Production technology

Robotics and AI in manufacturing

The production technology team of around 20 employees is transferring the latest technologies of manufacturing methods and processes to companies in our area. For this purpose, we have developed an operating model, which is based on close business co-operation to determine the needs of companies, simulations, and laboratory and business demonstrations. These allow the company to assess whether the latest technologies are mature enough and add enough value to invest in. The fastest growing areas in our research area are robotics and applications related to AI production business.

We operate in Pietarsaari, Kokkola and Ylivieska. The largest laboratories, the Robo3D Lab and the wood and construction product technology laboratory, are in Ylivieska. The Robo3D Lab is the largest robotics laboratory in Northern Finland with development environments for 3D design, 3D printing, drone manufacturing, modelling, simulations and integrated CNC manufacturing of the i4.0 type. Kokkola has versatile collaborative robot equipment (COBOT) and mobile robots for corporate demonstrations. In 2021 in Pietarsaari, a team was put together that expands technology transfer activities to their area as well.

In addition, Kokkola has a strong operation and maintenance laboratory. It primarily serves the Kokkola process industry area but also other SMI companies in our areas. The latest additions include robotised welding of metals, WAAM spare part production and robotised 3D production of composite products.

LEAN and our Six Sigma operations, as well as quality consulting in the process development of companies have gained a strong foothold in the area. It is supported by strong expertise in industrial production methods. This is needed in the construction sector, for example, when moving from prototyped unique buildings to industrially manufactured buildings. This has great benefits in terms of quality and profitability of export activities.

AI research, which has been a predominant theme in production machine learning, has been boosted across all teams in Centria. In the production technology team, we focus on AI applications that address manufacturing methodologies and processes. The most significant themes are machine learning and machine vision, and the most recent ones are related to business such as promoting sales through artificial intelligence.

We continuously assess the latest technologies in international networks and strive to launch international projects. Co-operation between all Centria’s RDI teams is seamless, and we engage in many cross-disciplinary projects. Many of our experts engage in both teaching and RDI activities. The seamless, decades-long co-operation between teaching and RDI, the joint use of labs, continuous completion of theses in projects, and keeping the labs up to date are based on this.

Our development environments

Robo3D Lab

Centria Drone Lab

Centria Game Lab

We are active in networks

Robocoast-consortia is a network to support the industry in digitalisation.