Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) and marble companies in the Alentejo are developing a digitiser that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to ‘see’ inside blocks of marble to predict the colours and designs before it is sawn.
The technology is being developed by the IST’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy Engineering (DER).
It will “revolutionise the global marble market, putting Portuguese business groups competing in it at the forefront of the world,” said a statement issued today.
For the time being, the work is taking place “on a laboratory scale” at the Galrão Group’s factory in Pero Pinheiro, in the municipality of Sintra (Lisbon), and with two marble quarries in the Alentejo, one in the municipality of Estremoz and the other in Pardais in the neighbouring municipality of Vila Viçosa, in the district of Évora.
The project, financed by EU funds, namely the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), also involves the A. Bento Vermelho and Marmocazi groups, which have “large quarries” in this area of the Alentejo, and two technology companies specialising in natural stone.
