Darkonium AI News & Digital Twin Updates for Manufacturing

Welcome to the Darkonium AI blog, where we share our latest news, partnerships, and breakthroughs in AI-powered digital twins for manufacturing. Here you'll find updates on client projects, industry recognition, and case studies that show how digital twin technology reduces costs, downtime, waste, and energy use in real-world operations.

03.09.2025

Darkonium Listed in Made Smarter's UK Technology Providers Directory

By joining the directory, Darkonium becomes part of Made Smarter’s national ecosystem that helps manufacturers discover, adopt and scale Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs)—from discovery and advice through to deployment—accelerating productivity, sustainability and growth.

“Manufacturers are under intense pressure to produce more with less,” said Robert Sugar, Founder of Darkonium. “Our mission is to deliver measurable wins—fast—by finding waste, validating improvements in simulation, and rolling out what works on the shop floor. Being discoverable via Made Smarter helps the right factories find us at the right moment.”

Darkonium's dual-engine approach combines a physically accurate, factory-scale digital twin with a proprietary intelligence layer that runs guided micro-simulations and optimisation solvers to surface the most impactful changes before implementation. Typical outcomes include reduced energy consumption, lower waste, less downtime and higher throughput.

Made Smarter case studies have shown how data-driven approaches—such as digital twins and real-time decision support—can materially reduce overproduction, waste and energy use on live factory floors (e.g., the Raynor Foods “Smart People, Smart Process, Smart Factory (S3)” project). Darkonium brings these capabilities to UK manufacturers seeking rapid ROI.

About Darkonium

Darkonium is a UK-based specialist delivering simulation-ready digital twins and AI-guided optimisation for manufacturing. The company's integrated approach targets cost, time and energy reductions by testing thousands of scenarios in a virtual model before rollout, then scaling what works across operations.

01.09.2025

Joining the £13.7m Co-AIMS Hub to accelerate AI in advanced manufacturing

We are excited to announce that we have joined the Collaborative AI for Manufacturing Sustainability (Co-AIMS) Hub, a £13.7 million initiative funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and led by the University of Birmingham. The Hub brings together major industrial players, technology providers, and leading universities to explore how AI can make UK manufacturing more productive, resilient, and sustainable. The Hub brings together an impressive lineup of industry and technology leaders — including BAE Systems, Airbus, GKN Aerospace, Ford, Siemens, Toshiba, Dyson, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, and Nvidia — alongside innovative businesses such as ours.

For us, this is a gateway into the UK's high-value manufacturing sector. As a Bristol-based startup, being part of a national platform alongside some of the UK's largest verticals means we can apply our solutions faster and at production level, guided by the needs and scale of real manufacturers.

		“As a young company, we're proud to be surrounded by the giants of advanced manufacturing,” said Founder/Director Robert Sugar. “The Co-AIMS Hub gives us direct exposure to their challenges and priorities — and with that, the chance to move quickly and deliver solutions that can be deployed in live industrial environments.”
	

Our role is clear: we are not a research lab. Instead, we focus on high-TRL, ready-to-deploy technologies — from AI-driven digital twins to advanced optimisation systems — and work with industrial partners to integrate them where they create measurable value. The Hub allows us to do that side-by-side with leading manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, clean energy, food and drink, and more.

By joining Co-AIMS, we gain both a platform and a network:

Direct collaboration with vertical leaders in high-value manufacturing.
A crystal-clear, quantified view of their pain points — and how much we can save them using cutting-edge technology.
A market access boost that accelerates adoption of our solutions.
The chance to apply advanced AI commercially, at speed, with the scale and backing of national industry partners.
This partnership marks a major step forward for us as a commercial integrator in the advanced manufacturing ecosystem — turning complex technologies into operational gains where they are needed most.

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