The IMaR Research Centre at IT Tralee has been awarded funding by Enterprise Ireland for a significant investment into cutting-edge equipment for R&D in advanced manufacturing. This new equipment will be made available to Irish manufacturing companies to test and trial new technologies in manufacturing via the IMaR Enterprise Ireland Technology Gateway, IMaR’s outward facing industrial engagement division, based at IT Tralee.

In total, there were 43 successful applicants from the Institutes of Technology (IoT) and TU Dublin to the value of €6 million, of which IMaR have received 4 separate awards. The four funding awards include:

• A fleet of autonomous industrial vehicles
• A suite of industrial machinery monitoring equipment
• An industrial wireless communication technology testbed
• A high-performance industrial data-analytics server.

The development of the facility will allow IMaR to showcase current advancements in machine connectivity, industrial wireless communication and process automation and optimisation, along with providing a trialling space for new technologies under development by the IMaR Research Centre and partner companies.

Commenting on the funding announcement, Dr. Daniel Riordan, Manager of IMaR Technology Gateway and Director for Industrial Engagement said, “A key component of IMaR’s success in this funding call was its strong track record in industry engagement, specifically meeting the needs of the Irish Manufacturing sector. Funding for this testbed will allow Irish manufacturing to remain at the cutting edge of manufacturing efficiency, quality and profitability as the sector continues to implement the concepts of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things.”

Within IMaR this equipment will be combined to create an advanced manufacturing technology testbed, focusing on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which will open to Irish industry for the evaluation of system capabilities or to work collaboratively with the IMaR Research Centre on the research and development of new automation, robotics, machine monitoring and Data Analytics technologies.

Dr. Pat Doody, Joint Principal Investigator and Director of Advanced Studies of IMaR said “The award of this funding from Enterprise Ireland further confirms IMaR’s place as the primary research centre in Ireland for applied research into the Industrial Internet of Things. The funding will facilitate IMaR in providing state of the art technologies which will be made available to our current industry partners and will also be instrumental in attracting further companies to avail of the expertise offered by IMaR. This testbed will ensure that our partners continue to compete at the cutting edge.”