iCircular3 Marie Curie Doctoral Network PhD scholarships (9 posts available): Digital Transition of Circular Economy

The iCircular³ (Intelligent circular lifecycles of industrial robots, outdoor power products, and electric vehicle)project involves a consortium of seven partners, four industry partners (KUKA Robotics, Ireland; IOTA Stiftung, Germany; Future Mobility Campus, Ireland and Husqvarna, Sweden) and three academic partners (University College Dublin, Ireland; Imperial College London, UK; Jönköping University, Sweden), who together, will host 9 PhDs. iCircular³ will recruit and train 9 Researchers to conduct sector-specific projects related to circular lifecycle perspectives; combined, the projects will contribute to the development of new guidelines and digital tools for the integration of circularity in industry, as well as the identification of cross-sector commonalities. The strong academic/industry interaction in iCircular³ will ensure the relevance of each research project. Researchers will receive high-level industry-led research training and professional development courses, with a view to opening their career perspectives. Funding for these projects has been provided by the EU under their competitive HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks) programme under Grant Agreement No. 101073508.

The consortium is now inviting applications for up to 9 highly motivated and talented PhD candidates (Researchers) for these fully-funded positions, as summarised below. Recruitment will remain open until all positions are filled in and as soon as possible. The target start dates for the positions will be in May-June 2023 or sooner. Researchers will be employed on a full-time basis and based at one of six particular host institutions. They will also spend up to 6 months on secondment at either beneficiaries or associated partners, thereby ensuring that all Researchers will spend time in both academia and industry, and in at least two different countries.

Please read the details of each project description and further instructions on 'How to Apply' for these PhD positions toward the end of this page.

Researcher 1 (R1): Circular product development process utilising advanced computer-aided and digital ledger technologies [Host: IOTA; Secondments: UCD & KUKA]

Host/employer: IOTA Foundation, Germany

Supervisors: Prof Nikolaos Papakostas & Dr Pezhman Ghadimi (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/)

Industry Advisor: Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA) and Mr Brian Cooney (KUKA Ireland)

Secondments: 6 months in Ireland (Industry and Academia)

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

Digital production and automation using industrial robots have increased during the past decade. This makes the EoL of industrial robots a critical problem that has not been addressed properly. The primary objective of this project is to apply advanced blockchain and CE principles to robotic applications. R1 will examine the application of IOTA’s Digital Ledger Technology, a platform based on Direct Acyclic Graphs principles, for storing information, while tracking the operation of robots in assembly tasks so that disassembly process plans be generated with the support and extending the advanced digital manufacturing and simulation tools previously developed at UCD, automated CAD-integrated disassembly sequence generation (CADSG) algorithm and platform. In this way, disassembly and recycling process plans will be provided in an automatic way to recycling companies after the EoL of a product. R1 will develop a novel digital tool that will allow for automated data exchange among stakeholders in diverse product life cycle stages towards reducing the time needed for designing dismantling and recycling processes.

Researcher 2 (R2): Extension of industrial robot scope and applicability in circular economy [Host: KUKA; Secondments: UCD & IOTA]

Host/employer: KUKA Robotics, Ireland

Supervisors:Prof Nikolaos Papakostas & Dr Pezhman Ghadimi (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/)

Industry Advisor: Mr Brian Cooney (KUKA Ireland) and Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA) 

Secondments: 3 months in Ireland and 3 months in Germany

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

R2 will take advantage of novel digital technologies towards allowing the remote monitoring of the operation of robots. It is expected that new applications will emerge that allow for the provision of on-condition maintenance services to manufacturers. The analysis of the robot motion using advanced machine learning approaches and the comparison against nominal process plans will lead to the identification of the correct maintenance activities that need to be carried out with minimal impact on the robot availability. This IRP will lead to the minimisation of downtimes and the increase of product quality since deviations from nominal specifications will be detected early. At the same time, novel business models will be tested allowing for the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to provide robotic equipment as a service, which would then be compensated based on the number of tasks. This will address the reuse and lifecycle extension strategies of the robots, aligned with the CE principles. Building on the analytical expertise at UCD as primary academic supervisor, R2’s technical outcomes will comprise a detailed techno-economic model, a data collection and analysis system and finally an on-condition decision support system. R2 will work closely with R1 in the development of the techno-economic model.

