The challenge of the DURACELL project is to improve the durability of PEM fuel cells by optimizing the mechanical properties of the interfaces within the membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs), where the electrochemical reactions take place. The latter are subjected to complex and variable mechanical stresses depending on the hygrothermal conditions related to the operation of the fuel cell, which can lead to the damage of its components and the shutdown of the system. The initial objective of the project will be to measure, identify and control the manufacturing parameters of the MEA that impact the adhesion between its layers. To that goal, specific mechanical characterizations will be implemented in order to quantify the level of adhesion at the interfaces of MEAs manufactured within the DURACELL project consortium. The measured properties will then be implemented in a numerical model in order to contribute to the prediction of the optimal physical properties of the MEA and its assembly conditions to limit the mechanical damage of its components. These results will be verified by comparing the lifetime of MEAs assembled under these different adhesion conditions, via in situ and ex situ accelerated stress tests (hygrothermal cycling and coupled mechanical/chemical degradation). These different tests will provide a better understanding of the mechanical/chemical degradation synergies that occur in the membrane and at the membrane|electrode|gas diffusion layers interfaces. They will also allow to unbundle the different mechanisms responsible for the degradation of MEAs in a system environment. The analysis of the results of the DURACELL project will lead to recommendations to be shared with the scientific and industrial community to limit the level of mechanical stresses undergone by the different components of a PEMFC, thus contributing to the increase of its life span in operation.

The SALSA project aims at developing a micro-sensor enabling wireless process control in industrial applications operating at elevated temperatures (up to 1000°C) where no conventional wireless sensor can survive. The sensor consists in a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device based on AlN/Sapphire layered structure. A key issue of this development lies in the wireless and the battery-less requirement of such sensors and the good stability of the considered structure in high-temperature conditions. Since the consortium partners have already solved partially or even completely some of the problems related to the targeted environments, the real scientific advance therefore consists in the achievement of a high performances and relatively low cost micro-sensor capable to operate at high frequency and in high temperature conditions. As a backup solution but also as source of intellectual properties and high level journal production, original structures such as packageless WLAW (Waveguiding layer acoustic wave) and a new type of FBAR (film bulk acoustic resonator) will be also investigated. The SALSA partnership involves a large company (Arcelor-Mittal) as a end user, a high-tech start-up “frec|n|sys” exploiting technological equipments consisting in a whole industrial fabrication line allowing for the fabrication of SAW resonators, filters and sensors addressing almost any kind of RF application requiring such components, an SME “Senseor” as subcontractor, with a strong experience in the field of wireless SAW sensors, and four academic laboratories IJL, IMN, LMOPS and SYMME bringing their strong knowledge and experience in material field, an essential building block for the achievement of such project, but also in devices including SAW sensors. These laboratories also exhibit strong experience concerning the characterization of materials as well as sensors, at elevated temperatures. Scientific and technologic challenges of SALSA project concern: - The study and the optimization of the different materials composing the micro-sensor (piezoelectric film, metallic electrodes, substrate) and associated antenna, to meet requirements for an optimal behaviour at elevated temperatures. - The design of high performances SAW devices based on AlN/Sapphire substrates. - The development of a packaging solution allowing operation at temperatures in excess of 600°C for several hundred hours integrating antenna connection and assembly. - Customization of the transceiver for wireless interrogation to match the performances of sensors in high temperature environments. Thanks to the SALSA project the end-user partner “ArcelorMittal” is expecting an improvement of product quality (less scraps and new warranty), a time-to-market reduction and a cost reduction (through energy saving). This will give ArcelorMittal a great advantage in terms of product quality, price and services in comparison to its competitors. The use of SAW devices as passive and wireless sensors allows them to operate in extreme conditions such as those with high levels of radiation, high temperatures, or electromagnetic interference, in which no other sensors can operate. The results of the SALSA project can contribute in the future to the development of similar SAW devices able to operate in high temperature environments for applications in aerospace, power, nuclear, chemical, and petrochemical processes plants. For instance, the sensor developed for ArcelorMittal applications may be directly transportable not only to the glass industry, but also to control the temperature of high voltage cables to optimize the transport of energy, and in automotive applications for the control of combustion in engines. Hence, the SALSA project will give frec|n|sys and Senseor an innovative product and an opportunity to propose new measurement devices and to do a huge step forward in the measurement services they can offer.

