The Universitat Politècnica de València has presented the details of AIMAS, the national research project coordinated by CIGIP whose funding we announced in October. The project aims to develop a system of artificial intelligence agents that helps manufacturing companies plan production and respond autonomously when problems arise on the shop floor.
From the ERP to the spreadsheet
Many industrial SMEs already use an ERP system and digital tools to monitor machines and resources, yet still draw up their production plans in spreadsheets. As Beatriz Andrés, project co-director and lecturer at the Alcoi campus, points out, any disruption (a machine breakdown, a rush order, a quality problem or a staff shortage) means the plan has to be reworked by hand, which can take hours and involve many manual decisions.
Specialised agents coordinated by an orchestrator
AIMAS proposes a set of autonomous agents specialised in planning, capacity, quality and maintenance, coordinated by an orchestrator agent. According to Raúl Poler, project co-director and also a lecturer in Alcoi, these agents track the state of the plant using real data from the company’s information systems, generate alternatives and recommend the most suitable decision, explaining the reasoning behind it.
The solution will be validated in companies in the Valencia region from sectors such as food-processing machinery, furniture, machining and textiles, where its effect on delivery times, service levels, resource use and quality will be measured.
Team and funding
The team, led by Beatriz Andrés and Raúl Poler, brings together 18 researchers, 56 % of whom are women. From UPV, the project involves Eduardo Vicens, Eugenia Babiloni, Raquel Sanchis, Neus Garrido and Julio Serrano; from other Spanish universities, Amaia Lusa (UPC), Francisco Campuzano and Ángel Martínez (UPCT), Juan Ramón Trapero (UCLM) and Mar Fernández (Universidade de Vigo). The international team comprises Eleonora Bottani (Università di Parma), Teresa Murino (Università di Napoli Federico II), Shaofeng Liu (University of Plymouth), Filippo Ciarapica (Università Politecnica delle Marche), António Lucas Soares (INESC TEC) and Filipa Ferrada (Universidade Nova de Lisboa).
AIMAS has received €176,000 under the 2025 call for Knowledge Generation Projects. It will run from September 2026 to August 2029 and includes a predoctoral contract. The project builds on CIGIP’s experience in European projects on AI for industry, such as DATAWiSE and MaaSAI. Further details are available in the news item published by UPV (in Spanish) (opens in a new tab).
Project PID2025-168493OB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF, EU.