To support industry, Flinders University researchers are creating innovative technologies, and training the future workforce on how best to use these innovations to meet the need for efficiency, quality, and transformative change in manufacturing.
Flinders Factory of the Future
Flinders Factory of the Future at Tonsley has been developed as a collaborative space for entrepreneurial organisations and Flinders’ researchers. This is where new technologies, manufacturing techniques and processes can be tested, trialled and adapted for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large facilities, such as Adelaide’s Osborne shipyard, where Hunter Class Frigates will be built.
Early successes have inspired the expansion of operations, with a new, additional facility currently being built at the Tonsley Innovation District, adjacent to the existing Flinders University presence at Tonsley. The new facility will share its roof with the Tonsley Technical College, one of five technical colleges in South Australia. The expanded footprint of the factory will bring together industry, education and researchers to improve manufacturing capability, driving increased participation in national and global supply chains, and key sectors including Defence.
This will build on successes such as the Medical Device Research Institute, founded and directed by Professor Karen Reynolds. As one of Australia’s leading researchers in biomedical engineering, Karen is passionate about bridging the divide between research and industry.
It was in 2008 when she founded the Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP) Ideas Incubator, a program designed to facilitate early-stage innovation and collaborations across the medtech sector. Fourteen years later, this award-winning program continues to support early-stage innovation in the medtech sector.
Other successes include Flinders’ research and training collaboration with BAE Systems Australia which provides graduates with an understanding of digital design for constructing the Hunter Class Frigates in South Australia’s new digital shipyard.
Further projects have included working with BAE Systems Australia staff to test and trial new technologies such as Virtual Reality tools. Recent developments include trials of workers using augmented reality head-mounted display modules to manage workflow and reduce errors through remote troubleshooting.
Trials of such technologies are improving productivity by reducing and correcting errors in advanced manufacturing and assembly.
“Despite Industry 4.0 technology adoption being promoted to stimulate manufacturing flexibility and competitiveness, Australia is yet to realise its full potential,” says Dr Valerie O’Keeffe, a Senior Researcher in Human Factors at Flinders University.
Industry 4.0 technology is the name used for the emerging 'fourth industrial revolution' and refers to smart manufacturing - the realisation of the digital transformation of the field.
“We have to fast-track valuable learning and building skill levels in a manufacturing workforce that is already experiencing skilled labour shortages.”
Learning from animals for the future of automation
To help bring advanced robotics “out of the lab and into the real world,” Associate Professor in Autonomous Systems, Dr Russell Brinkworth, is working with researchers to build artificial systems that can adapt to different environments. This includes taking inspiration from the animal kingdom to develop affordable, flexible and highly responsive ‘whiskers’ that attach to workplace and domestic robots, providing them with additional tactile abilities in confined or cluttered spaces – plus acoustic systems that can decern specific sounds masked by large environmental noises.
Beyond technology innovations, researchers are also designing improved operational strategies for industries, including a revised systems-engineering approach - an engineering field that takes an interdisciplinary approach to product development - to help develop innovative manufacturing systems.
Digital technologies to advance the green economy
Flinders University Professor of Innovation, Giselle Rampersad, says the use of new digital technologies to improve manufacturing productivity, customer experience and safety can also lead to increased sustainability across organisations.
“Digital technologies lead to improved sustainability through smartness from optimisation, production flexibility, information transparency, value chain integration and digitised processes,” says Professor Rampersad.
“The research is important to help organisations adopt Industry 4.0 technologies that contribute to achieving their ‘net zero’ emissions targets and sustainability agenda.”
The important collaboration between Flinders University and industry through research, education and innovation spaces, including the Flinders Factory of the Future, fast-tracks solutions to industrial problems that will boost our economy.
