by Gary Mintchell | Mar 11, 2024 | Workforce
I first wrote about DeepHow almost a year ago. DeepHow is an AI solution for skilled trades know-how capturing and training. The video platform and capture app empowers organizations to capture their processes on a smart device, upload it into the platform via the cloud, and then leverage AI to segment, transcribe, and translate the video into steps and relevant languages for their multilingual workforce. Workers can access the videos at any time, allowing them to onboard faster and upskill more efficiently with their company’s proprietary processes.
Casandra (Cassie) Franklin, Program Manager Innovation and Training Center at ISAIC in Detroit, used the system and chatted with me recently about actually using the system to train employees in the sewing area. She works at quite an interesting organization. As its website proclaims:
The next big thing in the apparel industry is here. It’s not in Paris. Or New York. Or L.A. It’s right here in Detroit. Offering education, apprenticeships, and opportunity for new careers that look, sound, feel, pay, and are better. With a commitment to re-shoring, workforce development, and sustainability, ISAIC – Industrial Sewing and Innovation Center, will redefine how the future is fashioned.
A Detroit-based 501c3 nonprofit, ISAIC is a national resource for those committed to positive impact through responsible production of high-quality garments and provides solutions centered around people, education, advanced manufacturing and upward mobility for workers. ISAIC’s proprietary training curriculum is being used in multiple states across the country. Its learning and contract manufacturing factory is located in mid-town Detroit, above Carhartt’s flagship store.
Its mission is defined thus: To redefine the future of work by putting people trained in advanced and emerging manufacturing technologies at the forefront of sustainable soft goods production with a commitment to the wellbeing of our team, partners, community and planet.
Franklin told me that they had tried some training systems. Mostly they were too complicated to maintain. With the DeepHow system, they had an easy workflow for making and using instructional videos. They were easy for their workers to access (QR code to HMI). The workers learned efficiently and effectively.
DeepHow told me: Traditional methods of learning like text-based SOPs can’t be updated efficiently, and the average worker today would rather turn to video to learn new skills. They can watch the expert right on the screen, and emulate that expertise on their own. Creating video content doesn’t have to be hard or require the support of a professional video production team with expensive equipment.
The system looks like this (information from DeepHow):
DeepHow’s Workflow Capturer lets you capture experts’ workflow via video as they perform real tasks. Its native apps (iOS & Android) are designed for multi-language capture and are noise-proof for industrial environments. Not to mention the easy setup and auto uploading management, DeepHow is incredibly user-friendly.
Once videos are captured and uploaded, AI Stephanie, DeepHow’s core technology, takes over. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), image analysis, and computer vision, AI Stephanie indexes and segments your videos into key workflow steps. She also auto-tags keywords and images, auto-summarizes step names, generates subtitles, and converts them into multiple languages.
DeepHow’s Workflow Builder lets you create smart how-to videos by integrating video, diagrams, subtitles, and translations. This module enables minor text editing and review, offers annotation and video trimming features, and allows for workflow reviewing, publishing, and sharing.
Workflow Navigator delivers step-by-step workflow guidance in multiple languages and supports in-video search. Users can interact with AI Stephanie to learn anytime, anywhere, and at their own pace. The adaptive video resolutions ensure that video content is accessible and engaging for all.
DeepHow also boasts a Skills Management module. It empowers supervisors and HR professionals to create, assign, manage, and track skills training. It uses AI to recommend skills and promotes personal development. This means you can efficiently assess skills, certify workers, and have a clear, insightful understanding of your workforce’s capabilities.
The Analytics component of DeepHow provides a comprehensive enterprise-wide review of video training health, tracks engagement, and pinpoints skill gaps and opportunities for improvement.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 8, 2024 | Interoperability, Standards, Technology
I just released a podcast where I thought about standards, interoperability, and open technologies. This news came my way, speaking of open, that Shell Information Technology International has become a platinum member of The Open Group.
