EMO Hannover 2023 will be a perfect platform for us to witness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly a spotlight topic at the moment, and a presence that might be able to change the entire manufacturing industry, or even the whole world, would greatly support organisations in creating safer, more reliable and more efficient products. At EMO Hannover 2023, we’ll see a range of AI applications that can be used across a wide range of industries: including predictive maintenance, autonomous robots, and more, which may permanently change the way we make products and offer services.

In Germany, where EMO Hannover 2023 will be held, what is going on with regard to artificial intelligence? Let’s take a look.

ProKI (ProAI) Initiative

Artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient production – an important technology is moving from the research lab into daily use. As we know, German universities have been supporting AI by convincing local companies to implement AI applications, and by preparing employees to perform new tasks. For here, ProKI (ProAI), is playing a crucial role. It is the name of an initiative launched by the WGP (German Academic Association for Production Technology) at the end of last year. Backed by 17 million euros of funding provided by the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), a nationwide demonstration and transfer network is being set up at a total of eight locations to provide practical support for the implementation of AI solutions in industry.

The initiative is coordinated by the WZL (Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering) at RWTH Aachen University. Taking part are institutes in Berlin, Darmstadt, Dresden, Hannover, Ilmenau, Karlsruhe and Nuremberg. In line with their respective research focuses, they are providing demonstrators and test environments for manufacturing companies in the fields of joining, forming, machining and coating.

ReCIrcE Project

ReCIrcE is the name of a project selected by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment as a lighthouse project. It aims to use AI to make material cycles more transparent and thus optimize waste separation and digital lifecycle records (product passport). The tool will be made available as open source after the project ends in September 2023.

Waste management is facing an increasingly pressing challenge: Recyclable consumer waste such as packaging, electronic waste and clothing increasingly consists of materials that are difficult to sort and recycle. Manufacturers, disposers and recyclers do not exchange enough information about product design, life cycles and value chains. Manufacturers often lack information to improve the recyclability of products. At the same time, recyclers lack knowledge about the quantities and qualities of the expected material flows. This information deficit hinders the logistical and technological development of recycling processes.

ReCircE will now make it possible to make the entire materials chain of a complex product, such as a washing machine, transparent. In addition, machine learning algorithms are to help separate waste by type as far as possible. In this way, the consortium of companies and research institutions aims to improve the recycling of products with a high diversity of materials.

IIP-Ecosphere Project

The IIP-Ecosphere (Next Level Ecosphere for Intelligent Industrial Production) project, launched in 2019 and has been funded by the BMWi (in Germany) for three years, networks players from business and science in an ecosystem of intelligent production and develops application-oriented AI methods and innovative business models for the next generation of Industry 4.0. The goal is to strengthen competitiveness through self-optimization of production. The ecosystem with 18 consortium and 57 associated partners is developing, among other things, an AI solution catalog and a virtual platform to increase manufacturer independence and is thus increasingly experimenting in the industrial environment. In addition, legal, organizational and technical frameworks are being developed so that data can be shared more easily and securely to improve and develop new services.

IIP-Ecosphere breaks down barriers to AI deployment

Collaborative partnerships across disciplines are essential for securing a competitive advantage in the future, at least in the traditional disciplines. IIP-Ecosphere’s open ecosystem approach with many participation opportunities and offerings provides the necessary chances and possibilities for companies to jointly address challenges and develop technological alternatives that make AI accessible to as many companies as possible.

Why Is Digitalization So Important?

Potential benefits of digitization can be found in all areas of a company. For example, simple functionalities such as the ability to search text documents for terms or spreadsheets are simple examples with a big impact: Work gets done faster, leaving your employees more time for more important tasks. In many places, this also automatically results in fewer errors.

What’s more, digitization gives you much deeper insights into your business processes. Many machines are already equipped with data acquisition ex works or can be retrofitted accordingly. Today, sensors are no longer a major investment. For most processes, workflows or problems, there are already ways to capture data.

In order to gain knowledge from data, it must be evaluated. There are numerous ways to do this, which often depend on the complexity and quantity of the collected data, but also on the use case. If you want to assess whether the actual cycle time of a machine corresponds to the planned cycle time, it is sufficient to measure it.

And what will the insights of the future look like?

Generally, the more data you collect, the more you can infer from it. However, this quickly becomes confusing and chaotic because a human can only draw meaningful insights from the collected data with a very high level of effort. AI offers a solution to this.

The possible applications are almost limitless. For example, a company might have problems with dimensional deviations of components that occur irregularly. The company collects some data anyway, such as the operating parameters of the machines, the infeed, and the outside temperature and material composition of the workpiece. The recorded data can now be used to deduce which dimensional deviations occur under which conditions. For example, a certain material composition could be clamped outside at the temperature of the warehouse and expand during heating to hall temperature in such a way that defective parts are produced. Accordingly, AI can be used to identify causes of defects.

AI can then go one step further and suggest new parameters, such as changed dimensions for machining, or adjust them automatically. In this way, errors are automatically corrected, and your production adapts to manufacturing conditions on its own.

In addition, digitization enables you to supplement your current portfolio and offer customers digital products and services.

What happens to the employees?

At the end of the day, a human being should always be in control of the processes in the company. Employees should be supported by AI, not replaced. AI can prevent errors, provide guidance to the team, or take over monotonous and error-prone tasks. Employees then have more time to perform value-added tasks that cannot be taken over by an AI.

Artificial intelligence will never completely replace human employees, nor is this the purpose of an AI. Rather, digitization with tools such as AI offers a balance to the shortage of skilled workers, as employees are relieved. However, the workforce is often concerned that their jobs are at risk from AI. It is therefore important to involve them in the introduction of AI from the outset and allay these fears. Instead, it’s about enabling people to perform tasks that are within their core competencies and add value to the company.

When the automobile came along, fewer stable boys were needed. Instead, jobs sprang up at service stations, in workshops and in industry. The jobs did not disappear, the activities only changed and generally became easier and less dirty.

Future Of Connectivity AI Show

EMO Hannover 2023 will present us many new AI applications. For small and medium-sized companies, the “Future Of Connectivity”area would present in front of us new experiences and new perspectives. For us all, any new applications, artificial intelligence, smart production, as well as everything related to Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things,all are definitely worth a look.

Source from: EMO Hannover website