L4MS - Second Open Call for logistics automation in manufacturing (L4MS OC2)
The second open call of L4MS targets application experiments (AE) developing new intralogistics solutions with mobile robots and the Industrial IoT platform OPIL for logistics (Open Platform for Innovations in Logistics).
The proposals should address the implementation of small logistics automation solutions required by manufacturing SMEs such as (but not limited to):
- End-to-end fully automated logistics solutions
- Hybrid (human-robot collaboration) automated logistics solutions
- Highly configurable automated logistics solutions
- Multi-vendor logistics solutions
The experiments will demonstrate the value of the solution to really reduce the installation, deployment and configuration time and cost by a factor of 10. The AEs will be conducted by using OPIL integration platform and 3D simulator, for which free licenses and complete guidance will be offered by L4M.
The call, which has a budget of € 1.5 million, is open to manufacturing SMEs and Mid-Caps; automation Solution Providers; software developers; system integrators; mobile robots, sensors and equipment manufacturers, competence centres, Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) and other members of the automation value-chain, who may submit an application as a consortium of 2 to 3 partners. The consortia must include at least, one manufacturing SME and partners must be registered in EU or in H2020 Associated Countries. Funding will not be awarded to individual legal entities that have already received more than € 100,000 via open calls (FSTP) from H2020 I4MS and SAE projects.
Individual applicants looking for partners to apply may register for brokerage services to get help in linking them with system integrators, mobile robots manufactures and manufacturing SMEs in order to form consortia eligible for applying.
This call was launched on 1st September 2019 and has an applications' submission deadline on 30th November 2019, at 13 CET (Brussels time).
Selected applicants will access an acceleration programme divided into 3 phases:
- First, 10 selected experiments will receive up to €3,000 funding for this initial stage and will enter the Application Experiment Definition phase to help them to prepare detailed plans for the implementation of the experiments and the business cases. At the end of this phase (2 months), they will be invited to a bootcamp session to present their plans.
- 6 most promising experiments from those will be selected for the execution phase and will receive funding (€ 48,000 for a Manufacturing SME and up to €98,000 for the other type of parties in an experiment) and full technical and business support to implement and demonstrate the use case.
- The 3 best in class experiments will pass to the Scale Up phase.
In addition to equity-free funding, the companies will receive extensive technical and technological support provided by a network of 6 Competence Centres (CCs) specialized in Robotics, across Europe, and their respective ecosystems which will act as Marketplace facilitators and by the Technology suppliers and regional actors involved in the project.
The ambition of L4MS (Logistics for Manufacturing SMEs) is to reduce the installation cost and time of mobile robots by a factor of 10. It will enable inexpensive deployment of small and flexible logistics solutions requiring no infrastructure change, no production downtime and no in-house expertise.
