The THEIAXR consortium consists of 11 partners spread over Europe.
The consortium includes large enterprises, SMEs, universities, and a research institute specialized in Extended Reality technologies, human-machine interaction, and social aspects of human behaviour with mobile machinery.
The project aims to improve human-machine interaction in difficult environments by enlarging the visibility of the human operator by conveying XR technologies, thereby considering the individual requirements of the human end-users. To achieve this vision, it is crucial to involve different stakeholders and follow a multidisciplinary and inclusive approach. The team has been composed in such a way as to exactly achieve this balance in expertise, technology skill sets, and societal aspects as well as required to fulfil the goals of the project.
Partners
TTControl, a joint-venture company of TTTech Group and HYDAC Group International is a leader in functional safety and offers high-performance control systems as well as operator interfaces for mobile machinery and off-highway vehicles. TTControl’s software and hardware platforms perform under the most difficult environmental conditions and enable equipment manufacturers to develop highly reliable electronic control systems quickly and economically. With their products, TTControl offers the optimum levels of quality, safety and performance for innovative mobile machinery.
Technische Universität Graz is located in the second largest city of Austria, Graz. It looks back at more than 200 years of development, change and progress. Graz University of Technology employs around 4000 people, out of which almost 3000 are dedicated towards research and academia. With 7 faculties and 3 campus locations, it is the second largest technical university in Austria.
Technische Universität Dresden
The Technische Universität Dresden (TUD) is one of the largest universities in Germany. With nearly 5000 scientific employees and 30,000 students, TUD plays a vital role in higher education and scientific contributions and constantly strives for sustainable and interdisciplinary research. Two chairs provide expertise and excellence in construction machinery and human-machine interaction for the THEIA-XR project. The Chair of Construction Machinery focuses on research topics in mobile working machines through a multidisciplinary approach, covering mechanical construction, control engineering, simulation, and social aspects. The Chair of Industrial Design Engineering is among the few that focus research on and through design for industrial applications at university level. It provides expertise in systematic domain analysis, human-machine interaction design, and interactive prototyping for performance evaluation in speculative contexts. Both chairs are associated with the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Engineering.
The Hochschule der Medien (HdM) Stuttgart is a public university of applied sciences. It educates specialists and generalists for work in today's world of media. The spectrum of professional media education at the HdM is unique in Europe. Nearly 30 accredited Bachelor’s and Master's degree programmes are available including printing, audio-visual media, information systems, computer science, advertising, media management, media publishing, packaging technology, and information design.
The HdM’s Institute of Applied Research (IAF) coordinates research activities on innovative topics in various media sectors. The Information Experience Design Research Group (IXD) of IAF is one of the partners of THEIA-XR. The IXD Group has more than 20 years of experience in researching Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and related disciplines such as Usability, User Experience, Positive Psychology and Human-Centered Design for the design of a variety of different technologies (Augmented Reality, Virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence, etc.).
The University of Luxembourg was founded in 2003, and is, thus, one of the youngest and fast-growing universities in Europe. Based at the heart of the European Union, it offers a range of high-quality programmes at all levels. The UL is international (with an academic staff from 20 countries, and students from 132 countries) and multilingual (three official languages: English, French, German).
Uni.lu’s 3 faculties and 3 interdisciplinary centres focus jointly on 3 key research areas: Digital Transformation, Medicine, and Health, and Sustainable and Societal Development. Rooted in strong disciplines, the University’s success for all 3 key areas relies on interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations, drawing on combined contributions from Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and Medicine.
Research at UL can also be illustrated by over 2430 publications in 2022; more than 1000 ongoing research projects, benefitting from a wide array of national, international, public, and private funding instruments. In 2022, it was awarded €21.4M in funding from EU instruments and €44M from FNR.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is the leading research and technology company in the Nordic countries. VTT has a national mandate in Finland. They use their research and knowledge to provide expert services for our domestic and international customers and partners. They serve both private and public sectors. VTT has 80 years’ experience supporting our clients growth with top-level research and science-based results. They develop new smart technologies, profitable solutions and innovative services. VTT ensures efficient utilisation of science and technology with the aid of broad international cooperation and networking..
VTT has exploited VR for already 30 years and AR for 15 years and done more than 100 company cases. VTT has also knowledge of exploiting human centred and/or participatory design together with virtual, mixed and augmented reality.
Creanex Oy, established in 2003, is a Finnish high technology company specializing in advanced simulator solutions for mobile work machinery. Over 600 simulators delivered world-wide are used for machine operator training and developing and testing machine control systems. The company has long-term cooperation with several leading manufacturers on their field.
Over the years, Creanex has invested heavily in developing simulator technology and has revolutionized both the development of advanced machine control systems and machine operator training providing significant competitive advantage for its customers. With this technology, it is possible to manage and test extensive control system assemblies and to highlight possible errors in functions while speeding up and bringing savings to the product development process. Creanex simulator solutions are used throughout the whole product’s life cycle: concept design, product development, testing, marketing, and product support.
Mechanical, electrical and software design are done in-house, and all simulators are turnkey manufactured in Tampere, Finland.
The company Haption is a high-tech SME based in France, founded in 2001. We propose high-end hardware and software solutions for man-machine interaction with force-feedback. Our application domains are: Virtual Reality (virtual prototyping, medical training) and telerobotics. In Virtual Reality, our products reproduce the sense of touch, and thus contribute dramatically to the immersion of the users. In telerobotics, we provide a complete solution for controlling manipulator robots remotely, with a feedback to the operator of the interaction forces with the environment. Our most active markets are: nuclear, automotive, aerospace, healthcare.
Prinoth AG is the first choice worldwide for snow groomers that deliver perfect results. In addition, Prinoth has two other leading business units that manufacture crawler carriers and vegetation management equipment. With four production facilities and 80 sales and service partners in more than 50 countries, Prinoth provides unparalleled customer service.
Kalmar offers a wide range of cargo handling solutions and services to ports, terminals, distribution centres and to heavy industry. Kalmar is the industry forerunner in terminal automation and in energy efficient container handling, with one in four container movements around the globe being handled by a Kalmar solution. Through its extensive product portfolio, global service network and ability to enable a seamless integration of different terminal processes, Kalmar improves the efficiency of every move.
