate David and wish him all the best.

What has your research project focused on and what are your key results and innovations coming from your research project?

The focus in my project was on finding ways for improving the energy efficiency of heavy-duty mobile machines, which is currently very low on average. However, my goal was to keep also aspects such as cost effectiveness and feasibility in mind in order to come up with concepts that can be compatible on the market today. 

What impact does your research project and your outcomes have?

On the one hand, I’m optimistic that my findings will change to a certain extend how researchers in academia approach the task of finding more efficient concepts – considering also costs and feasibility. On the other hand, I hope that my research points out to OEMs how they can electrify their machines in a more efficient manner, reducing emissions and costs.

What were your personal highlights over the course of your research project?

My highlights definitely involved the conferences and MORE workshops that I could attend in various countries, but definitely also my defence at which I could present all my accomplishments, discuss them, and feel appreciated for them. 

Are there any elements of the training you received that you find should be integrated in local doctoral programmes?

I think I benefited a lot from the exchange at numerous international events that I was able to attend and from the exchange with network partners that work in different but related fields (automation, in my case). If possible, local doctoral researchers should be encouraged and supported as well in visiting conferences frequently and exchanging also with researchers from neighboring fields.

How did the MORE network impact your doctoral experience?

The network and the frequent meetings were great for receiving input and feedback of high quality and from very different perspectives, which would have been hard to obtain otherwise. Furthermore, the social bonds between us ESRs grew very strong, and I’m sure they will remain far beyond the time of our doctoral studies.

What are your plans for the future?

In March, I already started my follow-up position at Bosch Rexroth in Elchingen. With a good mix of follow-up and new tasks as well as great colleagues around, I’m very optimistic that I can have an impact on the future of the heavy-duty mobile machine industry while further developing myself and supporting the company. 

Third Future innovations and MORE newsletter published

June 2023

Automation and Control for Heavy-Duty Machines

Reshaping the future of operations with artificial intelligence and technological advances

Technology has taken a trampoline-leap in recent years, with the advent of machine learning algorithms, software, and hardware that have completely redefined the idea of “learning from data”. Outside the hype train related to large language models and simulated games, there is real potential to leveraging these machine learning tools to design intelligent control systems for the fleet of heavy-duty machines and robots. In this newsletter, we take a closer look into the usage of artificial intelligence for heavy-duty mobile machines (HDMMs). The first article describes how AI can be used for automating wheel loaders. The second article explains what can be leveraged from the machine learning world by engineers for more efficient and high-preforming machines in construction.

Articles

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Second annual MORE network event held in Sweden

The second annual MORE network event was organised by Örebro University in Sweden from the 18.-20. May 2022. During the annual network events the focus is to give all the MORE early stage researchers the opportunity their research results and work progress and to obtain valuable input from their supervisors, industrial collaborator and external experts.

The annual events are always combined with other activities, such as technical sessions about relevant topics, onsite visits as well as social networking activities. During this annual event, we received a lab tour through the AASS lab at Örebro Universtiy as well as a visit to Munktell Museum. Time was further devoted to the training of the MORE early stage researchers from partners within the network. This included sessions on Communication, dissemination and exploitation activities in MORE: As open as possible, as closed as necessary (Julia Götz, accelopment); Towards robot-, task- and environment-agnostic multi-robot fleet control (Federico Pecora, Associate Professor at Örebro University); and Ethics for Robotics & Automation (Masoumeh Mansouri, Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham).

We would like to thank Örebro University for hosting the meeting and for all participants for their active contributions and engagement during the meeting.

First face-to-face industry training held in Tampere

The MORE project has been running for nearly two years and due to travel restrictions, all meetings and trainings up to now have been held virtually until today. We finally had the opportunity to meet in person for the first time from the 15th-17th November 2021. In total, 23 members from the MORE consortium including the eight Early Stage Researchers met up for the 3rd Industry training event organised by TAU in Tampere, Finland.

