The European manufacturing sector is a vital asset of the European economy, composed of over 2 million enterprises, accounting for 15% of European GDP and providing nearly 33 million jobs. However, for Europe to maintain its competitiveness, the manufacturing industry must continue to produce high-quality, innovative products.

The emergence of Industry 4.0 has led to an increase in manufacturing robots that automate repetitive tasks, minimize errors and enable human workers to focus on more value-added activities. However, there is a current skills gap among professionals with knowledge of smart manufacturing processes and digital transformation technologies. The gap could potentially have a negative impact on the growth of the European smart manufacturing market, which is moderately fragmented in a large number of small- and medium-sized manufacturers accounting for the majority of the share.

To address these issues, MASTERLY aims to support technological advancements and promote the adoption of robotics and digital solutions for both large companies and SMEs. The project will involve developing flexible robotic solutions, constituting of modular grippers combined with state-of-the-art robotic technologies (such as mobile, high and low payload industrial and collaborative robots and smart cranes) enhanced with AI driven advanced control and perception capabilities that will allow them to act autonomously, handling a large variety of parts varying in size, shape and material, while being acceptable to both genders of the workforce.

To facilitate the market adoption, MASTERLY will develop human robot collaboration (HRC) interfaces that allow operators without any robotics knowledge to interact with and reprogram the robot. Emphasis will be placed on safety-related information to increase human trust in the machine. Digital technologies will also be leveraged to train and upskill current workers, attract younger highly educated workers and women to work in the EU manufacturing sector, and counteract the ageing workforce.