European industry has been very competitive on the global markets by utilizing highly efficient Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and massively producing high quality products. The advent for mass customization has been stressing the capability of modularization and flexibility of production processes through the incorporation of AI technologies. However, the communication between the different automation systems has not been yet accomplished efficiently since they lack interoperability and are restricted to their own system of coordination. The MAS4AI proposal proposes a system that allows the deployment and synchronization of different AI agents in manufacturing for autonomous modular production and human assistance. The MAS4AI system will be heavily driven by large industrial cases and will aim towards digitalising European industry with AI tools according to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. MAS4AI will develop its overall ambition by the means of four Scientific and Technological objectives namely: a) Multi-Agents-System (MAS) for distributing AI components in different hierarchy layers, customers and suppliers for realising refurbishment activities, b) AI agents using Knowledge-based Representation with Semantic Web Technologies, c) AI Agents for hierarchical planning of production processes, d) model-based Machine Learning (ML) AI agent. MAS4AI research and technological activity will be strongly driven by a set of industrial use cases which will be then used as demonstrators. The demonstrators involve important industrial sectors of high value added for Europe, namely AI technologies used for automotive, contract manufacturing, bicycle industry, bearings production and wood processing industry.

AIMS5.0, a collaborative Innovation Action aims at strengthening European digital sovereignty in comprehensively sustainable production, by adopting, extending and implementing AI-enabled hardware and software components and systems across the whole industrial value chain to further increase the overall efficiency. Vulnerability of existing supply chains in crisis shows the need for shorter supply chains and for keeping production in Europe. AI enabled fabs will be given more output and higher sustainability, which makes them more competitive on a global scale. New technologies from IoT and based on semantic web ontologies, ML and AI will help to enable the transformation from Industry4.0 to Industry5.0, to create human-centric workplace conditions and to enable the transformation of European industry to climate-friendly production. Above all, sustainability and resilience will be improved. In essence, AIMS5.0 will deliver: - AI-enabled electronic hardware components & systems for sustainable production - AI tools, methods & algorithms for sustainable industrial processes - SoS-based architectures & micro-services for AI-supported sustainable production - Semantic modelling & data integration for an open access productive sustainability platform - Acceptance, trust & ethics for explainable industrial AI leading to human-centered sustainable manufacturing 20 use cases in 9 industrial domains resulting in high TRLs will validate the project’s findings in an interdisciplinary manner. A professional dissemination, communication, exploitation and standardisation will ensure the highest impact possible. For the first time a joint approach for implementing AI and AI-enabled hardware will be developed that overarches different industrial domains. AIMS5.0 will result in lower manufacturing costs, increased product quality through AI-enabled innovation, decreased time-to-market and increased user acceptance of versatile technology offerings. They will foster a sustainable development, in an economical, ecological and societal sense and act as enablers for the Green Deal and push the industry towards Industry5.0. The innovations will leverage the experience of the 53 partners, such as renowned OEMs, Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, technology and application large enterprises and SMEs, supported by academic research specialists in fields like AI, industrial hard-ware and software, decision making and management algorithms. Specific outcomes of the project are - 20% faster time to market, - Participation of disabled people in the factory environment > 5% (in relation to the total number of employees employed in production), - AI based MES capability > 10 %, - Increased user awareness and trust by 10%, - Subsequent reduction of environmental footprint for wafer transport, handling and storage > 20 %, - 50% reduction of time for monitoring industrial equipment. AIMS5.0 is a pan-European initiative to boost industrial competitiveness through interdisciplinary innovations, establishing sustainable ECS value chains and therefore contribute to European Digital Sovereignty addressing urgent issues like Security of Supply, Monitoring and Crisis Response, and Chip Shortage.