Automation and Robotics
The Illinois Manufacturing Institute (IMI) is advancing the frontiers of manufacturing by integrating electromechanical systems, artificial intelligence, robotics, and smart factory innovations. Our research seeks to create production processes that are faster, more intelligent, and highly precise.
We are creating a new generation of intelligent and efficient manufacturing machines to drive the next wave of innovation in networked manufacturing. We achieve this by integrating artificial intelligence, connected devices, sensing technologies, high-bandwidth communications, and cloud/edge computing into the technology stack of AI-enabled manufacturing machines to produce next-generation equipment and create industry value.
Smarter Machines. Smarter Manufacturing.
Our work focuses on the next generation of manufacturing through the development of intelligent and connected production systems. By integrating artificial intelligence, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), advanced sensors, high-bandwidth communications, and edge/cloud computing across both hardware and software, we design factory systems capable of learning, adapting, and delivering quantifiable operational improvements.
Our research embeds computational intelligence directly into individual machines, enabling real-time performance optimization and self-monitoring of operational states. Beyond individual machines, we investigate the integration of equipment into coordinated, networked systems that facilitate next-generation manufacturing operations.
To bridge theory and practice, we work with smart manufacturing testbeds that explore embodied and collective intelligence. This approach yields production lines that are more responsive, exhibit reduced downtime, maintain higher quality standards and possess the capacity to meet the evolving demands of advanced industrial environments.