Vection Technologies to lead AI and XR digitalisation project to revolutionise global food and beverage sector

Vection Technologies (ASX: VR1) has been selected to supply the extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) backbone for Project ADDICTA, aimed at revolutionising the global food and beverage sector.

Vection entities (including JMC Group, Vection Italy, Mindesk and The Digital Box) and Nature Med will run the $1.2 million research program.

Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan is providing the funding for the program.

Enhanced digitalisation

Project ADDICTA aims to enhance factory digitalisation, reduce waste and increase efficiency by using sophisticated sensors with Vection’s INTEGRATEDXR stack to provide real-time product intelligence.

The eight-month project will deploy 3DFrame digital twins, EnWorks IoT (Internet of Things) middleware and Algho AI to convert raw sensor data into real-time visual and conversational insights.

It hopes to deliver the first in-line quality digital twin for liquorice, beer and pasta dough, flagging contaminants and colour in real time.

Development expenses

Approximately 62% of the project’s total funding has been allocated to development expenses incurred by Vection entities, allowing for the creation of new intellectual property (IP) and a flagship reference site without any cash outlay.

Nature Med will use the remaining 38% to host and validate the pilot line.

Vection expects to bill around 20% of the total project value and recognise it as revenue in fiscal year 2025, with the remainder accruing until year end as milestones are reached.

Industry leadership

Vection managing director Gianmarco Biagi said the project would showcase the company’s industry leadership to the global food and beverage industry.

“We are the sole XR provider that can manage the entire toolchain including IoT data ingestion through EnWorks, AI reasoning through Algho and swift XR visualisation with 3DFrame, all of which have been developed and supervised internally,” he said.

“Our extensive control allows us to relay sensor data from the production floor to a colour-coded overlay in an immersive digital twin while providing the same insights through conversational AI, entirely independent of third-party integrations.”

Mr Biagi said this vertical integration would offer clients a “seamless vendor solution” to speed up innovation and convert each implementation into proprietary data, strengthening Vection’s IP advantage.