NEPTUN Project Team at International Scientific Conferences - Project Neptun

GDANSK TECH staff and members of the project teams from partnered institutions were encouraged to participate in international conferences. This activity contributed to increasing the level of excellence through cooperation with scientists from NTUA, KTH and TUB. Participation in conferences created an opportunity to share the scientific output created within NEPTUN project, to talk about the project’s results and tighten the cooperation within the partnership and beyond. The project team was present at three FAIM Conferences. Flexible Automation in Manufacturing international conference proceedings were held in 27 cities in 14 countries across the world, the first FAIM conference was held in 1991 in Limerick, Ireland.

The first FAIM conference attended by the representatives of NEPTUN project was FAIM’2023 organized in Porto, on 22-23 June 2023. The main theme of the conference was Manufacturing: establishing bridges towards a more sustainable future. Team representing the NEPTUN project presented two papers, which were published in Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. First of them was “UWB-Based Indoor Navigation in a Flexible Manufacturing System Using a Custom Quadrotor UAV”, authored by Petros Savvakis, George-Christopher Vosniakos, Emmanuel Stathatos, Panorios Benardos (NTUA), Marek Chodnicki (GDANSK TECH) and Axel Debar-Monclair (ENSMM). The presentation showed a novel solution for indoor navigation of a transportation drone in flexible manufacturing environment, it presented opportunities and benefits associated with the application of transport drones and its implication for the efficiency and safety of manufacturing operations.

Second of the presented papers was titled “Project-Based Collaborative Research and Training Roadmap for Manufacturing based on Industry 4.0” written by scientists directly involved in NEPTUN project: Marek Chodnicki, Mariusz Deja (GDANSK TECH), George-Christopher Vosniakos, Panorios Benardos (NTUA), Lihui Wang, Xi Vincent Wang (KTH), Thomas Braun and Robert Reimann (TUB). This paper discussed the importance of the economy being up to date with the latest developments such as Industry 4.0 – successful implementation of I4.0 requires close cooperation of industry, state authorities and universities. The paper described a paradigm of such a cooperation, targeting such areas as: additive manufacturing, cloud computing and control, virtual reality, digital twins and artificial intelligence. The collaborative research and training framework described in the paper involved a combination of pertinent targeted individual exploratory innovation projects as well as a synthetic multifaceted common research project.

Second FAIM conference attended by NEPTUN project team was FAIM’2024 organized in Taiwan, on 23-26.06.2024. The main theme of the conference was defined as: Manufacturing Innovation and Preparedness for the Changing World Order: Smart Manufacturing Enabled by Cyber-Physical Systems and Distributed & Secured Global Supply Chains. NEPTUN project team at FAIM’2024 was represented by professor Mariusz Deja, doctor Marek Chodnicki and Marianna Jędrych (GDANSK TECH) and professor George C. Vosniakos and doctor Panorios Benardos of NTUA Athens. The team presented 2 papers entitled: “Development of a friction welding system for CNC lathes”, and “Application of 3D scanning and computer simulation techniques to assess the shape accuracy of welded components”.

In June 2025, NEPTUN project team consisting of Marek Chodnicki and Marianna Jędrych (GDANSK TECH) and George C. Vosniakos and Panorios Benardos (NTUA) represented the consortium at FAIM’2025 conference in New York City. This year’s conference theme was The future of automation and manufacturing: Intelligence, Agility and Sustainability. NEPTUN team presented 2 papers entitled “Towards a roadmap from topological optimization to laser powder bed fusion for structural machine parts”, and “Innovative modifications in cellulose hygiene paper: enhancing strength and disintegration through sustainable processing”.

GDANSK TECH team successfully applied for the organization of the FAIM 2027 conference.