A project named MechEye is currently developing technologies aimed at improving safety in industrial environments, particularly in equipment’s use and operation.
Said systems seeks to improve workers’ safety and reduce operational errors, contributing to greater competitiveness and sustainability in European industry. MechEye represents an important step in the digital transformation of the industry sector, incorporating advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions; these solutions may also have an impact on other areas, like robotic healthcare and smart cities.
MechEye is part of the European 6G-XR project, through a research service contract under the cascade funding mechanism. This approach allows for the use of experimental network infrastructures and collaboration with top-tier European partners – in this case, companies like the University of Oulu, Nokia, Telefónica, and Ericsson.
Using computer vision and AI techniques, INESC TEC researchers’ solutions will enable the detection of anomalies in the operation of industrial equipment and aid operators through augmented reality. This creates an immersive and easy-to-understand environment, which speeds up the response to anomalous events.
INESC TEC is leading the development of the MechEye system prototype. “In addition to developing advanced and multimodal machine learning algorithms – which pose significant challenges in terms of computing and network resources for accessing video content – we also aim to study the impact of different scenarios on an edge-cloud architecture,” explained Nuno Pereira, a researcher at INESC TEC in the field of telecommunications and multimedia.
According to the research team, which also includes Paula Viana and Serkan Sulun, the project introduces a series of scientific advances in this area. While current systems rely on basic sensors and human intervention, MechEye aims to integrate multimodal language models in industrial environments, combining different data sources and enabling the incorporation of the latest advances in computer vision and language processing into a solution with enhanced adaptability.
The project meets the strategic priority areas for Europe, particularly Industry 5.0 and Artificial Intelligence, aiming to lay the groundwork for the intelligent industrial systems of the future, with applications extending far beyond manufacturing.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC and ISEP
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