Shell has been a Member of The Open Group since 1997, and has contributed to its numerous Forums which enable collaboration to develop open technology standards and certifications. The company played a critical role in the foundation of The Open Group OSDU Forum that facilitates the development of transformational technology for the world’s changing Energy needs, and donated important intellectual property that formed the basis of the OSDU Data Platform. Shell also contributed to the inception of The Open Group Open Footprint Forum that focuses on creating an environmental footprint data model standard applicable to all industries.
The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards. Its diverse membership of more than 900 organizations includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries.
Glad to see end user companies taking an active part in openness. Their support is the only way open technologies will grow.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 8, 2024 | Automation, Robots
I have begun receiving enough press announcements from the MODEX 2024 show that I am beginning to think I should have made plans for Atlanta next week (March 11-14, 2024). It’s material handling, so lots of robotics news. This one from Kawasaki Robotics and Olis Robotics. Partnerships are how things get moved forward these days.
Olis Robotics, a leader in the remote error recovery for industrial robots, announces a new partnership with Kawasaki Robotics Inc., a leading supplier of industrial robots and automation systems, to offer their customers the ability to restart production faster, reduce troubleshooting and downtime costs by up to 90%, and gain access to expert support quickly.
Olis users connect directly to their robots through an on-premises device via a secure connection, avoiding the risks and complexities associated with cloud-based systems. To ensure physical safety, Olis is designed to always obey the robot controller’s safety restrictions.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 7, 2024 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, News, Operations Management
The first trip I made as a new editor many years ago was to Microsoft to talk with a manufacturing software/PLM developer. PLM being Product Lifecycle Management—that layer of software used to translate CAD into manufacturing. When I covered automation, we didn’t cover this area often. These software companies seldom advertise, so the pressure from sales to cover them was, shall we say, less intense.
Last year I attended three PLM developers either in person or virtually. This year I began receiving more press releases and news from Aras. I told the marketing person that I knew the company but not that well. That led to an invitation to its ACE2024 conference held this week. I learned a ton about Aras and its products and partners as well as seeing two old friends that I never expected to meet there.
Roque (pronounced Rocky) Martin has been CEO for just more than 2 years. Sounds like he’s done well. Aras has been growing lately—61% over 2 years. The company counts 1.7 million registered users. It recently (like many industrial software companies) introduced a Software As A Service (SaaS) product which this year had seen a 77% year-over-year growth.
Setting a context for the event, he discussed three challenges facing the industry:
- Digitalization (silos, distributed, digital thread, connect, collaboration)
- Differentiated Innovation (industry didn’t like customization but discovered that one size fits all is not optimum),
- Accelerated Change
Discussing the change challenge, he listed this industry timeline:
- 1.0 Mechanization (120 years)
- 2.0 Electrification (70 years)
- 3.0 Automation (30 years)
- 4.0 Digitalization (10 years)
- 5.0 Cognitive (coming soon to software near you)
Rob McAveney, CTO, discussed how the coming Cognitive wave including AI will automate away rote tasks humans have done. Or as he put it, AI + Cognitive systems—leverage to describe what is possible and zoom in on potential solutions. He sees the coming 5.0 software leveraging all the data we’ve accumulated from 4.0 for breakthroughs. Some things to watch for in the Cognitive + AI systems:
- AI as an assistant
- Syndicate digital twins
- Connect system of systems
- Able to become increasingly able to suggest more complex solutions
Two interesting pieces of news follows. The first are enhancements to its PLM Platform. You sort of have to see the demos to realize how cool these things are. (Oh, if only I would have had tools like this back in my product development days!) The second announcement relates to a partnership with SAIC. Once again viewing the demos shows the power of this integration. I sat in the breakout presentation to get a dive—but I could never do it justice. If you’re in this area of work, check it out.
Aras Announces Strategic Enhancements to PLM Platform
Expands Digital Thread, Low-Code, and Visualization Capabilities and Adds New Supplier Management Applications
New Digital Thread Capabilities
Aras Innovator forms an extensible digital thread, serving as a data backbone for digital engineering and the broader digital enterprise. New capabilities will support simplified user interactions for viewing, editing, and implementing changes on interrelated items. In addition, a new streamlined experience for configuring connections to a comprehensive range of authoring tools simplifies extending the digital thread to a broader set of enterprise applications.
