APICUS SIGNED

Project "APICUS" data sheet

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 Partnership

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 Project objective

Handling a product to perform entire quality controls at the end of production processes has been a human prerogative. Complete integrity is paramount for hollow glass containers, used as packaging for food&beverages, perfumery and pharmaceutics, to ensure shelf-life properties and safety of products for costumers. Following the market needs for customization, non-standard containers are increasing and posing new challenges for quality controls. Current technologies are limited to examine standard shapes and specialized per type of defects causing false positives phenomena, increasing production costs and slowing-down times. Video Systems aims to develop an innovative inspection system for the cold-end and the reselection phase, APICUS, with no comparable solution. It is a collaborative robot, empowered by artificial intelligence and artificial vision, able to handle a glass article in a human-like way and detect all potential defects, cutting down false positives to 0.1% and speeding up processes. APICUS is expected to revolutionize quality controls contributing to the paradigm of Zero-Defect Manufacturing. First market applications are projected to be hollow glass and white goods sectors, with GISAL, Nordfish, Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, Vetri Speciali already interested in the solution. With an initial market share of 30% corresponding to non-standard shapes of hollow glass at present controlled manually, it has other potential market applications like tile, automotive and aerospace industries. Our team will capitalize on years of researches in data mining, artificial intelligence, hyperspectral vision and software development. APICUS will boost our growth with an expected turnover of €8 million by year 5 from the commercialization and 14 more jobs created. During Phase 1 we aim to finalize technological and economic viability assessments, whereas during Phase 2 to reach a market readiness level to launch APICUS in European and international markets.