At the CTU in Prague, they opened a laboratory for the development and testing of innovations for industry
The so-called testbed for Industry 4.0 was ceremoniously opened today at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) in Dejvice, Prague. CIIRC Scientific Director Vladimír Mařík told ČTK that dozens of companies already use the laboratory.
“Testbed is primarily a set of special equipment, production machines, robots, transport equipment, which are interconnected by communication with a very fast 5G connection. We can assemble entire production sections for experimental verification of development. But we can only remove three robots for the cooperation of a team of robots or a team of robots with a team of people, “described Mařík. He added that experts can simulate and verify in the laboratory all the steps involved in planning and changing the production program.
Marik added that some machines are very special. “We have one of the machine tools here, of which there are only a few in Europe. He had to order according to our specifications, “said the director.
Marik also noted that CIIRC has been cooperating with industry for a long time. “We have an excess of demand from industry for cooperation with us and various solutions. Especially based on artificial intelligence and 5G communication, “added Mařík, adding that the workplace is constantly expanding. “There is a growing interest from students, doctoral students, employees. We managed to get over 20 employees from abroad, “said the expert.
On the specific benefits for companies, he said that you can get advice from experts from others, view prototype solutions at similar companies, take over the solution or have it developed according to your needs. According to him, around 60 companies have established cooperation so far, from start-ups to large companies.
The Prague Laboratory is the core of the Research and Innovation Center for Advanced Industrial Production RICAIP. The network connects the Prague workplace, the testbed in the CEITEC research center at the Brno University of Technology and a similar laboratory in Saarbrücken, Germany, which is managed by the DFKI and ZeMA research institutes. Between 2019 and 2026, almost 48.5 million euros (roughly 1.2 billion crowns) from European and national sources are to go to the laboratory network. According to the Czech Technical University, technologies worth more than 315 million crowns have been prepared for the Prague laboratory in the last two years.
Industry 4.0 is another name for the coming epoch of the fourth industrial revolution, in which a large part of the work is taken over by complex machines capable of managing production themselves on the basis of their own evaluation of data or instructions entered, for example via the Internet.