ENGINEERING JUNE 2019 29approach or preventative maintenance.
The two, work hand-in-hand.
A great example of how AI is
revolutionising Industry 4.0 and
improving efficiencies on the factory
floor is Variable Speed Drives (VSDs).
VSDs are connected to motors on
the factory floor. They attain data and
insights into abnormal behaviours
and thus flag these issues so that they
can be repaired, or where necessary,
replaced. The benefit here is that a
piece of equipment on the factory
floor is only replaced when absolutely
necessary, saving the manufacturer
money and reducing operational
downtime. Machine learning also
comes into play here. It can be
executed at the edge to help in the
early identification of many potentialfaults including, power generation
turbine blade damage or plant motor
coupling approaching failure.
Going forward, it’s clear then that
the Industry needs to consider the
advantages of automation through the
use of robotics, machine-learning and
artificial intelligence. Currently, there
are only 71 robots in the UK per every
10,000 manufacturing employees,
compared to over 300 in Germany.
As the benefits of humans and
robotics working together are becoming
more obvious, the Industry needs to
prepare for change. How can we turn
down the possibility of not having to
work 24-hours a day and the ability
to produce more consistent outputs?
Industry 4.0 for many of us is just
starting. If you only take one message
from this, it should be that incorporating
technologies such as AI, machine
learning and IoT into the day-to-day is
central to improving productivity and
increasing efficiencies. It’s an exciting
time to start embracing Industry 4.0.Martin Walder, VP of Industry at
Schneider Electrichttp://www.schneider-electric.co.ukPRODUCTIVITY