Advancing R&D in Ontario: NRC Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub
The National Research Council (NRC) of Canada’s focus is to assist Canadian manufacturers in adapting to advanced manufacturing – including mass customization, process industrialization, and factory automation to increase the productivity and competitiveness of various sectors of Canadian industry.
To address these opportunities for advancement, there is a high-tech space for Canadian SMEs to further perform research and development activities within the advanced manufacturing space.
Located in London, Ontario, the NRC Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub is an agile collaborative space set-up to rapidly solve industry problems with novel technology solutions that can be integrated on a short-term and modular basis.
The Hub is part of NRC’s Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre. The 75,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility includes multiple configurable research and development labs, experimental vehicle bays, and an advanced manufacturing digital factory, as well as multiple office workspaces and meeting rooms. With a Digital and Automotive Lab, the facility is a place for companies to conceptualize, integrate, and commercialize multiple technologies while having access to NRC research, design, and development experts and services with strict confidentiality and project-specific intellectual property (IP) management.
NRC Manufacturing & Automotive Innovation Hub – Bring R&D to Life
The Hub was designed to support Canadian automotive manufacturers in adopting more advanced manufacturing approaches, as well as manufacture with new materials and other new vehicle technologies. It will bring governments, companies, universities, and colleges together to collaborate on breakthrough projects.
Some of the features of the Hub include:
[eva_sh_column add_item=”Add Column” element_custom_class=”list-column”][eva_sh_column_item column_size=”1 / 2″]
- 14,000 ft.
Of collaborative workspace - 4 X 750 ft.
Laboratories with configurable workspace
[/eva_sh_column_item][eva_sh_column_item column_size=”1 / 2″]
- 2 X 1,500 ft.
Vehicle bays - 1 X 6,000 ft.
High crane bay
[/eva_sh_column_item][/eva_sh_column]
The work cells offer businesses the ability to expand their capabilities in enabling and creating the next generation of advanced technology, such as connected/autonomous vehicles, automation and digitization, and additive technology.
Areas of Expertise
The Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub is the ideal space to access the NRC knowledge space. Some of these areas include:
- Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS)
- Artificial intelligence
- Industrial robots
- Automated guided vehicles
- Product design
- Electric and electronic (E/E) vehicle architecture
Industry 4.0
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Inspection/vision systems
- Cyber-physical systems
- Machine learning
Connected/Autonomous Vehicles
This is a key opportunity for businesses to capitalize on. The Hub’s resources can help save time and money required for testing and validating autonomous vehicle R&D. Some of the areas of research include:
- Hardware-in-the-loop simulation and testing of autonomous driving hardware and software
- Augmenting high-definition maps by utilizing satellite images and crowdsourced data by acquiring construction and road degradation information in real time
Contact National Resources Council of Canada
If you are interested in learning more about the NRC Manufacturing and Automotive Innovation Hub or want to know how to become a part of this research facility, please contact R&D Director, David Muir. Telephone: 519-430-7095 | Email: David.Muir@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca