The Bergisches Land industrial region is largely characterized by metalworking companies in the cutlery and tool industries. The success of these companies is often based on hand-operated “artisan” processes. A key objective of the project is to ensure the long-term viability of the manufacturing industry through necessary transformation processes.
The ChangeHub serves as a central hub and exchange platform to make the technological expertise of regional universities and institutes practically applicable for companies. The technological focus is on the development and implementation of sensor-based automation that operates sensitively, efficiently, and in a resource-efficient manner. The project’s holistic approach links these technological innovations with the training and retention of skilled workers.

A central focus of our work is the practical application of artificial intelligence to solve manufacturing challenges. By developing AI demonstrators and prototypes, we demonstrate how complex, continuous sensor data can be harnessed for process control using machine learning and deep neural networks. These prototypes serve as a concrete testing environment for regional companies. They enable the industry to evaluate the integration of AI-supported sensor technology and sensitive robotics for individual manufacturing processes with minimal risk and to directly drive technology transfer into their own production facilities.