Public procurement notice: Contract Award Notice
Published: 2020-10-23
Buyer: University of Nottingham
Country: UK
Contract type: Supplies
Procedure: Negotiated without a prior call for competition
CPV classification: 42900000 | 42990000
Estimated value: 464010.54 GBP
Award criteria: The most economic tender

Technical requirements: Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator (FA3D2) Specifically WP2.1 – Modelling and Simulation WP2.3 – Digital Twin
The Centre for Aerospace Manufacturing (CAM) at the University Of Nottingham (UoN) works with partners from across the UK and European aerospace industry to deliver industrially focused research into aerospace assembly systems.
Advanced manufacturing is a key research priority area for Nottingham and the University has invested significantly in this research. The University made a strategic investment in automated assembly infrastructure through the Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator (FA3D) project, which was commissioned in 2016. Based on the success of this project, funding has been secured from the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) for development of the second phase of this demonstrator.
The Future Automated Aerospace Assembly Demonstrator Phase 2 (FA3D2) will deliver a national experimental testbed and technology demonstrator in digital and informatics enabled aerospace manufacturing technology
The minimum requirements of 3D modelling and simulation to enable virtual commissioning are as follows:
(a) all automation, tooling and associated control equipment must be modelled in 3D in the desired CAD package or supplied in the required format as set by UoN;
— as a minimum, the supplied solution must be able to accept CAD models in CATIA V5 R2017 as an input and be able to output to a compatible format. This requirement does not constrain the format used internally for the digital twin, and suppliers are free to recommend their preferred modelling and simulation package for that purpose.
(b) the CAD model must be supplied with embedded forward and inverse kinematics to enable simulation and verification of the FA3D2 and its associated processes.
(c) all acceleration and speed parameters must be set in the kinematics assemblies within the model to enable real time simulation and motion visualisation.
(d) process positions must be set within the kinematics for process specific positions such as home or closed for tooling clamps ,etc.
(e) smart devices must be generated to simulate actual device behaviour and enable PLC off-line programming.
(f) a post processor must be supplied to enable realistic simulation and off-line programming of the FA3D2 and its automated processes.
(g) a full process and method, along with suitable training data where possible, must be supplied to enable UoN users to generate off-line programmes for the automated processes including PLC code generation and verification.
(h) the supplier must demonstrate their 3D simulation and virtual commission capabilities and any previous implemented solutions within their tender submission.
(i) the installed system must be in accordance with the framework and requirements set out in Work Package 2: Smart Manufacturing and in collaboration with the successful tenderers of WP2.2 IoT Network Infrastructure, WP2.3 Digital Twin, and WP2.4 Data Analytics and Machine Learning.


Winner: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Siemens Advanta
Award value: 464010.54
Number of bids: 1