Joint laboratories

Brugère, a company specializing in beech veneer peeling and veneering, has been working with LaBoMaP (Burgundy Materials and Processes Laboratory) since 2015 to advance its R&D, improve its production, and invent new applications. This partnership, known as Bopli (Bourgogne placage innovation), also benefits researchersArts et Métiers, who can draw on industrial tools and expertise to carry out fundamental research on peeling.

Bopli aims to invent new applications for Brugère's production. One of the challenges concerns the characterization of beech plywood, which is rarely used in France. The laboratory's work will focus on two complementary areas:

• Improving the quality of veneers and mastering the initial processing of beech wood;
• Mastery of the secondary processing process (manufacture of panels and plywood and product innovations).

Since 2006, the Advanced Electrical Equipment Modeling Laboratory has brought together the Modeling team from the L2EP laboratory (Electrical Engineering and Power Electronics Laboratory)Arts et Métiers the Electromagnetism Modeling team from EDF R&D. Together, they are developing the Carmel code (Advanced Code for Research in Electromagnetic Modeling), an innovation from the L2EP laboratory.

Currently, two versions of the code are available:

• The first, which deals with magneto-harmonic problems, is mainly dedicated to non-destructive testing (NDT).
• The second solves quasi-static electromagnetic problems and is used to model electrical machines.

Both are based on solving potential formulations (vectors and scalars) using the finite element method. Here are some examples of applications: non-destructive testing using eddy currents, alternators, magneto-mechanical coupling of an alternator, asynchronous machines, claw-pole alternators, etc.

Born out of a partnership between INRS (the French National Research and Safety Institute) and Arts et Métiers, the "Safe Work Situation Design" laboratory focuses on taking occupational risks into account at a very early stage in the design of equipment. Researchers Arts et Métiers LCFC (design, manufacturing and control laboratory) contribute their expertise to this partnership, which was launched in 2012.

The work carried out by the LC2S laboratory focuses on several areas. For purchasers of machinery and tools, the aim is to support them in incorporating risk into their specifications. Data and indicators, taken in particular from the INRS databases on workplace accidents, are sent to designers. This enables them to take into account risky situations at each stage of the equipment's life cycle (assembly, adjustment, maintenance, and dismantling). The laboratory also seeks to raise technicians' awareness of operator actions.

The ultimate goal is to promote best practices, which are disseminated by INRS to companies and institutions. The databases developed by researchers are made available to CAD (computer-aided design) software providers in order to develop new computer modules dedicated, for example, to ergonomics or maintenance.

The LiV (Virtual Immersion Laboratory), created in 2011, brings together teams from Renault's Technical Simulation Center and the Image Institute ofArts et Métiers, located in Châlon-sur-Saône.

Three areas of research inform their work:

• Research on automotive interactions and navigation, visual quality, co-location, and intuitive interfaces, using an immersive room.
• Realism in driving simulation.
• Eco-driving based on the human-machine interface.

Researchers are studying, in particular, user interactions with digital models in virtual immersion situations.

For virtual immersion driver assistance systems, they are interested in several questions: how can drivers interact with a digital model of a car in a driving situation without causing simulator sickness? What sensory modalities should be used to enable drivers to interact correctly with driver assistance systems, depending on the situation?

PSA OpenLabs bring together research teams from the PSA Group and partner institutions. They pool scientific expertise and technological platforms to work on major industry challenges: modes of transport, vehicles, and the factory of the future.

Created in 2012, OpenLab Materials and Processes brings together cutting-edge expertise in the field of innovative materials and efficient processes: Arts et Métiers, CNRS, Georgia Tech, and LIST (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology). These partners are developing joint ten-year forward-looking research projects with a view to offering disruptive technologies and contributing to the development of the vehicles of the future.

Research activities cover four areas: metallic materials and alloys, polymers and composites, semiconductors, and robotics and vision. In 2016, the partnership was renewed, incorporating an additional theme, industry and the factory of the future, and the establishment of the FFLOR (Future Factory@Lorraine) platform at the PSA factory in Tremery in Moselle, in collaboration with CEA Tech.