The MARS project (Manufacturing Architecture for Resilience and Sustainability) has reached its half-time milestone, marking two years of relentless work under the Horizon Europe programme. Conceived in response to the supply chain challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis, MARS is shaping the future of European manufacturing by integrating advanced technologies like cloud computing and blockchain to develop flexible, sustainable, and resilient production systems.
A Transformative Vision for Manufacturing
MARS aims to create an industrial production system that addresses the pressing issues faced by manufacturing SMEs. By focusing on platformisation, the project supports secure and efficient manufacturing practices, aligning with the principles of Industry 5.0 to enhance both sustainability and resilience.
The consortium, a collaboration of leading European institutions including ENSAM (France), MTI RWTH Aachen (Germany), inspire AG (Switzerland), AIN (Spain), Konica Minolta (Czech Republic), Noosware (Netherlands), Simula Research Laboratory (Norway), STIL Marposs (France), UBITECH (Greece) and MTL NTUA (Greece), has achieved significant milestones, setting a solid foundation for the second half of this European project.
Key Achievements So Far
1. First scientific results
The scientific partners of the MARS consortium developed new research papers on improving manufacturing quality prediction using advanced machine learning techniques. Visit the resources section of the MARS website to find all scientific publications of MARS.
2. Engaging Dissemination Efforts
MARS formed the AMiMO Cluster together with the sister projects (MODAPTO, ONE4ALL, Modul4r) in October 2023. A highlight of this cluster activity is the Standardisation workshop that took place on November 21st organized by ONE4ALL project as well as the discussion about organising dedicated activities such as workshops for PhD students and postdocs.
3. Launch of the MARS Project Video
One of the highlights of the dissemination efforts is the release of the MARS project video. This captivating introduction, created in collaboration with Steinbeis Europa Zentrum and Panebarco, showcases the project’s vision, milestones, and transformative impact on European manufacturing. If you haven’t watched it yet, explore the full video on the official MARS YouTube Channel.
4. Collaborative Innovation Across Europe
The consortium partners, hosting four production facility platforms, have been instrumental in advancing federated learning, AI-driven quality assurance of manufactured parts, and sustainable manufacturing. Their current work is on expanding the scope of AI in manufacturing to tackle the heterogeneity of different variables and processes in fabrication, as well as heterogeneity of data in Federated Learning. In parallel, new approaches are being proposed for an advanced and robust production and process planning, that starts out from Computer-Aided Process Plan (CAPP) and goes through also a novel approach for multiagent system for allocation of manufacturing tasks.
Event Highlights: Fostering Knowledge Sharing
MARS has successfully showcased its progress at various events over the past two years:
- Workshops and Conferences: Partners have actively participated in events:
promoting the project through presentations, posters, and networking opportunities.
- Bringing MARS technology closer to the civil society: Together with the expertise and insights of the technical partners, we produced a series of articles under the title “ Closer look on…” in order to explain in a digestible format the technologies used in developed during the MARS project.
- General Assembly in Aachen and meet up at Aachen’s Christmas Market: A festive partner meeting in Aachen hosted by Manufacturing Technology Institute Aachen, provided an opportunity to discuss project updates and strengthen the collaborative spirit of the consortium.
Looking Ahead: The Next Two Years
As the MARS project embarks on its second half, the focus is on delivering impactful outcomes:
- Platform integration: Integration of elements such as smart contracts, rest-API and private IPFS nodes into the MARS blockchain infrastructure.
- Data bases for the development of AI model: MARS technical partners will focus their work on producing the heterogenous data bases.
- Continued Dissemination: The consortium is planning to present the MARS project during several numbers of events such as the European Robotics Forum 2025, 40th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2025), Global Industrie 2025 and International Metrology Congress (CIM 2025).
A Big Thank You to the MARS consortium
Reaching this milestone would not have been possible without the dedication of our consortium partners, the support of Horizon Europe, and the broader community of the Manufacturing Industry. Together, we are paving the way for a resilient and sustainable future in European manufacturing.