RUST2LIFE is a Horizon Europe initiative developing an Industry 5.0 blueprint to scale high-quality remanufacturing across European industry. Starting with the automotive sector, the project combines a factory-ready six-phase remanufacturing workflow with human-in-the-loop artificial intelligence, Digital Twins, Digital Product Passports and interoperable industrial data systems.
By connecting process, data and people, RUST2LIFE aims to keep valuable components in service for longer, reduce energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions, strengthen quality and traceability, and make remanufacturing easier to replicate across European factories and value chains.
RUST2LIFE addresses one of Europe’s key circular-manufacturing challenges: moving remanufacturing from fragmented, labour-intensive practices towards scalable, data-driven and certification-ready industrial processes. The project creates a common six-phase workflow covering intelligent disassembly and sorting, inspection and condition assessment, treatment planning and routing, performance testing and certification, modular reassembly and integration, and the final deployment or reuse decision.
A semantic digital backbone links Semantic Asset Administration Shells (S-AAS), Digital Product Passports (DPPs), data-space connectors and AI agents. This creates a traceable digital thread for each component, while keeping workers in control of safety- and quality-critical decisions. Three automotive use cases will validate the approach through three Plan-Do-Check-Act cycles, progressively moving towards TRL7 in operational environments.
Partners
- University of Southampton
- CERTH
- AETHON Engineering
- Centro Ricerche Fiat
- Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
- Eurocore Consulting
- Hellenic Mediterranean University
- EIT Manufacturing South
- Institute of Entrepreneurship Development Estonia
- Tofaş Türk Otomobil Fabrikası
- MIRTEC
- DI-TRE
