The NONDAGO project comes to a successful conclusion by optimising intralogistics at industrial plants

The NONDAGO project comes to a successful end – a project in which the Ceit Technology Centre took part and which, following three years of research and over two million euros’ investment, has concluded with the development and validation of eight real-time positioning tools in plant.

This development will enable there to be an 8% increase in production via greater efficiency in terms of logistics processes and will allow real-time monitoring of all moving elements to be optimised at production plants.

Advances in Industry 4.0 towards factories of the future requires the development of new technologies, solutions and services based on positioning systems in order to ensure improvement in productivity, logistics and safety of their operations in plant.

Within this context, a consortium of Basque companies and technology centres, among which is included the Ceit Technology Centre, set the NONDAGO project in motion with a view to developing new positioning technologies to enable real-time monitoring to be optimised of all moving elements at production plants and a further step to be taken towards factories of the future.

Following three years’ research and a 2.2 million Euro investment, NONDAGO has developed and validated tools that can be implemented at industrial production plants and enable real-time monitoring of all moving elements to be optimised at a production plant – both in hostile environments and confined spaces.

Cost saving and improvement in competitiveness

Thus, the tools developed and validated will enable operational safety, productivity and logistics to be improved in plant in terms of Industry 4.0. Specifically, they will help to reduce bridge crane travel by 12% and forklift truck movement by 10%, which translates into a significant saving in production costs and an improvement in business competitiveness.

Validation of eight tools in realistic situations

NONDAGO has combined the development of state-of-the-art positioning technologies - such as systems based on ultra-wideband (UWB), Bluetooth 5.1 AoA and laser – with that of state-of-the-art management data and software analytics, in order to optimise movement in plant and improve operational safety. Specifically, eight tools have been developed that have been validated in real situations such as the monitoring of bridge crane and forklift truck movement, as well as the monitoring of individuals in confined spaces.

Once the data has been gathered and as a result of management data and software analytics, this movement will have been able to be optimised in plant and any alerts sent, thus improving operational safety and reducing production times and costs.

Ceit has worked on three lines of research

Ceit has played a crucial role in the project by adapting its UWB-based positioning system technology in order to validate it in a range of industrial applications. It has helped to develop new state-of-the-art analytics and information management technologies, with the centre having mainly worked on three lines of research: the development of new positioning devices capable of operating in hostile environments, the design of new state-of-the-art analytical algorithms that enable more effective monitoring to be undertaken of production processes, and the development of new information management technologies for display and decision-making purposes.

The development of these new state-of-the-art positioning technologies entails significant advantages for the industrial sector, including more efficient and flexible processes in terms of operational safety and automation, as well as a reduction in environmental impact.

NONDAGO, funded by the HAZITEK Programme of the Basque Government, is led by Deusto SEIDOR and is made up of the companies DOMINION, Geograma, IDK, i2U, SEGULA Technologies and VI4Crane and the centres pertaining to the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Network (RVCTI), Ceit and Clúster de Movilidad y Logística de Euskadi.