Researcher 3 (R3): Reverse logistics network design decision support system for EoL management of outdoor power products [Host: JTH, Secondments: UCD, IOTA & HUS]

Host/employer: Tekniska Högskolan i Jönköping (JTH), Sweden

Supervisors: Dr Vanajah Siva (JTH) (https://ju.se/personinfo.html?sign=sivvan&lang=en) & Dr Pezhman Ghadimi and Prof Vincent Hargaden (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/)

Industry Advisor:Dr Soren Kahl (Husqvarna) and Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA)

Secondments: 2 months in Ireland (Academia), 2 months in Germany (Industry) and 2 months in Sweden (Industry)

PhD Awarding University:Tekniska Högskolan i Jönköping (JTH), Sweden

End of life (EoL) management of various products has become a vital part of CE practices, especially in the European Union (EU). Consequently, manufacturers must develop EoL management practices of their produced products through RLs activities, in line with EU extended producer responsibility policy. HUS, as one of the largest manufacturers of outdoor power products will need to adapt to such policies and therefore, will need to model their reverse logistics activities to get their EoL products and parts back to the manufacturing stage of their value chain, in a sustainable and streamline manner. To address this objective, R3 will utilise the existing supply chain design expertise at JTH  and UCD to develop a reverse logistics network design DSS. R3 will use IOTA’s DLT and its information storage and sharing capabilities to incorporate real-time information from all reverse supply chain actors i.e. customers, dealers, and collection centres. This novel reconfigurable DSS will consider various ways of transportation, different levels of EoL product quality and once fully deployed will assist HUS to collect their EoL products locally, nationally, regionally and globally. With inputs from HUS in various stages of designing this digital DSS, the final prototype will be validated by a case study.

Researcher 4 (R4): Digital tools development for assessing the remaining lifetime of outdoor power products [Host: HUS, Secondments: JTH, ICL & IOTA]

Host/employer: Husqvarna, Sweden

Supervisors:Dr Vanajah Siva (JTH) (https://ju.se/personinfo.html?sign=sivvan&lang=en) & Dr Elena Dieckmann (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/elena.dieckmann13)

Industry Advisor: Dr Soren Kahl (Husqvarna) and Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA)

Secondments: 2 months in Sweden (Academia), 2 Months in the UK (Academic) and 2 months in Germany (Industry)

PhD Awarding University:Tekniska Högskolan i Jönköping (JTH), Sweden

The primary objective of this project is to apply advanced DLT and digital twin technologies to analyse state of health and remaining life of a whole prouct, such as an outdoor battery chainsaw, and its components. R4 will investigate the application of IOTA’s DLT for tracking the in-service status of the returned products using direct and indirect wear analysis and indirectly from sensor-based service data. The developed digital tool will identify areas where reuse, recovery, and recyclability can be improved. For battery-based products, R4 will develop the concept of a battery digital twin to enable 2^nd life battery applications and will create a framework for battery digital twin which will be capable of collecting use data in real-time. The developed digital twin is then combined with physics-based models to determine control parameters for lifetime extension and suitability for 2^nd life applications. A data-driven approach which aggregates data from fleets of products will be developed to increase the accuracy of the degradation models, where parameterisation remains a challenge. The project will result in (a) a battery digital twin and (b) a circularity assessment digital tool that will assist the company to assess the remaining lifetime of the collected EoL products including batteries.

Researcher 5 (R5): Digital Ledger Technology to measure circularity in existing and future EV designs [Host: IOTA; Secondments: UCD & FMCI]

Host/employer:IOTA Foundation, Germany

Supervisors: Dr Pezhman Ghadimi (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/) & Dr Elena Dieckmann (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/elena.dieckmann13)

Industry Advisor: Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA) and Dr Russel Vickers (FMCI) 

Secondments: 6 months in Ireland (Academia and Industry)

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

R5 will evaluate existing EV recycling methods testbeds (during the secondment at FMCI) and model their integration into the current digital systems, both in the vehicle software and in industry-specific enterprise software. R5 will also analyse end-consumer attitudes and compliance towards vehicle recycling. This will result in an understanding of how to improve recycling rates from a consumer perspective. Based on this analysis, R5 will develop innovative digital tools that utilize IOTA’s DLT to measure circularity in EV designs, identify areas where reuse, recovery, and recyclability can be improved, and enable EV manufacturing companies to provide information on recyclability to the end consumer. Working in conjunction with ICL and UCD, AI-based algorithms will be developed for circularity measurements. Finally, guidelines for how to integrate these tools into the life cycles of other manufacturing areas such as industrial robots, and outdoor power products will also be developed.