Extended Low-Code Development Enhancements
Aras Innovator is the only PLM platform with a fully integrated low-code development environment. Leveraging a rich set of development and enterprise-class DevOps services, Aras subscribers can extend applications or develop their own to address the unique needs of their organization. These enhancements introduce new widgets and charts that simplify the user experience and navigation for analytics dashboards and reports embedded in Aras apps. In addition, advanced form design tools facilitate a more streamlined, modern user experience for applications built within Aras-powered applications and deployed within Aras’ DevOps framework.
Powerful Visualization of Complex Assemblies
Aras’ CAD-agnostic approach to 3D visualization has been built on the foundation of the digital thread, enabling users to leverage Dynamic Product Navigation to facilitate the exploration of product data in any representation. The introduction of Aras Advanced 3D enhances this capability, providing a scalable environment to visualize and interact with larger, more complex assemblies that often exceed the capacity of a single CAD session.
Optimized Connectivity and Collaboration with Suppliers
Aras is introducing a suite of supplier management solutions designed to enhance how organizations interact with their suppliers and business partners. These new applications facilitate secure, remote access to controlled subsets of digital thread and PLM information through configurable mobile-optimized web applications. These solutions streamline communication and data sharing to optimize supplier management business processes. Projected availability for Aras Supplier Management Solutions is in Q2 2024, with a preview webinar scheduled for March 26.
SAIC Powers Its ReadyOne Digital Engineering Ecosystem Solution with Aras
Aras, a leader in product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with leading technology integrator SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.) that includes integration of Aras Innovator as the digital thread backbone for its digital engineering solution, ReadyOne.
ReadyOne is SAIC’s rapidly deployable digital engineering ecosystem, which offers customers an end-to-end digital thread for consistent, traceable, and complete engineering solutions. By using Aras’ product lifecycle management (PLM) technology as its foundation, the solution creates a single-source-of-truth for users, letting them access any and all needed information, at any point in the engineering process, all from a common platform. With ReadyOne, collaboration and transparency are increased, while risks and costs are decreased.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 6, 2024 | Automation, Robots
Some of the increased activity in industrial robots came from the collaborative (cobot) work in Denmark. There is also work with chips and software and safety. Another area of robotic innovation comes from the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) technology. This is news from Omron and Danish company ROEQ. These mobile robots require innovative top modules performing much the same function of the well known grippers.
OMRON is now launching its new mid-range AMRs, the MD-650 and MD-900 in the U.S. and Canada, with mobile robotic equipment (MRE) from ROEQ, delivering safe and reliable material goods transfer:
- TML500/TML750 Lifter is a versatile flat top lifter solution enabling the MD-series to safely pick up, transport, and drop off pallets and cargo up to 510 kg (1120lbs) with the MD-650, and 760 kg (1680lbs) with MD-900. A new ROEQ PR750 Pallet Rack is also available with a space saving Multi Rack option. An optional ROEQ Cargo Sensor Kit provides additional control to ensure goods stay in place on the AMR. The Lifter is available for both U.S. and Euro pallets.
- TR600/TR700 Roller is a heavy-duty top roller allowing the MD-series to pick up and deliver heavy goods, up to 675kg (1490lbs) between conveyor stations. The full solution includes the award-winning ROEQ GuardCom system which provides additional safety and efficiency when transferring between the top roller and the receiving station, using robust sensor technology.
- Both modules come with ROEQ Assist software for fast and consistent set up and are compliant with safety standards. A ROEQ cart solution, boosting the payload capacity of the MD-series, will be released later this year.
For the lifter solution, the ROEQ Assist software weaves the three building blocks – AMR, lifter module, and pallet rack – into a full solution working as one. The same goes for the roller solution, where AMR, roller module, and the GuardCom System all are configured by the same ROEQ Assist tool. The close integration delivers a smooth setup and installation experience and shows its real strength in daily high and reliable performance, resulting in overall better Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 6, 2024 | Podcast, Standards
I have published a new podcast thinking about standards and interoperability.
