A shifting industrial landscape brings both opportunities and challenges that call for rapid technological advancements. The Wingquist Laboratory 23rd Annual Seminar on Digital Product Realization explored various dimensions of this ever-changing terrain.
Held on May 7, 2024, this year’s seminar, organized by Wingquist Laboratory, brought together industry and academic leaders to dissect the latest trends and challenges in the evolving industrial landscape, and gain insights into the latest advancements in digital product realization.
Navigating a new industrial landscape
As the keynote speaker, Anders Borg, Financial advisor, and former Minister of Finance 2006–2014, offered his perspective on the challenges of this new industrial era. With AI, globalization, and climate change bringing new opportunities, but geopolitical risks in China, Russia, and the US raising uncertainty, Borg focused on how Sweden and Swedish companies should orient themselves in this shifting environment.
“Sweden's technological leadership is bolstered by the tight collaboration between universities and industries. We are in a very interesting technological period with many opportunities, and Sweden is well positioned for robust advancements and promising developments,” says Anders Borg.
Advancing quality assurance processes
The seminar also featured presentations on the results from the research project DigiQ, Digital quality assurance for sustainable industry. The project aims to realize a digital quality assurance process that can be scaled up and enable an efficient, sustainable, and competitive global production.
We heard from Maria Andrén at Volvo Cars, and from Richard Lindqvist at SAAB, who shared insights on the implementation of the project's software in production. At Volvo the focus was on development and implementation of Virtual Fixture to reduce the need for physical fixtures, and at SAAB a solution for automatic configuration of an inspection cell.
“We are very pleased with the collaboration and with the results achieved so far. Moving forward, we see greater automation in inspection as key to reducing uncertainty and enhancing efficiency,” says Richard Lindqvist.
Exploring the latest findings from the research groups
The four research groups at Wingquist Laboratory, Geometry Assurance & Robust Design, Systems Engineering Design, Automation, and Geometry & Motion Planning, showcased their latest findings and breakthroughs. Presentations covered a wide range of topics, from robot learning for manipulation tasks, to the creation of digital human models, and simulation of AM-based remanufacturing, providing a diverse and comprehensive overview of the ongoing work and innovation in the research groups.
About Wingquist Laboratory
Wingquist Laboratory is a competence centre for multidisciplinary research within the field of digital product realization. The lab envisions a fully digital product realization process, where complex, mechanical, assembled products and their production systems are developed and verified together, without need for physical prototypes or testing.
- Full Professor, Product Development, Industrial and Materials Science
