Arts et Métiers, and more specificallythe Laval Institute and the LAMPA research laboratory, is coordinating the European research project INEDIT (Open INnovation Ecosystems for Do It Together process). This project aims to create a platform linking open innovation and open manufacturing, dedicated to the co-creation and manufacture of furniture for all.
This European project, with a budget of €7 million from the European Commission, brings together a consortium of 14 partners from 8 differentcountries (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Switzerland).
Moving from "Do It Yourself" to "Do It Together"
The originality of the INEDIT project lies in the possibility for end consumers to design their own furniture and have it manufactured locally. To this end, an open innovation and co-creation platform will be developed on a European scale.
Consumers will also be able to rely on a community of designers for advice. A European network of manufacturers will be able to produce furniture locally thanks to open manufacturing. Numerous features will be available: suggestions for custom designs, choice of materials (wood, recycled plastic, additive manufacturing of wood), "smartification" through the addition of electronics and sensors (fall alerts, automatic lighting, etc.).
Finally, the project has an ecological aspect, with the choice of materials and the local manufacture of the furniture.
Immersive tools to promote furniture design
To develop this open innovation platform dedicated to furniture design, Arts et Métiers responsible for developing the digital chain (moving from idea to design) and features dedicated to the co-creation process, integrated into a "doing things together" model that is unique in Europe.
Using lightweight technologies such as a smartphone or virtual reality headset,users will scan their real environment so they can view it in virtual reality and create their furniture there.
What is innovative about this project,and what appealed to the European Commission, is that it starts with the consumer's idea. It is a project that will accelerate the process of moving from idea to manufacturing. This new open innovation model of "think global, manufacture local" responds to societal challenges and the needs of consumers who are increasingly sensitive to ethics and environmental issues.
Benjamin Poussard, coordinator of the INEDIT project for Arts et Métiers
Developing a new viable organizational and economic model, removing industrial barriers to the manufacture of complex furniture, taking ecological issues into account, and proposing a continuous digital chain: these are the challenges of this innovative project. Arts et Métiers, notably the LAMPA laboratory on the Angers campus and the Laval institute, and its partners have three years to respond.