I’ve seen successes of industry standards. I’ve also seen industrial standards struggle to break through the logjam of large companies drive to lock customers into their ecosystem. What is the latest of OPAF and what is the meaning of Schneider Electric’s announcement of a product built with with Red Hat and IBM and development of a new computer communication standard?
I have arranged a special deal with energy drink makers Magic Mind. Listeners can click here and get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code GARYM20. After 10 days, you can still get 20% off for one time purchases and subscriptions. That’s magicmind.com/garym with the code GARYM20.
This podcast is sponsored by Inductive Automation.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 5, 2024 | Automation, Robots
Two things. First, I cannot believe that ten years ago I lost interest in robotics thinking the whole genre was mature and not interesting. Second, I’m still getting executive visions for 2024. This news combines the two. Marc Segura, President ABB Robotics Division, identifies three drivers for robotics-driven AI solutions in 2024. The impetus relates to ABB’s continued expansion into new segments not previously served by robotic automation. Not to mention, ABB is celebrating 50 years of robotics innovation this year.
“The coming year will see a growing focus on the critical role of AI,” said Marc Segura, President ABB Robotics Division. “From mobile robots and cobots, to enabling new robotic applications in new sectors and creating new opportunities for people to learn and develop, these new frontiers for AI are redefining the future of industrial robotics.”
1 – AI will drive new levels of autonomy in robotic applications
Accelerating progress in AI is redefining what is possible with industrial robotics. AI is enhancing everything from robots’ ability to grip, pick and place as well as their ability to map and navigate through dynamic environments. From mobile robots to cobots and beyond, AI is giving robots unprecedented levels of speed, accuracy, and payload carrying ability, enabling them to take on more tasks in settings like flexible factories, warehouses, logistics centers and laboratories.
“AI-enabled mobile robots can transform sectors like discrete manufacturing, logistics and laboratories,” said Segura. “Robots equipped with ABB’s new Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (Visual SLAM) technology, for example, have advanced mapping and navigation skills, granting new levels of autonomy, while greatly reducing the infrastructure needed by previous generations of guided robots. This paves the way for a shift from linear production lines to dynamic networks, creating significant efficiencies and taking on more dull, dirty and dangerous tasks, to enable workers to take up more rewarding jobs.”
2 – AI will see robots enter new sectors
The potential offered by AI-enabled robotics is influencing sectors far beyond manufacturing. In 2024, these technologies are expected to bring substantial efficiency improvements to more dynamic environments, such as healthcare and life sciences, as well as retail. Another example is the construction industry, where AI-powered robotics can make a material contribution to boosting productivity, enhancing safety and sustainable construction practices while spurring growth.
“The construction industry is a great example of a sector where AI-powered robots will prove transformative, delivering real value by addressing many of the issues facing the industry today, including worker shortages, safety issues and stagnant productivity,” said Segura. “Abilities such as enhanced recognition and decision-making offered by AI, coupled with advances in collaborative robots enable safe deployment alongside workers. These advances also enable robots to perform key tasks such as bricklaying, modular assembly and 3D printing with greater precision and speed, all while contributing to more sustainable construction by lowering emissions, such as concrete mixing on site, to reducing the need to transport materials across far distances with on-site assembly”
3 – AI will offer new opportunities for education and working with robots
The advances being made in AI and robotics are significant for training and education, closing the automation skills gap and making robots more accessible to more people and businesses. With AI making programming easier, through lead-through and even natural language, education can shift more towards how robots can assist humans more effectively, rather than just teaching programming skills. This transition will make robots more approachable and bring them to a wider audience, leading to new job prospects while helping alleviate labor and skills shortages.
“A shortage of people with the skills needed to program and support robots has long been a hurdle to the uptake of robotic automation, especially in small to medium sized manufacturing companies,” said Segura. “We will see this increasingly being overcome as advances in generative AI lower the barriers to automation and expand the focus of education beyond programming. Developments in natural language programming, powered by AI in which workers can verbally instruct a robot in its task, will create a new dynamic in human-robot interactions.”
