Martel at work to digitalise manufacturing SMEs in Europe

Europe has more than 23 million smaller businesses and accounts for around three-quarters of all jobs. Small businesses and mid-caps are a key part of the economy. To develop and to thrive in a fast-changing environment, these companies have to keep pace with the digital trends and embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) opportunities in their production systems. Even a small lag in the digitisation race would make SMEs vulnerable and exposed to loss of competitive advantage, bearing significant risks.

That’s where KITT4SME (platform-enabled KITs of arTificial intelligence FOR an easy uptake by SMEs) comes into action. The EU-funded KITT4SME project specifically targets European manufacturing SMEs and mid-caps to provide them with scope-tailored and industry-ready hardware, software and organisational kits, delivered as modularly customisable digital platform, that seamlessly introduce AI in their production systems.

Martel Innovate is proud to be part of a large consortium that focuses on delivery of these ready-to-use customised digital packages.

“Martel is an SME with innovation embedded in its DNA, continuously exploring cutting-edge and sustainable technologies and solutions that deliver business value. In collaboration with our partners, we are working on delivering key technological elements to support the implementation of the project and the delivery of a modular, innovative, and easy-to-adopt platform. Our task is to build an open-source platform for uptake of AI solutions in manufacturing SMEs. We selected the best-in-class open-source platform for IoT – FIWARE – to make data circulate from the shop floor to the AI and back, in order to be able to deploy tailor-made AI kits”, said Federico Facca, Chief Technology Officer at Martel.

Moreover, Martel contributes to the dissemination and communication activities of KITT4SME project, to build awareness, stimulate engagement, promote results, as well as extend the project’s reach and impact.

Open calls for technology providers

One other important feature of KITT4SME is the open calls, which are designed to benefit SMEs with the opportunities brought by an integrated platform and artificial intelligence-based kits. The objectives of the first open call are to validate the expandability of the KITT4SME digital platform, to complement existing platform modules with added features and functionalities, and to attract potential SME-solution providers to the project ecosystem, among others.

The first open call (Type-A) will be launched in July 2021. This is addressed to solution providers, that is SMEs and mid-caps which develop AI-based software solutions with a value for the manufacturing industry. It will fund between 10 to 20 companies to up to 1,0 M€ in total. The deadline is September 15, 2021

The second open call will aim to validate the KITT4SME concept, digital platform, and APIs, demonstrate effectiveness of KITT4SME AI-based solutions, attracting potential SME-manufacturers and solution providers, among other stakeholders. This call will be launched in 2022.

For further details, please visit KITT4SME website.