With assistance from Spanish wind-turbine manufacturer Gamesa, nonprofit foundation Tekniker and several other European technology firms, COSMOS seeks increases in turbine quality, as well as lower costs and faster manufacturing times, according to a release from Ibermática.

According to the COSMOS consortium, many European turbine assembly operations involve both manual labor and work done by machines. This arrangement has produced a relatively high degree of variability in the process, leading to a significant amount of rework and long wait times for finished products and an excel of inventory.

The main objective of the COSMOS project is to design, develop and implement a control system using self-contained factory units (SCFU). These modular SCFUs, which will be linked to synchronize delivery times, will work together to produce nacelles, or turbine housings, autonomously, thus reducing variation.

The European Commission’s research information service said COSMOS began in September 2010 as pilot project and should be completed by the summer of 2013.