The READMI project is mainly dedicated to the remote energy input and the remote control of mechatronics systems of micro or meso-scaled mechatronic systems composed of several actuators. These two functions are often performed in a wired way and the increase of wires and connections is a recurrent problem in strongly miniaturised systems. The research works performed in the READMI project are linked to the microfactory/desktop factory concept in which the spacial and functional flexibilities are required as it is an evolvable production system. With the aim to allow flexible production, partners propose to develop the digital actuation principle at meso and micro scales, in order to avoid wires in the mechatronics system environment because this kind of actuators does not need closed loop control then no sensors. The smart control will enable to control selectively actuators, according to the wavelength of incident radiations, or a combination (duo, trio…) of wavelengths, each actuators being only active for a specific spectral stimulus. Moreover, partners of READMI project propose to integrate additional functions in these meso or microactuators, thus increasing the system smartness (position detection and remote communication of this position), without addition of wires nor energy overconsumption, thanks to low-level detectors integrated to the system and possessing miniaturised wireless communication modules and mechanical energy harvesting devices for their energy supply. As a demonstration, these remote control and remote energy supply will be applied the problematic of meso and micro conveyance in the microfactory context. The long term objective is to provide smart conveyance systems for micro-objects entirely wireless and energetically autonomous. For this objective, partners will use their own existing research results and their complementary expertises (design of digital-actuation-based mechatronic systems, design of thin-layers optical filters, development of micro harvesting and storage energy sources, microfabrication techniques). Experimental demonstrators based on these two technologies will be produced : the first one uses digital electromagnetic actuators controlled by selective spectral optical means and the second one composed of bistable structures actuated by shape memory alloys having a spectrally selective activation. A microfabricated electromagnetic demonstrator will enable to validate, in a first time, the principle of the remote control using photodetectors having independent quadrants, each one being selective for one unique wavelength. Two other demonstrators using bistable meso or micro structures actuated by shape memory alloys will also be developed because this technology is more adapted to both remote energy supply and wireless control in the same time. The first one of these demonstrators will enable, at the microscale, the validation of the coupling of energy supply and control without any wires in the workspace of the actuator, while the second one will enable to validate the principles of position detection and transmission of this position by radiofrequency means, as well as the mechanical or optical energy harvesting using piezoelectric or photoelectric components.

Adaptive materials have additional sensing or actuating properties compared to conventional materials. Composites are key materials for many fields (transport, aeronautics, renewable energies, ...). Their combination allows the emergence of so-called "adaptive meta-composites". By integrating structural and multifunctional properties, these materials have properties tailored to specific technical specifications. However, their industrial emergence is limited by the lack of design tools. The ASTRIA project is interested in the development of decision support tools for their robust design. This project targets, at the same time, numerical aspects (modeling, simulation, management of uncertain data and control), experimental (manufacturing of functional meta-structures, identification and model calibration) and applicative aspects (development of operational devices).

In an industrial context characterized by a high complexity in business processes and proliferation of information systems, the company's actors implement many learnings and practices to overcome this complexity. These learnings and practices encompass implicit and explicit competences that we aim to extract, manage and connect to business processes and products so to enhance the company’s skills and capitalize their reuse. The objective of this project is to extract the skills encompassed in current practices and learnings in order to manage the intellectual capital of a company by developing and / or by changing the existing skills, and Intelligently mobilize the actors’ skills by defining suitable practices to real skills. It is about proposing methods allowing to: (1) observe and identify learning activities and situations: we propose a mixed approach characterized by the collection and analysis of traces resulting from human observation and activity analysis (video recordings, questionnaires, etc..) as well as operational traces existing in computer systems (log files, modeled traces, etc.). (2) extract skills from the analysis of operational traces: once the traces are collected, we identify the relevant links between these traces and skills, identified individually and collectively as relevant to carry out the project activities at Energy Pool. Synergies between these skills are also considered. (3) formalize and represent identified skills considering their nature (soft or hard) and dimension (individual or collective). Respect the personal data confidentiality is considered during this phase. We represent the skills as a mapping which evolves dynamically and cane b reconfigurable according to the exploitation’ objectives. (4) identify and evaluate practices from the peers’ point of view: in parallel with observations, interviews with project’ members will make it possible to confront the observed people with the traces of their activities in order to reach the sense that they associate with their practices. (5) identify and deploy key success factors during teams’ definition: we develop a correlation analysis between skills, resources, traces and practice’ evaluations in order to identify key factors that led to different performances. These methods and mapping will be validated through two industrial cases and supported with a software demonstrator.