Continental Mabor decided, in 2009, to strengthen their bet in the development of innovative technological solutions resorting to entities of the Scientific and Technological system. A protocol was celebrated in 2010 between Continental Mabor, FEUP and FCT, associating the company to the MIT-Portugal – EDAM for the development of an ambitious I&D project.

Named Autoclass, this project aims to develop an automatic system for guarantying the final quality of tires, using artificial vision technologies and image processing. Besides the development of specific image acquisition techniques, the project embraces also the development of mechanical tire manipulation techniques and advanced decision support systems. The first phase of the project was concluded in 2014, with the completion of three doctoral thesis that evidentiated the potential of a new final inspection system, innovative world-wide.

The success of this collaboration is based on deep knowledge about what should be considered on the final inspection process from Continental, while the other entities of the Scientific and Technology system provide access to advanced technical knowledge in areas of expertise like artificial vision, robotics, simulation and production management. Thus, in 2015 the Autoclass project was recovered and is now on the validation and preparation for industrialization stages.

Contact:  António Paulo Moreira