In this episode of IoT Unplugged, Rachel Johnson, Principal Product Manager at MathWorks spoke to IoT Insider about the integration of IoT, AI and advanced analytics in smart factories.
Johnson provided examples of how smart factories are using IoT devices, such as deploying sensors on pumps in a factory, which collect data to train AI algorithms for real-time monitoring and anomaly detection.
“Let’s say you have a network of sensors on a fleet of pumps in a factory and you have a lot of historical data that you’ve been collecting from these sensors over time,” said Johnson. “The AI algorithm can be monitoring all of those data streams coming in from those pumps in real time … We can then flag the data as normal or an anomaly.”
This utilisation of an AI algorithm, Johnson explained, is leading smart factories and factories on this path towards predictive maintenance, which is focused on preventing unexpected failures and facilitating investigation into potential problems earlier on. She also emphasised the continuous improvement journey of smart factories, driven by advancing digital technologies and the increasing availability of data.
Johnson noted the growing recognition of smart factories’ potential, with 86% of manufacturing executives seeing them as key to competitiveness. She also addressed the challenges of integrating these technologies, primarily related to data availability and understanding.
Johnson outlined the process of designing and deploying AI-based anomaly detection systems, starting with data gathering and problem definition, followed by data exploration, pre-processing, feature engineering, AI model training, validation, and deployment. She stressed the importance of iterative experimentation with different AI models and techniques to find the best fit for the data.
“We live in this world of data and right now, most of the challenges are happening on the data side. There’s the issue of not having enough data or not having collected it the right way,” Johnson explained.
In her final thoughts, Johnson highlighted AI’s role in uncovering patterns in data that engineers might miss and its potential to significantly improve operations. She emphasised that AI is a tool to enhance engineers’ expertise, not replace it, and that with the right approach, AI can be seamlessly integrated into smart factory environments.
To listen to MathWorks’ insights into IoT, AI and advanced analytics in factors, tune into the full podcast episode available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and at the link below.
Harnessing AI in engineering – IoT Unplugged
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