Researcher 6 (R6): Design of circular systems enforcing social contracts [Host: IOTA; Secondments: UCD, ICL & FMCI]

Host/employer: IOTA Foundation, Germany

Supervisors: Prof Nikolaos Papakostas (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/) & Prof Robert Shorten (https://robertshorten.com/) 

Industry Advisor: Dr William Fabian Sanders (IOTA) and Russell Vickers (FMCI)

Secondments: 4 months in Ireland (Academia and Industry) and 2 Months in the UK (Academia)

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

An important issue in the design of circular systems concerns enforcing social contracts. A social contract is an agreement where an agent must comply with a rule governing a shared resource (for instance, free 2 hours parking) in a circular system. To design a circular system, R6 will first study the characteristics of such system. Then, building on ICL’s initial work, R6 explores the use of IOTA’s DLT to design a sharing contract. Two specific directions will be explored. First, risk pricing mechanisms to enforce social contracts across coupled activities will be studied. Distributed techniques from control- and game theory will be explored as mechanisms to design appropriate pricing policies. A 2^nd issue arises in networks of interconnected activities; for example, in applications where separate sharing systems interact with each other. In such situations, pricing mechanisms for one system will affect the other and disturbances in one price signal may propagate wave-like through a network (string stability) in a disruptive manner. The developed system will be tested on a testbed provided by FMCI related to EVs.

Researcher 7 (R7): Intelligent circular supply chain design architecture and toolkit for industrial robots, outdoor power products, and EVs [Host: UCD; Secondments: KUKA, FMCI, HUS]

Host/employer: University College Dublin, Ireland

Supervisors: Dr Pezhman Ghadimi & Prof Nikolaos Papakostas (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/)

Industry Advisor: Dr Russel Vickers (FMCI) and Dr Soren Kahl (Husqvarna)

Secondments: 4 months in Ireland (Academia and Industry) and 2 Months in Sweden (Industry).

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

R7 will identify various challenges and barriers in creating circular supply chains. Consequently, circular supply chain archetypes will be established investigating reverse supply chain activities across the three industrial sectors. These archetypes will be validated through secondments in KUKA, FMCI and HUS. Based on the identified archetypes and building on a UCD’s initial work, R7 will develop a generic collaborative multi-agent optimisation architecture to establish coordination mechanisms including contracts, supply chain integration, and knowledge management with all stakeholders in a closed-loop supply chain network setting to keep used products/components/materials in circulation. The developed architecture will be implemented and tested based on realistic scenarios across the three industrial sectors integrated with various bio-inspired optimisation algorithms.

Researcher 8 (R8): Digital transition framework for circular economy [Host: UCD; Secondments: JTH, KUKA, FMCI, HUS]

Host/employer: University College Dublin, Ireland

Supervisors: Prof Vincent Hargaden (https://www.ucd.ie/lams/) and Dr Vanajah Siva (JTH) (https://ju.se/personinfo.html?sign=sivvan&lang=en) 

Industry Advisor: Mr Brian Cooney (KUKA Ireland) and Dr Soren Kahl (Husqvarna)

Secondments: 4 months in Sweden (Academia and Industry) and 2 Months in Ireland (Industry).

PhD Awarding University: University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland

The digital transition is a major challenge as it requires the realignment of technology and new business models to more effectively manage supply chains and interact digitally at each stage of the customer experience, whether B2B or B2C. This implies understanding the linkages and exploiting the synergies between the digital and the CE agendas. For the industrial robotics, EVs and outdoor power products sectors, the transition challenge is exacerbated by external regulatory requirements and standards. Working closely with WPs4-6 researchers and in close collaboration with the project beneficiaries of the three sectors, R9 will employ a maturity model/readiness approach to enable circular digitalisation in each of the three sectors individually, followed by an overarching cross-sectoral framework. During the three separate secondment periods in HUS, FMCI, and KUKA, this framework will be validated by three in-depth case studies (one for each sector). Based on the findings and with the support of JTH, adjustments to existing standards and development of new standards which will be devised and proposed to the technical committee members of ISO/TC 323 Circular Economy for further consideration.

Researcher 9 (R9): Circular cyber-physical product as a service (PaaS) infrastructure [Host: ICL; Secondments: FMCI, HUS]

Host/employer:Imperial College London, UK

Supervisors: Dr Elena Dieckmann (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/elena.dieckmann13) and Prof Robert Shorten (https://robertshorten.com/) 

Industry Advisor:Dr Soren Kahl (Husqvarna) and Dr Russell Vickers (FMCI)

Secondments: 3 months in Sweden (Industry) and 3 months in Ireland (Industry)

PhD Awarding University: Imperial College London, UK

R9 will explore Product-as-a-Service models for both single owner goods and shared goods such as outdoor power products or EVs. The objective is to develop a digital tool and infrastructure to enable such products and services to be deployed. Issues to be explored include digital notions of identity, ownership and sovereignty, as well as markets where such goods can be exchanged. We aspire to understand the need for infrastructure; the nature of infrastructure investments and development; the costs and benefits; and the technological aspects. In the case of larger shared goods, the objective of this project is to develop a tool for both dimensions of shared goods and services. Algorithms for dimensioning services, and congestion management, will be developed and implemented as part of our solution. The applicability of the developed tool will be tested based on case studies in FMCI and HUS.