Future center for SMEs: New lab for digitalization and AI in production work opens

Small and medium-sized companies can take advantage of the services offered by the Future Center, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, free of charge. The special feature: In addition to a laboratory visit, companies can also bring mobile applications directly onto the company premises and test them there. Companies can identify and analyze their own challenges. Various consulting services and innovative teaching and learning concepts for qualification in digitization and artificial intelligence are also offered.

This is intended to keep small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) competitive. "For the competitiveness of our country, we must succeed in raising the potential of artificial intelligence in SMEs as well. Initiatives such as the ZuKIPro Future Center play an important role here, because digitalization and human-centered AI are to be brought to bear in a targeted manner in Hessian production and craft enterprises. ZuKIPro will therefore fit perfectly into our Hessian AI ecosystem and develop into an important element of 'AI made in Hessen'. AI made in Hessen' always means innovation and responsibility. This is also the starting point for the Hessian AI Future Agenda, which we recently published," emphasized Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Development Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus at the opening of the laboratory of the Department of Human-Machine Systems Engineering.

University President Prof. Dr. Ute Clement emphasized, "Technology is there for people, not the other way around." She added that the University of Kassel is home to the ITeG, a research center that has been conducting research in the field of socially beneficial technology design for years. The new AI lab, he said, exemplifies using technology wisely and offering research expertise to partners in the region.

"In our new lab, for example, digitization through 3D scanning, work system design with simulation in a virtual environment, education and training using augmented reality, assistance for learning manual assembly processes and support for assembly using human-robot collaboration can be learned about and tested in practice. We also support companies in their own design and application of such technologies," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ludger Schmidt, head of the Human-Machine Systems Engineering department at Kassel University.

The strategy of the Future Center is to establish a large Hesse-wide network with partners from local, regional and national organizations, initiatives and associations. In particular, the combination of technological, occupational science and socio-political expertise and experience in transfer distinguishes this unique network in Hesse. Through the supra-regional project partners from NRW, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, close networking with other future centers is also being sought in order to exploit synergies and continuously develop the offering.

Funded project partners:

• Machine Tool Laboratory of RWTH Aachen University (coordinator)
• University of Kassel - Scientific Center for Information Technology Design (ITeG) with the departments Human-Machine Systems Engineering, Business Informatics and Communication Technology
• German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Saarbrücken
• Darmstadt University of Technology - Institute of Industrial Engineering
• Institute for Technology and Work e. V., Kaiserslautern
• Kassel-Marburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Hessen-Innovativ Chamber of Industry and Commerce
• Regional Management Nordhessen GmbH