This Smart Products Made Smarter Prosperity Partnership is sponsored by the EPSRC and is a collaboration between Heriot-Watt University, the University of Edinburgh and Leonardo.

The research addresses three challenges. These challenges exemplify future product lifecycle management from smart concept, design, development and manufacture to enhanced end-user capability, united by a common digital thread to enable smarter products to be made smarter. Each challenge area has clearly identified initial research themes and associated research challenges to be addressed and these are indicated below:

Challenge 1 – The Making challenge: To create new hybrid manufacturing processes, that combine multiple Additive Manufacturing (AM) process with precision machining and coating processes to create components that disrupt the traditional functional trade-offs of Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) through techniques such as varying the material properties within a part and harnessing the digital production of optical components.

Challenge 2 – The Manipulation challenge: To create new handling processes that fully exploit the digital data flows which define custom components whose shape and functionality is tailored to production by dexterous, highly adaptable robots that are programmed dynamically.

Challenge 3 – The Computation challenge: To create new signal processing & machine learning methodologies that enable intelligent, digital & connected sensor products while mitigating the data deluge from the multiple sensors produced by Leonardo operating across the EM spectrum.