The three-day training event included presentations from invited external speakers on Robotics, manipulator, trajectory optimization (Arun Singh, Univ. of Tartu) and a number of MORE network members on a number of relevant topics covering Hydraulics boom (Marcus Rösth, HIAB), Forestry Applications and Technologies (Timo Käppi, J. Deere), BIM in Infra Construction (Teppo Viinikka, Novatron), Control of Articulated Hydraulic Robotic Systems, (Janne Koivumäki Novatron), Operator assistance (Manuel Bös, Liebherr), Robot learning for heavy mobile machines (Nataliya Strokina / Reza Ghabcheloo,TAU) and Automation, Robotics in heavy machines (Christine Brach/Ulrich Lenzgeiger, Bosch Rexroth)

We also had the opportunity to visit our local hosts’ labs and demonstrators. TAU to showcase Robots in action in our RoboLab Tampere https://research.tuni.fi/robolabtampere/ At the end of each day, we held roundtable session to discuss the technical topics which were presented during the day.  In these discussion academia and industry collaboration was intensively elaborated. Being able to meet in person has provided the MORE members the possibility to get to know each other on a much more personal level and to strengthen team spirit. We would like to thank all the contributors to the Industry Day and are looking forward to MORE!  

Presentation at FPMC 2021, “Towards a Standard Taxonomy for Levels of Automation in Heavy-Duty Mobile Machinery”

Our MORE Early Stage Researcher, Tyrone J. Machado presented a paper titled “Towards a Standard Taxonomy for Levels of Automation in Heavy-Duty Mobile Machinery” at the ASME/Bath Symposium on Fluid Power and Motion Control (FPMC) 2021. 

We noticed a lack of commonly accepted definitions and taxonomies for levels of automation (LOA) in the heavy-duty mobile machinery (HDMM) industry/community. They rely on SAE J3016 from the automotive industry, which is unsuitable for HDMM because HDMM perform working activities or manipulation of external materials, in addition to driving activities. Thus, we propose a new two dimensional LOA matrix concept, with manipulation LOA on one dimension, and driving LOA on another dimension. 

The conference was held virtually from 19 to 21 October 2021 and the recording from Tyrone’s presentation is available to watch below.

Presentation on Autonomous Heavy-Duty Mobile Machinery: A Multidisciplinary Collaborative Challenge by Tyrone J. Machado at IEEE-ICTE 2021

Tyrone held a presentation at the International Conference on Technology and Entrepreneurship IEEE-ICTE2021 in Track 6: Interconnected business models; open innovation in digital age; Digitalization of innovation, R&D and creativity processes held virtually from 24-27 August 2021. The paper titled “Autonomous Heavy-Duty Mobile Machinery: A Multidisciplinary Collaborative Challenge” was a joint effort by all the MORE Early Stage Researchers.

In the presentation, Tyrone introduces autonomous heavy-duty mobile machinery from a more general rather than technical perspective, and highlights the conceptual challenges that arise when transitioning from traditional machinery to autonomous machinery. The paper took a holistic and multidisciplinary view on the topic covering technical, economical and management perspectives.

David (ESR4) participated at the SICFP’21

The Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid Power (SICFP) is one of the major conferences in the fluid power community and was held for the 17th time on 1-2 June 2021. David, MORE’s early stage researcher 4, was one of the speakers, presenting his simulation work on an electro-hydraulic concept for improved energy-efficiency of the implements on heavy-duty mobile machines.  Even though the pandemic forced the participants to meet online instead of in Sweden at Linköping University, the conference offered David a good opportunity to present and discuss his research.  The fact that many other talks dealt with electrification and efficiency improvement as well showed that David is on a right track with his research.  

David (ESR4) presenting his work at IeCAT 2020

The 1st International Electronic Conference on Actuator Technology (IeCAT) was held online from the 23-27 November 2020. MORE’s ESR4, David, participated at the conference as an author, giving a video presentation and showing his paper with the title “Finding the Perfect Match—Different Heavy-Duty Mobile Applications Call for Different Actuators”.

The conference was sponsored by the MDPI open access journal Actuators and covered a wide range of actuation aspects in webinars and online sessions, such as actuator materials, miniaturization, soft or biohybrid designs, but also applications. In the session on Actuators for aircrafts and on- and off-road vehicles/machines, David could present his work on developing an algorithm for the evaluation of potential matches between actuator concepts (such as EHAs or LS actuators) and heavy-duty mobile applications. The paper and presentation video can be found on the conference webpage.