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 5, 2024 | Automation, Networking, Technology, Wireless
We all know that the Industrial Internet of Things and other wireless devices are straining the wireless spectrum. Spectrum turns out to be a scarce resource. With continually growing communication requirements, both data and voice, this is a problem searching for a solution. (Unlike many things floating around these days that are solutions searching for a problem.)
I am publishing this entire release regarding research into something called metasurfaces that could provide some of the solution to our spectrum strangling problem.
Recent advances in communication systems, such as the increase in mobile phone users, the adoption of Internet-of-Things devices, and the integration of smart sensors in applications ranging from smart homes to manufacturing have given rise to a surge in wireless traffic. Similar to how a roadway becomes congested with vehicles, the rising wireless traffic is resulting in congestion in the available frequency bands. New frequency bands have been introduced to accommodate more communication signals to operate wireless devices without severe interference with each other.
However, supporting a broad spectrum is challenging. There are only a limited number of frequency bands available. Additionally, it increases the complexity of wireless devices and infrastructure. One possible solution for accommodating signals within existing frequency bands is to tune them in a way to further distinguish them.
Now, in a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers from Japan, led by Associate Professor Hiroki Wakatsuchi from Nagoya Institute of Technology, along with co-authors Ashif Aminulloh Fathnan and Associate Professor Shinya Sugiura of the University of Tokyo, has designed a metasurface that can distinguish wireless signals based on their frequency and pulse width.
In simpler words, metasurfaces are engineered surfaces that can manipulate incident electromagnetic waves to achieve specific modifications leading to the generation of different signals. This ensures that signals are separated and do not interfere with each other, reducing the likelihood of congestion-related issues. These materials can be integrated into radio-frequency devices like antennas and filters to accommodate more users and devices within the same frequency spectrum.
The metasurface developed by researchers in this study distinguishes signals more effectively than traditional materials. “Conventionally, when the number of frequencies available was N, electromagnetic waves and related phenomena could be controlled in N manners, which is now markedly extended to the factorial number of N (i.e., N!),” explains Dr. Wakatsuchi.
The developed metasurface consists of several unit cells that respond to specific frequencies. By activating multiple unit cells, it becomes capable of handling signals across multiple frequency bands. The metasurface can be thought of as a filter that selectively transmits signals based on specific frequency sequences. The researchers liken this to frequency-hopping, where devices switch frequencies rapidly to avoid interference. However, in this case, the metasurface can be tuned to alter incoming signals based on their frequencies. This property makes it possible to receive and distinguish a variety of signals of different frequencies from wireless devices.
As a result, with the new metasurface, the number of signals that can be distinguished grows from a linear relationship to a factorial-based one. “If four or five frequencies are available, the number of signals to be distinguished increases from four or five to 24 or 120,” remarks Dr. Wakatsuchi, adding further, “Going ahead, this could help in more wireless communication signals and devices being made available even with limited frequency resources.”
According to the researchers, the number of devices connected to wireless networks per square kilometer is projected to increase from a million in 5G to 10 million in 6G by 2030. This substantial increase will inevitably strain existing frequency bands. However, with their capability to distinguish wireless signals, metasurfaces represent a novel approach to operate numerous Internet-of-Things sensors and communication devices without severe interference.
In the long run, this will be important for next-generation communication services, such as autonomous driving, smart factories, digital twin, cyber-physical systems, and behavior recognition systems!
Dr. Hiroki Wakatsuchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering at Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech), Japan. He completed his Ph.D. from The University of Nottingham, UK whereupon he did his postdoctoral research at UC San Diego, USA. His research interests include electromagnetics, electronics, and communications. He has so far published 62 papers (49 papers between 2005 and 2023) with over 800 citations to his credit. Dr. Wakatsuchi was also a part of the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO) in the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) until March 2023. Currently, he is involved with Fusion Oriented Research for Disruptive Science and Technology (FOREST), another JST program.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 4, 2024 | Sustainability
Many companies have found solid reasons for attempting to achieve a net-negative CO2 future. The business value continues to grow. I told my typically conservative boss early on at Automation World that the next issue’s topic was Green (as it was known then). He gave me “that” look. I told him think green as in the color of American dollar bills. What’s good for the environment is also good for business. After all, eliminating waste is a central tenet of Lean.
