Nature uses foam or sponge-like structures in various organisms for purposes like shock absorption, noise reduction, and vibration compensation in a remarkable example of evolutionary adaptation and functional design. On the other hand, many products still rely on non-sustainable materials of fossil-based origin, for example foams and elastomeric used for vibratory motion, sound, harshness, energy, and shock-impact absorption in industries such as automotive, aerospace and marine. Example of such Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) materials are rubber and engineering resins. Bio.3DGREEN develops and demonstrates a novel manufacturing approach for a cost-effective bio-inspired platform of bio-based components based on graphene foam (GF) to meet the industrial needs, i.e. vibration, sound and shock-impact absorption and durability in extreme conditions. Bio.3DGREEN democratizes graphene technology and enables the unscalable fabrication of graphene-based components of complex geometries to be demonstrated at TRL 6 through a high throughput, laser-based Additive Manufacturing (AM) procedure. The procedure is bio-inspired, mimicking structures such as the human bone, and is based solely on bio-based graphene system with vegetable oil as the raw material, resulting in carbon-positive manufacturing of the new components. Bio.3DGREEN demonstrates the superior bio-based GF parts in four different industries, aiming to drive the optimization of the new manufacturing approach through an application-driven approach: Automotive suspension systems & isolation panels, aerospace applications and quiet shipping. Bio.3DGREEN achieves a multi-disciplinary approach to develop, optimize, and improve smart manufacturing application-driven, bio-based GF components, also considering the performance of current materials used, their cost, market size, wastage and recyclability, sustainability of manufacturing process, inclusion in Europe’s circular economy and LCA, LCC aspects.

SUNBIO brings together a significant variety of disciplines, aiming at exploiting them to form a set of ‘technology enablers’ that will facilitate the delivery of the envisioned services through a holistic framework, comprising Underwater Engineering, Mathematics and Analytics, Computer Science, Archaeology, Chemistry, further decomposed in: (i) Naval engineering and design; (ii) trustworthy data analytics and relevant intelligence (ML/AI frameworks); (iii) Chemical measurement and spectroscopic methods for sensing, (iv) Navigation principles and compliance, (v) Communication and remote operation. These disciplines will be exploited to set up a number of complementary Technology Enablers (also described in detail in Sect.1.2.1-1.2.2); these enablers will be the basis for the SUNBIO envisioned services, that will lead to efficiently applied fully autonomous and in situ sensing, monitoring services. SUNBIO aims at ensuring that the pathway towards robust monitoring principles and practices, is designed always having ‘human in the loop’ in terms of usability and acceptance of deployed technologies, given the fact that trustworthiness is a key factor towards the exploitation of the envisioned set of services.

PALAEMON proposes the development and evaluation of a sophisticated mass centralised evacuation system, based on a radical re-thinking of Mass Evacuation Vessels (MEVs) combined with an intelligent ecosystem of critical components providing real-time access to and representation of data to establish appropriate evacuation strategies for optimizing the operational planning of the evacuation process on damaged or flooded vessels. The intelligent ecosystem of PALAEMON incorporates innovative technologies for sensing, people monitoring and counting and localisation services as well as real-time data during accident time. These will be integrated into an independent, smart situation-awareness and guidance system for sustaining an active evacuation route for large crowds, making emergency response in EU passenger ships more efficient. Continuous monitoring and permanent control will enhance the capacity to detect, prevent and mitigate any issue and potential harm arising from physical and/or man-made accidents and disasters. The proposed ecosystem will include the new IMO standard for data exchange-VDES. Since maritime disasters in recent years are a stark reminder of the imperative need for timely and effective evacuation of large passenger ships during emergency the aim of this project is to maximize the effectiveness of passenger evacuation, during an emergency and/or a serious incident, from large Cruise and RoPax ships by combining the expertise of stakeholders from the field of cruise ship manufacturing, large cruise ship operators, classification societies, sensor and technology organizations, with a multidisciplinary group of innovators (incl. innovative start-ups, consolidated SMEs in the smart ICT domain, experts in the ship evacuation domain from research institutes, international networks in maritime and key industry drivers. MEVs prototypes will be validated in controlled enviroment and the smart evacuation ecosystem will be demostrated in two use cases.

MOSES aims to significantly enhance the SSS component MOSES aims to significantly enhance the SSS component of the European container supply chain by addressing the vulnerabilities and strains that relate to the operation of large containerships. MOSES will follow a two-fold strategy for reducing the total time to berth for TEN-T Hub Ports and stimulating the use of SSS feeder services to small ports (hub and spoke traffic) that have limited or no infrastructure. MOSES will achieve its objectives by implementing the following innovations: (i) For the SSS leg, an innovative, hybrid electric feeder vessel designed to match dominant SSS business cases that will increase the utilization rate of small ports. The feeder will be outfitted with a robotic container-handling system that is self-sufficient in terms of (un)loading containerised cargo and will simplify the process at the Hub Ports while improving the operational capacity of small ports; (ii) For DSS ports, the adoption of an autonomous vessel manoeuvring and docking scheme (MOSES AutoDock) that will provide operational independency from the availability of port services. This scheme will be based on the cooperation of (a) a swarm of autonomous tugboats that automates manoeuvring with (b) an automated docking system based on an existing product; (iii) A digital collaboration and matchmaking platform (MOSES platform) aiming to match demand and supply of cargo volumes by logistics stakeholders using Machine Learning (ML) and data driven-based analysis to maximize SSS traffic. MOSES will be validated by pilot demonstrations in relevant testing environments (TRL5), supported by concrete business cases. A sustainability framework will be developed within the project for evaluating the performance and viability of the proposed innovations with sustainability criteria and benchmarking them against alternative transportation modes. This evaluation will also lead to concrete policy recommendations regarding SSS in Europe.

SEAMLESS aims at developing and adapting missing building blocks and enablers into a fully automated, economically viable, cost-effective, and resilient waterborne freight feeder loop service for Short Sea Shipping (SSS) and/or Inland Waterways Transport (IWT). Autonomous systems will be integrated to ensure safe, resilient, efficient, and environmentally friendly operation to shift road freight movements to hinterland waterways, while enhancing the performance of the TEN-T network. The service will be delivered 24/7 by a fleet of autonomous cargo shuttles, with humans-in-the-loop located in Remote Operation Centres (ROCs), which efficiently cooperate with automated and autonomous shore-side infrastructure and safely interact with conventional systems. The services will rely on a redesigned logistics system enabling seamless freight flows by minimising delays at intermodal nodes. A digital bird’s eye view of the supply chain allows the exploitation of real-time information for planning optimisation and reconfiguration to support resilient logistics, incl. digitalised administrative procedures. The SEAMLESS building blocks will be verified and validated by conducting full-scale demonstrations in selected real-world scenarios. Transferability will be fully demonstrated in selected use cases that cover a wide range of transport applications and geographical regions throughout Europe. Based on a structured methodological framework evaluating sustainability criteria, they will act as guidance for the replication of the project results beyond the project scope and timespan. Novel business models will be thus developed and provide a framework for implementing the SEAMLESS service to minimise investment risk for first movers. Regulatory gaps and challenges related to autonomous vessel operation (e.g. social aspects) will be identified, and recommendations for policy makers to allow the smooth and safe deployment of fully automated services will be provided.