Circular Manufacturing 5.0: Human-Centred AI-aided Digital Framework for Closed-loop Photovoltaic (PV) products Value Chains

The EU guidelines for circular production and supply chains require a strategic approach at every stage of the product lifecycle.

The shift towards circularity starts with circular design principles, where the linear “take-make-dispose” model is superseded by the one that prioritizes reusability, reparability, and recyclability.

CIRCMAN5.0 combines advanced industry 4.0 technologies with human-centric design principles to assess and demonstrate how waste reduction and optimization of raw material can be feasible and profitable while significantly reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes.

CIRCMAN5.0 delivers a Human-Centred AI-aided Framework for the Photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry, entailing: (I) AI-driven modelling and circular-by-design simulation techniques for product design; (II) ML algorithms for dynamic production process reconfiguration; (III) A Cognitive Digital Twin environment supported by AAS models for testing and verification of manufacturing processes for efficient resource utilisation, waste management etc; (III) A Circularity and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Framework to help with comprehensive evaluation of the sustainability aspects of products and processes using data/feedback from AI-based process optimisation, forecasting models, energy and emissions metrics etc.; (IV) The Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) Recommendation Engine to provide actionable and explainable recovery strategies for EoL products; (V) The Digital Product/Material Passport (DPP) enabled by Distributed Ledger Technology enabling secure and trustworthy information sharing.

The learning resources developed in the project will equip the EU industrial workforce with digital, circular and transversal skills.

CIRCMAN5.0 will be tested in four (4) PV manufacturing industries providing different type of products (e.g., perovskites PV, BIPV, BAPV, OPV).