As offshore wind deployment accelerates in Norway and Europe, manufacturing capacity is becoming a critical bottleneck to large-scale expansion. WindFactory addresses this challenge by transforming how offshore wind substructures are designed, planned, and manufactured through the integration of digitalization, robotics, and intelligent production technologies.
The WindFactory project brings together Aker Solutions' expertise in offshore infrastructure, Jotne Connect's capabilities in digital technology, and SINTEF's research excellence in material science, advanced manufacturing, and automation. Together, the partners will develop a next-generation prefabrication factory capable of supporting efficient, cost-effective, and industrial-scale production.
WindFactory is built around three key innovations:
- Model-based design and production planning
- Sensor-driven process monitoring and quality assurance
- Integrated model and sensor frameworks for adaptive robotic control
By connecting design, planning, manufacturing, and quality control into a seamless data-driven workflow, these innovations will enable predictive process control, increased production flexibility, improved product quality, and more efficient manufacturing of offshore wind substructures.
Project goals:
WindFactory will:
- Develop a digital twin framework that links virtual and physical production environments to support standardized design and planning.
- Create sensor and analytics solutions for real-time process monitoring, quality assessment, and production optimization.
- Develop hybrid modelling approaches that combine physics-based and data-driven methods to predict manufacturing outcomes and optimize process parameters.
- Establish a sensor-guided execution layer that enables adaptive robotic operations and real-time production orchestration.
- Validate the developed methods and technologies through industrial case studies and a pilot-scale demonstrator.
About the project
SINTEF Industry is the research partner in WindFactory, contributing expertise in data and sensor technology, artificial intelligence, robotic control, production technology, materials, and metallurgy. Through the development of digital twins, sensor-based process monitoring, and adaptive robotic production systems, SINTEF contributes to realizing a flexible, digitalized, and robotized factory for large-scale manufacturing of offshore wind structures and components.