This news of a report from UK analyst firm IDTechEx written by Analyst Eva Pope recently came my way. It is worth checking out the report for ideas that go far beyond concrete production.
She leads with this thought. In a world with a growing population and a rapidly expanding construction sector to match, how do we prevent building homes from damaging our climate? Concrete is the second most consumed material on Earth, but its key ingredient, cement, is responsible for 7% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The answer could come from thin air – CO2-derived building materials.
The new IDTechEx report “Carbon Dioxide Utilization 2024-2044: Technologies, Market Forecasts, and Players” explores many ways to valorize captured carbon dioxide to create useful products. Among these, CO2-derived building materials showed particular promise due to performance improvements and cost-competitiveness, as well as sustainability benefits. IDTechEx forecasts over 170 million tonnes of captured CO2 will be utilized in building materials by 2044.
Carbon dioxide can be utilized in concrete production in three different ways: injection of CO2 during curing of precast concrete, injection of CO2 during mixing of ready-mixed concrete, and formation of carbonate aggregates/additives.
Unlike some other carbon dioxide utilization pathways, such as the conversion to e-fuels, which requires large amounts of energy and green hydrogen (often prohibitively expensive), the basic mineralization chemistry underpinning the uptake of CO2 during concrete manufacturing is thermodynamically favored and less energy-intensive because stable metal carbonates are formed. These carbonates represent effectively permanent sequestration of CO2, so CO2-derived building materials double up as simultaneous carbon dioxide utilization and carbon dioxide storage. The process is compatible with many different sources of CO2.
Concrete production is typically low-margin, and willingness to pay a green premium is low. Therefore, widespread deployment of CO2-derived concrete will rely on CO2 utilization technology players, creating easy-to-adopt solutions that are minimally disruptive to existing manufacturing processes. In CO2-aided curing, some players have targeted retrofittable curing chambers. Elsewhere, plug-and-play and mobile unit solutions are also being commercialized.
Although the production of CO2-derived concrete is more expensive than conventional concrete, revenue can be generated through waste disposal fees and carbon credit sales, with some players already reporting to achieve price parity. In the future, stronger regulatory support (for example, increased carbon pricing) will accelerate uptake further, with IDTechEx forecasting over 170 million tonnes of captured CO2 will be utilized in building materials by 2044. With carbon capture solutions for cement kilns continuing to develop, CO2 could be sourced from cement production, creating a circular solution.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 1, 2024 | Automation, Operator Interface, Standards, Technology
Modern flow control software driver based on FDT/DTM technology extends standardized device management to mobile and OPC UA applications.
Glad to see movement with the latest technology from the FDT Group. It certified the first Device Specific DTM based on FDT 3.0 standard supporting the HART protocol from Flowserve Corp. The newest certified Logix 3820 Series DTM is deployable using their positioners supporting HART 6 / 7, tackling flow control challenges designed for modern IIoT architectures.
FDT DTM certification to the FDT 3.0 specification and webUI is a process whereby rigorous compliance testing using dtmINSPECTOR5 ensures the viability of the states of the DTM; its correct installation, de-installation, and multi-user environment capability; mandatory and optional user interface functionality and robustness; network scanning communication performance and the ability to import and export the topology; and the audit trail capability.
FDT 3.0 DTMs are crucial to unlocking universal device integration with essential advantages such as platform independence, mobility solutions, and a contemporary development environment to reduce costs and expedite the DTM certification process. Users can use secure and seamless data exchange/interrogation from the sensor to the cloud and achieve new levels of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) integration.
“This certification is a milestone in market penetration and technology development,” says Steve Biegacki, FDT Group managing director. “Flowserve has always been a leader in flow control using DTM technology and now offers the first flow control management DTM standardized for IIoT architectures based on FDT 3.0 for HART applications. HART users can deploy this new DTM and reap the benefits by using an FDT 3.0-based device management tool, such as PACTware 6.1, and can enjoy an IT/OT data-centric model by deploying an FDT Server, extending the data reach to mobile applications and the enterprise.”
