EASY-IMP was a research project co-funded by the European Commission, under the FP7 Programme Theme “FoF.NMP.2013-5: Innovative design of personalized product-services and of their production processes based on collaborative environments”. The goal of EASY was to develop new methodologies, tools and ready-to-use components for designing and producing intelligent wearable products as Meta-Products. A Meta-product is now a customer driven customisable entity that integrates sensory/computing units, which are in turn connected to the cloud, leading to a paradigm shift from mass production to intelligent, over-the-web configurable products. Product design and production is however becoming highly complex and requires interdisciplinary expertise.
Τhe EASY-IMP project proposed a Cloud Computing enabled framework for the Collaborative Design and Development of Personalised Products/Services, combining embedded sensors and mobile devices with facilities for joint open development of enabling downloadable applications. The Meta-Products consisted of intelligent wearables (clothing, footwear, accessories) equipped with embedded networks of sensors. Sensorial data communicated to smart phones via Bluetooth or Wifi. The required functionality was configured by the end-users; the design, selection of components, sourcing of materials and sensors, virtual prototyping, as well as production planning and services integration is a collaborative process of all involved companies, designers, sensor producers, software developers and application experts. This infrastructure enabled all interested 3rd parties to offer new services to smart phone and EASY wearable users, resulting to an open platform of literally infinite applications in many target market. The EASY approach was validated in three different industrial scenarios, i.e. rehabilitation, sport and games.
The EASY-Consortium integrated competences on production methodology, system design and modeling, product lifecycle management, simulation and virtual reality, intelligent sensors, mobile-cloud systems, intelligent cloth design and production. The research addressed in the EASY-IMP project involved partners from nine countries (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Belgium, Greece and Israel). The consortium was composed of four academic partners (DFKI, Lyon University, LRI, and IBV), seven companies (ATOS, IAW, ATC, HC, Nuubo, Timocco, SLCMSR) and the Federation of European Sporting goods (FESI).
ATC was one of the main Technology Providers in EASY-IMP, mainly involved in the development and integration of Meta-Product Cloud Services for Supply Chain Management. In particular, ATC was responsible for the analysis, system-level definitions, implementation, technical testing and user evaluation of the core Production Planning Environment (private cloud), which supported the production planning of customisable intelligent wearables.
EASY-IMP started on September 1st 2013 and had a duration of 36 months.
